Conservative Controlled County Council to Invest Extra £3.8m into Care

Conservative controlled Staffordshire County Council is set to invest an extra £3.8 million into residential care to provide older people with a quality service at an affordable price.

A report to its next meeting of Cabinet on 19th June sets out proposals for an increase in fees the County Council pays to local residential care homes.  If approved by cabinet those fees, which have not changed since 2010-11, will increase by an average of 13.2 per cent in a bid to balance the need to support local businesses with providing a high quality care to those who need it most and value for money for council taxpayers.

The County Council sets out what it usually expects to pay for care home places before each financial year, something called the usual cost.  In light of financial challenges across the entire public sector, Staffordshire set the usual price in 2011/12 at the same level as 2010/11.  Care providers sought to challenge this and the County Council subsequently agreed to carry out a review of the fees, including consultation with providers.

Robbie Marshall, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing at Staffordshire County Council, said, “It is essential we provide the right care to our most vulnerable residents in Staffordshire and we expect our residential and nursing care home providers to offer quality services to the residents who need our help.

“The County Council has a duty to assess the care needs of local people.  If someone needs residential or nursing care but is unable to pay for it, the Council must make arrangements to provide care, in a place of the person’s choice.

“Our review of fees for care homes for our vulnerable people has taken into account all of the relevant care costs faced by care home providers in Staffordshire.  But we expect our care homes to offer the best possible quality of service and value for money to local council taxpayers and we will not be afraid to address this in a robust way if they fall short.”

The increase in fees will apply from the start of the current financial year, and if approved by cabinet, will be backdated to the start of April 2013.