The news that higher-than-expected mortality was recorded among older people during June's period of red heat-health alerts is sombre reading for everyone connected with adult social care.
Behind every statistic is an older person, a family and, in some cases, a care team. For providers dedicated to supporting older people, any indication that extreme heat may have contributed to additional deaths is deeply concerning.
However, there is also a positive story emerging of how the sector is facing up to the challenge of increasing periods of extreme heat with preparedness, innovation and collaboration. The conversation about heat resilience has changed dramatically over the past decade, from being seen primarily as a facilities issue to something that needs to be addressed right through an organisation to ensure safety and wellbeing.
As highlighted at The Care Show earlier this year, operators are being encouraged to look beyond simple temperature readings and consider hydration, indoor air quality, building design and individual vulnerabilities.
And there are encouraging examples of operators responding. From large not-for-profit and corporate providers such as Anchor and Barchester Healthcare, to individual homes such as Byron Lodge Care Home in Rotherham, there are already encouraging examples of operators responding with practical action: Anchor has embedded climate resilience and overheating within its environmental sustainability strategy, Barchester has emphasised proactive hydration, monitoring and environmental management for older people in hot weather, and Byron Lodge, part of We Care Group, reported a 45 per cent fall in ambulance callouts and a 62 per cent drop in falls requiring ambulance attendance after introducing a structured hydration programme centred on a dedicated hydration station, staff training and daily monitoring.
These efforts reflect recommendations from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which advises providers to have formal heat action plans, adapt care plans during periods of hot weather, modify activities to cooler parts of the day, improve ventilation and shading, and closely monitor residents most at risk. UKHSA now stresses that dangerous hot weather should be planned for annually, with preparations in place before the summer season begins.
Research is supporting the sector too. The ClimaCare programme, involving University College London, regulators and built-environment specialists, monitored temperatures in care settings and explored how overheating risks can be reduced. One of its most important conclusions was that successful adaptation depends not only on buildings and technology, but also on workforce training, leadership and operational practice.
As with many challenges in the sector, rising to the challenge of mitigating the dangers of extreme heat is something that will only be solved by working together. While researchers can provide an evidence base, care providers understand how to adapt findings to their residents' needs, architects can incorporate into building design, engineers ventilation and cooling systems and technology suppliers monitoring and environmental control systems. And policy makers and regulators can bring all this together to offer useful guidance, and funding where possible.
The latest mortality figures are a reminder that extreme heat poses genuine risks for older people, but the sector is not standing still. Across the country, operators and suppliers are investing, learning and adapting. The challenge of hotter summers is real. So too is the determination of the care home sector to ensure that future generations of residents are safer, more comfortable and better protected when the temperature rises.
