Agenda item - Fees to Providers 2016

Report of the Executive Director for Adult Services (copy attached).

56.1    RESOLVED: That the Board agreed the recommendations for fees uplifts as set out in Table 1 to the report.

56.1    The Board considered the report of Ms J Macdonald, Commissioning and Performance Manager, Brighton & Hove City Council. The report outlined the current fees paid to independent, voluntary and community care providers, and made recommendations for fees to be paid from April 2016 and the dates those fees would be reviewed. The report was introduced by Ms D D’Souza, Executive Director Adult Services and Ms Macdonald.

56.2    Councillor Mac Cafferty asked if it was felt that a 2% increase would be sufficient to meet the needs of those in the city. He also referred to the City’s duties under the Care Act and the need to look at what the city wanted and needed, and asked for assurance that that was being done. He was advised that the main bodies who provided care were Care Homes and Home Care Services. There would be an interim uplift of 2% between April and September of this year for in city Care Homes and the Home Care Service. For Care Homes we were doing further modelling and would like a clearer way of structuring the fees and were working with the providers and other stakeholders to do that. Part of that will be modelling the living wage and providing a better and more robust way of monitoring the service.

56.3    Ms F McCabe asked if recommendations would assist in the provision of beds for those suffering from dementia. The Commissioning and Performance Manager said that dementia was a huge issue and over 80% of those in Care Homes were living with the condition. Where there was under supply we were looking at ways of contracting beds, and there was a Dementia Strategy with a number of action plans to support all parties.

56.4    Councillor Norman noted that there had been a number of years with a 0% or very low uplift in fees and care homes had been struggling, and so it was good that there may be a rise now and another in September.

56.5    RESOLVED: That the Board agreed the recommendations for fees uplifts as set out in Table 1 to the report.