Council aims to save £2.3m on adult care

COUNCIL chiefs at Warrington have approved plans to re-negotiate fees paid to independent nursing and care homes across the borough – with the aim of saving around £2.3 million.
Members of the council’s executive board were warned that if nothing was done to cut costs there was a danger of the cost of adult social care taking 98 per cent of the authority’s budget.
Council leader Terry O’Neill said: “We have to look at a different way of delivering adult social care.
“If nothing is done to address the problem, our budget will be swallowed up by adult social care.”
A consultation exercise was undertaken earlier this year with 29 local providers the council contracts services from. The aim was to establish the actual cost of delivery of services.
All but three of the homes responded to the consultation survey and there were also 412 responses from service users and their families.
Cllr Pat Wright, executive member for health and wellbeing said the council faced the stark reality of continuing reductions, tough decisions and changes to the way the council worked.
Later, Joe Blott (pictured), executive director of neighbourhood and community services said: “This has been an extremely difficult and challenging time for all involved but we have tried to handle this process as sensitively, as openly and as transparently as possible. We have also tried our very best to ascertain the real costs of care to make the most informed decision we can in proposing these new fees.
“We are aware that there may be some concerns in the community about the impact of this exercise but I would like to assure everyone that it is of the utmost importance to us that we have homes providing the best quality of care to our residents.
“There is no one size fits all solution and I would urge care home providers to remain open to conversation and to continue working with us.”
The executive have approved a recommendation that the level of fees in respect of residents places in independent homes by the council should be: Residential: £387.49; Residential with EMI (Elderly Mental Infirm) care: £420.49; Nursing: £387.49 plus FNC (Funded Nursing Contribution paid by the NHS); Nursing with EMI: £420.49 plus FNC.
The proposed fees will mean a 0.6 per cent increase for residential only, a 5.1 per cent decrease for residential EMI, a 9.5 per cent decrease for nursing and a 7.4 per cent decrease for nursing EMI.
The fees have been developed from data submitted by the care providers and should be sufficient to cover the cost of statutory care.