Care home fees to be fairer in future

Sep 29 2007 by Audrey Barton, The Journal

NEWCASTLE care home residents will see fairer fees thanks to plans approved by councillors this week.

Members of Newcastle City Council’s Executive approved plans for the charges paid for accommodation for people in 51 care homes across the city. The fees will move from a flat rate to a graded system based on the facilities of the care homes, and in future the quality of care provided.

The council will now pay on the basis of the features of accommodation – such as room sizes, single rooms and en suite bathrooms. A quality of care model will be introduced in the next year.

Cathy Bull, Acting Head of Adult Social Care for Newcastle City Council, said: “We think the current system of paying the same rates irrespective of the quality of accommodation provided is unfair, so we are introducing what we think is a much fairer system.

“Care home residents will benefit as we expect this to lead to across-the-board improvements to care homes in the city as their owners will have a major incentive to improve the standards of their accommodation to achieve higher fee rates.”

Early this year council members commissioned a report by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers which concluded that the existing system of rates was not fair.

Newcastle’s care homes are privately managed and owned with their services commissioned by the city council.

The changes will coincide with an overall increase being made and paid for by the council in the fees for residential accommodation.