SEFTON CARE ASSOCIATION
PRESS RELEASE
May 8, 2012.
SEFTON COUNCIL IGNORES HIGH COURT RULING – AND FREEZES CARE
FEES FOR A THIRD YEAR.
Sefton Council has defied a High Court ruling and told
care home owners and the borough’s vulnerable that it will be freezing care
fees for both 2011/12 and 2012/13.
Now Sefton Care Association says that as many as 50%
of care homes in the borough may be forced to close, generating massive worry
and uncertainty for the families of the area’s frail and vulnerable.
Senior council officers dropped the bombshell to care
home owners despite a judge telling the local authority in November 2011 that
it must make a decision on reassessment of care fees paid to the most
vulnerable people by February 9, 2012.
In a Judicial Review in the High Court in Manchester, His
Honour Judge Raynor QC ruled that Sefton Council should not have frozen 2011/2012
payment levels to elderly people in care in the borough, and that it did not
pay due regard to the actual cost of care in making its unilateral decision. He
directed Sefton Council to enter into consultation with local care homes, and
to reassess care payments for the 2011/2012 financial year – and establish the
actual cost of care by which care fee rates could be set.
But Sefton council says it will freeze care fees
retrospectively, and for the 2012/13 financial year as well – meaning that care
fees have been static despite the Retail Prices Index rising nearly 12% in the
three years since care fees were last increased.
Sefton Care Association, which represents a large
proportion of care homes in the borough, says the implications are massive –
not just locally, but potentially nationally as a care-fee-freeze precedent has
been effectively set, with local authorities likely to stump up the cost of
more Judicial Reviews rather than find the cash to increase care fees. Legal
bills for a Judicial Review are a fraction of the shortfall in care fees.
Council officers have also told care home owners that
an independent report into the cost of care in Sefton, commissioned by Sefton
Care Association and carried out by highly-respected research organisation
Laing & Buisson, was “deficient” and that council officials “questioned the
significance and reliability of the report”.
But Peter Moore of Sefton Council also then told care
home owners that “the report provides more data than our own spread sheet did”.
However, Mark Gilbert of Sefton Care Association,
said: “Laing & Buisson (L&B) is the foremost research organisation in
the sector, recognised by all levels of government – up to and including
ministerial level – as being a provider of accurate, independent and unbiased
research.
“The key issues are not just the cost of care, but
also homes gaining a reasonable return on capital investment so enabling
essential maintenance and upgrading of property and equipment essential for the
wellbeing of elderly residents.
“There’s a big gap between the cost of providing care
and the level of funds Sefton Council currently allocates: families and those
in care are struggling to afford the shortfall between Sefton’s current funding
provision level, and the cost of care – care homes are doing everything in
their power to bring costs down.
“L&B provided information for four categories of
care home client support. Typically, nursing care for a frail older person –
many of whom require 24/7 support – has, according to L&B, an actual weekly
cost of £626, or £699 if we include a 13% return to cover the cost of
maintenance and improvement of the care home. But Sefton Council’s currently
frozen weekly care fee rate is £510. It is down to the individual client or
their family to make up the difference; care home owners have reached a point
where there is simply nothing else to cut.”
Ends
For further information:
Iain Macauley
07788 978800
