NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 10th July 2002
SOCIAL SERVICES IN BERKSHIRE NOT PAYING A ‘FAIR PRICE’
FOR CARE OF OLDER PEOPLE
Social services in Berkshire are not paying anything like the weekly rate for an older person’s nursing home care that has been recommended in an independent report just published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Research by the Foundation suggests that a fair price for local authorities to pay for nursing home care would be around £459 per week. This takes account of average wages paid to care staff across the country, as well as all the other costs involved in running a nursing home including land and property prices.
The Registered Nursing Home Association, which represents nearly 1,500 homes across the UK, says West Berkshire social services department is some way off the mark when it comes to paying a fair price. A survey found that it generally pays between about £335 and £405 a week (at least £50 below the rate recommended by the Rowntree Foundation).
Whilst other social services departments in the county pay higher rates than West Berkshire, none of them consistently matches the Rowntree figure. Slough pays between £379 and £440, Reading between £425 and £475, Bracknell Forest between
£435 and £460, and Windsor and Maidenhead between £378 and ££446.
The RNHA stresses that, in the south of England, the rates paid need to be up to £50 a week more than the average figure recommended by Rowntree in order to compensate for the higher costs of providing care.
Frank Ursell, chief executive officer of the RNHA, says both the government and local authorities need to wake up to the economic realities of looking after highly dependent older people.
He and his association are calling on the government to increase their financial support for social care, but to ring-fence the extra money so that local authorities cannot divert the funds to other budgets.
The RNHA wants Berkshire’s social services departments to match the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ‘fair price’ as quickly as possible in order to prevent yet more nursing homes from joining those which have been forced to close over recent years, and to enable homes to meet new care standards laid down by the government.
Said Mr Ursell: “The question is: do local authorities in this part of the world want to meet their social responsibilities? If they take no action, they could eventually find themselves at the bottom of the national league table when it comes to spending money on older people. What an indictment that would be on civic leaders. Let us hope, for the sake of our old folk with nursing needs, that they set their sights on being around the top of the league.”
END
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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