The director of a care home in Powys is calling for an urgent investigation into the \u201cshocking and unfair\u201d way that fees are calculated.<\/p>\n
Dr Bikram Choudhary, director of the Silvercrest group which has five care homes including the 99-bed Cwrt Enfys in Ystradgynlais, says that the county council is the \u201cworst offender\u201d for paying low fees.<\/p>\n
He spoke out after Care Forum Wales, which represents nearly 500 social care providers, presented a \u201cterrible ten\u201d local authorities with Cheapskate Awards for paying the lowest care home fees in Wales amid the coronavirus crisis.<\/p>\n
Currently bottom of the heap in terms of funding is Powys County Council who increased the weekly fee for a person in a residential EMI care home for older people with mental frailty by 2.2 per cent to \u00a3559.<\/p>\n
In contrast, providers in Cardiff – where fees were already higher – will receive \u00a3793.48 a week for providing exactly the same level of service, a four per cent increase that works out as \u00a312,192.96 more for every resident than in Powys over the course of a year.<\/p>\n
Even in Cardiff, say Care Forum Wales, the fees do not cover the true cost of care and are on average \u00a3100 less than the amount paid by people receiving care privately.<\/p>\n
According to Dr Choudhary, the level of fees in Powys was so low that Cwrt Enfys, which has 99 beds and employs 150 staff, had suffered a real-terms cut in funding for the past two consecutive years.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe disparity in fees is shocking and totally unfair.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Powys is so rural we have to pay our nurses more at Cwrt Enfys \u2013 the\u00a0 hourly rate is 50p per hour higher than any of our other homes, otherwise we would not be able to staff it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had lots of issues with Powys and one of them is that they have been grossly underpaying for very many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have emailed Dylan Owen, the head of commissioning at Powys County Council to ask him how he can justify paying between \u00a367 less than the Welsh average per person, per week for residential care and \u00a3112 less for nursing care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year we were dismayed at the 2.2 per cent increase \u2013 a real terms increase of around \u00a312 –\u00a0 which again does not take into account the 6.1 per cent increase in\u00a0 the minimum wage and\u00a0 increased food and other costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also ignores the fact that most councils in wales have increased fees by at least four per cent\u00a0 this year and the year before.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately the gulf between Powys funding and the rest of Wales is again widening to unsustainable levels and hence I stand by my assertion that Powys Council does not value the social care sector or the work that it does.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents in care homes are getting frailer, their needs are more complex and they need more specialist equipment, staff time and attention than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe costs of funding this care have not kept up in real terms and Powys are by far the worst offender in this area with a huge gulf in funding between Powys and the Welsh average let alone the highest paying local authorities in Wales.\u00a0 It is a scandal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have written to the council pointing out that this is a real terms cut and asking them if they want me to reduce staffing levels or ration food portions – to date there has been no reply.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely support the call from Care Forum Wales for a national action plan and more than that I think we need a full-blown inquiry to sort out this iniquitous postcode lottery once and for all.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the local authorities are responsible in the way they go about things while others are very willy nilly and show no concern for the sector. They do not value the sector because they do not engage with us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how long this can go on for before people start screaming blue murder. The current situation is just not sustainable and that\u2019s a big worry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 22 local authorities and 22 heads of social care and all the rest of the bureaucracy in Wales even though we only have three and a half million people.<\/p>\n
\u201cContrast that with Birmingham who look after 1.2 million people but just one council and one head of commissioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Wales, we should be making decisions about fees at a national level and there will be variations between different areas but to have a difference of \u00a312,000 a year between Cardiff and Powys for one resident is ludicrous. This is not sensible in any shape or form.\u201d<\/p>\n
Backing the call for an inquiry, Mario Kreft MBE, the chair of Care Forum Wales,\u00a0 said: \u201cThis mess has come about because the market has been mis-managed by the 22 local authorities in Wales for more than two decades of devolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the First Minister himself pointed out, the social care sector was in\u00a0a fragile state well before the pandemic and what we are calling for is an urgent national action because this is about equality and fairness for the residents, their families and the staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the Coronavirus pandemic\u00a0 we have seen the heroic efforts made by staff right across Wales to shield social care and save lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have faced real danger and I think the public understands their value more than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the main purposes of a fair approach to funding of care homes is to ensure people working on the front line get what they deserve and that ensuring they are paid fairly is fed into the methodology that local authorities use to calculate fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to build a sustainable care system that will truly be an effective scaffold for the NHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a similar postcode lottery in relation to the funding provided by health boards across Wales, so this is one almighty mess with essentially 29 varieties on a theme. It doesn\u2019t make any sense at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is completely dysfunctional and has resulted in the sector suffering years of chronic underfunding since it was introduced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were seeing care homes and nursing homes closing across Wales even before the Covid-19\u00a0 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to see how many care providers can continue in business with fees at this level and they really represent an insult not just to the staff but also to the 20,000 care home residents across Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n