Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided information about a Fair Cost of Care exercise that was carried out by the Partnership Commissioning Team in 2015/2016 to establish the Council’s price for residential and nursing care home placements for older people in 2016/2017. The report recommended prices to be paid to providers for existing older people care home placements and new older people care home placements in 2016/2017.

The report gave details of the exercise and findings. It was explained that there was an option to continue to pay for residential and nursing care home services at the current rates. This exercise had evidenced that these rates do not reflect a fair cost of care for these types of services within the local market and have remained fixed for a period of 3 years. Officers were recommending increases to the Council’s rates for older people residential and nursing care homes placements.

It was noted that as part of the budget for 2016/2017 there was £1.3m allocated to cover the impact of the National Living Wage (NLW) on adult social care budgets. The recommendation to implement new prices for older people care home services would be met from a combination of existing adult social care budgets and the increased budget in respect of NLW.

It was noted that officers had considered the protected characteristics of this group of individuals, as set out in the Diversity Impact Assessment (Appendix 1 to the report). It was explained that the current picture in Medway reflected national averages and no negative impact was foreseen.

Reasons:

Medway Council is able to fulfil its obligations of consulting with the social care market and establishing usual costs for older people residential and nursing care home services. The prices should support local providers to be sustainable.