New bill to govern home care costs in Wales

In more home care news, the Welsh Assembly has announced the introduction of a new bill that will end the country’s ‘postcode lottery’ of domiciliary care costs. The existing system has been described as confusing and complicated and has led to residents in the Neath Port Talbot area paying up to £183.80 more per week for home care than people living in Rhondda Cynon Taf. In total, 66,000 people in Wales receive some form of community care, of which half can legally be charged a fee. The new proposals, made possible by extended powers recently granted to the Welsh Government, will allow local authorities the discretion to offer services at a low cost or for free as well as introducing maximum charges. The Assembly’s overall aim is to ‘create a more level playing field in relation to charges for domiciliary care services’ and to build on its existing commitment to enable more elderly and vulnerable people to receive care in their own homes for longer. A £9m project launched two years ago has so far reduced or removed the cost of domiciliary care for 14,000 of Wales’ most vulnerable residents. The Welsh Assembly is currently working on its own Green Paper for the reform of the country’s social care funding, which is expected to reflect many of the options put forward in the forthcoming English Green Paper.