NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 19th June 2002
REPORT RECOMMENDS £459 PER WEEK FOR
CARE OF OLDER PEOPLE: NURSING HOMES
SCEPTICAL ABOUT GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
Beleaguered nursing homes have welcomed an independent report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which says a fair price for looking after older residents who rely on social services funding to meet their care costs should be around £459 per person per week.
The figure, which is significantly above what most social services departments are currently paying, is calculated on national average wage rates for nursing home staff and on the average cost of buying land and building nursing home facilities. In some places, particularly the costly south east of England, a higher figure would be needed to help nursing homes at least to break even.
The Registered Nursing Home Association, which represents nearly 1,500 homes across the United Kingdom, is now calling on the Government to act quickly by pumping extra resources into the social care system. It warns that failure to act now will result in more closures of homes over the next twelve months, exacerbating an already alarming trend that has seen thousands of beds lost in just two years.
Speaking for the RNHA, chief executive officer Frank Ursell said the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report had confirmed what everyone in the nursing home sector already knew. The government and local authorities appear to expect independent nursing homes to provide a service for a price which is very much below their actual costs.
He said: “If £459 per week is deemed a fair price by independent researchers, most local authorities in this country need to increase the fees they pay by around £100 a week, and they need to do it soon.”
He added: “If the government now recognises the seriousness of the situation, it is no good just allocating more money to local authorities without ring-fencing it to pay for residential care of older people. Bitter past experience shows that many authorities are not averse to raiding the elderly care budget to divert the cash into other areas of expenditure.”
The RNHA says that nursing home owners and staff are sceptical about the prospects of the government doing anything at all. It points to a previous report in 1999 which, assuming a national minimum wage of £4 an hour, recommended that nursing homes should be paid around £368 per person per week for the care they provide.
Said Mr Ursell: “The government did absolutely nothing at the time, nor did local authorities. Their collective failure to act has led to the current crisis within the nursing home industry. If they dither on this occasion as they did on the last one, the crisis will turn into a general meltdown.”
Across the country, the weekly fees paid by the vast majority of local authorities for the care of an older people in registered nursing home are well adrift of those recommended in the latest report.
A survey has found that, within each of the main regions, the lowest and highest rates paid by local authorities are shown below. The highest rates quoted are not necessarily paid in all cases.
North
Lowest: Kingston upon Hull at £305 per week
Highest: York at £390 per week
North West
Lowest: Blackpool at £339 per week
Highest: Stockport at £399 per week
West Midlands
Lowest: Solihull at £330 per week
Highest: Solihull at £407 per week (for meeting certain quality criteria)
East Midlands
Lowest: Northamptonshire at £340 per week
Highest: Rutland at £360 per week. Northamptonshire pays the same against certain
quality criteria
East Anglia
Lowest: Suffolk at £361 per week
Highest: Cambridgeshire at £400 per week
Northern Home Counties
Lowest: West Berkshire at £335 per week
Highest: Wokingham at £489 per week
Inner London
Lowest: Lewisham at £410 per week
Highest: Hammersmith and Fulham at £525 per week
Outer London
Lowest: Richmond at £344 per week
Highest: Hillingdon at £580 per week
Southern Home Counties
Lowest: East Sussex at £357 per week
Highest: Isle of Wight at £453 per week
South West
Lowest: Bristol at £351 per week
Highest: Gloucestershire at £392 per week
Wales
Lowest: Anglesey at £350 per week
Highest: Monmouthshire at £390 per week
Scotland
Lowest: Falkirk at £334 per week
Highest: Shetland at £423 per week
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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