NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 6th June 2003
NURSING HOMES SLATE CRIMINAL RECORDS BUREAU FOR
‘OUTRAGEOUS’ FEE INCREASE
Click here for the CRB news release
Disbelief that a poorly performing agency such as the Criminal Records Bureau could put its fees up by nearly 150 per cent was expressed today by the Registered Nursing Home Association.
The RNHA represents some 1,400 nursing homes across the United Kingdom that will all now face a much bigger bill for having staff checked out for their suitability to care for vulnerable people.
RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell said the news that CRB fees were to go up so soon and by such a significant amount had come as a bombshell to the care sector generally.
“In a week when we have seen a public furore about ‘fat cat’ salaries and pay offs, it seems that the CRB is trying to slip through what can only be described as a ‘rip off’. There is no justification for any increase in fees by an agency which has made such a pig’s ear of it,” he said. “If anything, they should be reducing their charges.”
Mr Ursell said it was disgraceful that nursing homes and other care providers had received such short notice of the fee increase.
“We are told on 6th June that an increase will be imposed on us from 1st July,” he said.
“That is no way for a public body to behave.”
He added: “There is a justifiable sense of outrage across the nursing home industry. For many nursing home owners, it is yet another blow on top of the many others they have suffered over recent years. I have no doubt that some will be saying to themselves - enough is enough. It is the sort of thing which might just persuade some disillusioned care providers to get out of the business altogether.”
The RNHA today released figures which show that as many as 576 individual submissions made by its nursing home members to the CRB between six and 14 months ago are still awaiting a response. Of these, 125 have been outstanding for more than 12 months.
Commented Mr Ursell: “It is not right that we should be expected to pay a higher price when the CRB can so patently not get its act together. Ironically, the CRB was left off the hook when the Government decided that existing care staff should not have to be vetted until October 2004 instead of April 2003. The message to the care sector seems to be that the CRB is going to get paid a lot more for doing far less than it was originally expected to do. If our fees for looking after very sick patients had gone up at the same rate as the CRB’s fees, we would not be in the financial mess we are in now.”
END
Click here for the CRB news release
For further information and comment please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
Tel: 0121-454 2511 or 07785 227000 mobile
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