Local authority funding inadequacies caused by Government's failure to spell out cost of good care

A ’fair and accurate’ assessment of the fees, nursing homes should be paid by local authorities, needs to be conducted, according to the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA).

Chief executive Frank Ursell has called upon Care Minister Norman Lamb to live up to his own statements on nursing home funding to make sure councils are held to account on the levels required.

Mr Ursell comments: “The root problem rests with local authorities paying less than they should be, which puts pressure on nursing homes and residents’ families alike.

“Both Mr Lamb and his Parliamentary colleague Paul Burstow have apparently been making public statements about the thorny issue of ‘top up’ payments made by families. But if the local authorities do not pay enough to enable their relative to live in a nursing home close to their local area, or of a good enough quality, it forces many families to bridge the funding gap themselves.”

He continues: “We agree with the Independent Age charity which said recently that a council should not set an arbitrary limit on the amount it is prepared to pay and, if there are no care home places available at the standard rate which are capable of meeting someone’s assessed needs, the council should be flexible enough to pay a higher rate in that instance.

“Some families are complaining that their council is expecting them to fork out top up payments even for the ‘basic’ level of care the council normally specifies in its contracts. That is not what top up payments are meant to be. The Government is passing the funding baton to families, which is not acceptable.”

As an example, Mr Ursell names and shames Birmingham City Council for paying ridiculously low fees: “We know that it can cost up to around £2,200 a week to keep an older patient in a Birmingham hospital bed. Yet Birmingham City Council doesn’t even pay £600 a week for a nursing home place. Some budget hotels charge about £45 a night in the city, which works out at £315 a week for just bed and breakfast.

“It doesn’t take a genius to calculate that delivering round the clock care for very dependent older people, many with multiple and complex conditions, is likely to cost a great deal more than that.”

In this respect, the RNHA sees Norman Lamb as the one individual who can make a real difference.

“We have heard a lot from the regulators about what good care looks like,” said Mr Ursell. “We would now like to hear Mr Lamb tell us what good care costs.

“If, as the minister is quoted as having said, there is exploitation going on, it is the exploitation caused by inadequate public funding of care, which means families being called on to pay top ups and care staff having to work for the minimum wage. They are the ones paying the price.”