Care home owners launch Fairer Fee Forum to tackle fee disparities

A group of care home owners has formed a coalition called the Fairer Fee Forum to try and bring to an end the differing fee levels that they say they are forced to charge. The providers have admitted that self-funders are paying considerably more per week – sometimes more than £200 – in order to subsidise state-funded places. However, many people who should qualify for free care are also being charged top-up fees averaging £250 per month. The care homes maintain that this situation has arisen because local authorities are not paying enough for state-funded places, so they are forced to charge both self-funders and state-funded residents extra fees to cover their costs. The coalition has instructed Cherie Blair, QC, to take all 150 local authorities in England to the High Court to make councils pay care homes a fair price for state-funded places. The move has been welcomed by a number of charities that campaign for the rights of the elderly, including Age Concern and Help the Aged, which commented: ‘We hear a lot of complaints, both from those who are self-funders, who are paying too much, and those who are funded by the local authority, but forced to make huge top-ups, but often they don't want to cause upset in the home where their elderly relative is living.’ More information about the Fairer Fee Forum and their legal campaign can be found at their new website.

In related news, Counsel + Care and the National Care Forum have launched a joint research report in response to the Green Paper on the future of social care funding. The report concludes that ‘more resources are needed to fund better quality care’. The research looked at the variations in care quality across providers and found that those with the highest star ratings were spending up to 20% more than other providers on staff salaries and training as well as basing all their activities around the needs of service users. It found that, due to variations in local authority funding, some care home providers are able to spend, for example, three times as much as others on meals for residents. Stephen Burke, Chief Executive of Counsel + Care, comments on the report's findings: ‘The underfunding of care in this country means that many staff are poorly paid and poorly trained. Older people and their families are the real losers. The government’s consultation on the future funding of care must address urgently the need for extra resources for unmet needs now.’