A HIGH Court judge has backed a North East council in its dispute with care homes over fees.
The judge has found in favour of Northumberland County Council after its decision to freeze the money it pays to care homes was subject to judicial review by a band of operators.
The decision comes after council bosses in Newcastle were snubbed in their bid to overturn a High Court ruling that they had set the amount they pay homes too low.
The Northumberland council last night welcomed the failure of the judicial review, saying the dispute had “overshadowed our continuing positive relationship with care homes in general”.
However, the care homes involved said they planned to appeal the decision and said it came as a surprise given the Newcastle case and others in the region.
The authority last April froze the fees it pays to care home owners in the county for the following three years.
Not all care home providers agreed to accept the fees, saying the rates left them without enough funds to supply a high level of care and services.
After discussions failed to bring agreement, the council said it would no longer place new residents with homes which had refused to accept the fees and sign a new contract.
Care North East (CNE) Northumberland, an organisation which represents many of the county’s homes, applied for a judicial review of the council’s decision.
It argued the council had failed to adequately consult with care home owners.
The dispute went before the High Court in January and the judge has now ruled in favour of the council.
Coun Ian Lindley, the authority’s executive member for adult care and wellbeing, said: “I am pleased that the judge has confirmed that it is for local authorities not the courts to make difficult decisions about priorities.
“In troubled financial times, we still need to make sure there is a range of services to meet everyone’s needs but we decided to set the fees for care homes at levels which would enable us to use as much as possible of our limited funding to support people to stay living independently in their own homes.”
Newcastle City Council similarly faced a judicial review from CNE over the fees it pays.
On that occasion, the judge ruled that the authority had set its fees too low.
The council sought to appeal against that ruling but its application to do so was thrown out.
Daljit Lally, corporate director of adult services and housing for Northumberland, added: “Public sector austerity has meant hard decisions for everyone who depends on the public sector for funding.
“The view of the trade association Care North East Northumberland appeared to be that court cases in other areas gave them a legal right to have fees set in the way they preferred, and they wouldn’t discuss other options.
“There have been legal challenges over fees in a number of areas of the North East and elsewhere.
“The situation is different in each area, and the courts have made specific decisions in each case.
“But the judge in our case has clarified the law in some helpful ways, and I hope that this will help to reduce the number of legal disputes in future.
“It is important to us to have constructive working relationships with care home providers, who offer a vital service to very vulnerable older people, and we hope that we will now be able to put behind us a dispute which has overshadowed our continuing positive relationship with care homes in general.”
Steve Hunter, chairman of Care North East Northumberland, said: “We were very surprised by this judgement, particularly in the light of the judgement in favour of care home operators in Newcastle and Redcar and Cleveland. The association intends to appeal.”
