main content Fairer charging and fair access to care

Along with many local authorities across the country, Bromley must address the increasing demand for its care services. With a growing elderly population and increasing numbers of people in need of care, Bromley faces a demand that is growing above the national average. It also faces the added pressure that for the fifth year running it has received no additional funding from government to help address the increasing demands for these and other council services.

Since December it has been consulting widely on proposals to ask older people and adults with care needs to contribute more towards their home care in line with the actual cost of the services they receive. All those who receive services have a financial assessment and the charge is based on how much they can reasonably afford to contribute in line with national Fair Charging guidance. For a number of yeas people using care services in Bromley have been expected to pay a lower contribution to their care than those in other local authorities.

Having considered the views of people responding to the consultation at his Adult and Community Services portfolio meeting on Tuesday 13 March, Executive Councillor Graham Arthur decided to increase the hourly rate for domiciliary care from £9.27 to £11.41 from April 2007 with subsequent rises in the following two years above the rate of inflation and to remove the maximum charge for home care services. He also decided to amend the criteria used to determine eligibility for council funded care services to cover those with higher levels of need and dependency - this change will not apply to existing users but new referrals.

He has decided not to introduce a double hourly rate for where two carers are needed.

For those with moderate levels of needs and those paying for their own services he decided to look at implementing an independent advice and information (brokerage) scheme to help people get the best services to meet their care and support needs.

Said Councillor Arthur: "Thank you to all those who responded to this important debate. I have made my decision taking account of these views. Making the decision to ask people to pay more towards the true cost of their care I have been mindful of the impact of these changes on our clients and have therefore decided to phase the increase over three years. It will still be the case that 30 per cent of those using our care services will continue to receive these free of charge because of low weekly income and savings and that charges are based on people's ability to pay in line with the National Fair Charging guidance.

At £11.41 after the increase, our hourly rate compares very favourably with other authorities. Outer London authorities are averaging in access of £14 per hour.

I have also secured £50,000 additional funding so that the changes to the eligibility criteria can be phased in. I have asked for further work to be carried out into the potential impact of the change for people with learning disabilities so I can consider how this can be minimised. I have also asked for a review of how we monitor the quality of the services to make sure people have the highest standards of care.

In coming to a decision I have had to take account that the demand for our home care services is high and continues to grow at above the national average and the council has a duty to manage our resources for the future to ensure those in greatest need continue to receive the support they need now and in the future."

The weekly rate for the community alarm service will be increased from £3.04 to £3.44 for monitoring only and £5.87 to £6.64 for the full service including call-out.

ENDS

Notes to editors: 

Below comparative figures of hourly rate for charging 

The number of people aged over 85 years in Bromley’s population continues to increase and this will have an impact on resources during 2007/8 and beyond for domiciliary, residential and nursing care services. There is predicted to be a 5% increase in people aged over 85 in 2007/8 compared to 2006/7 

For the fifth year running Bromley received no additional revenue support towards inflation or to meet growing pressures on its social services and other services. For more details of how London boroughs are lowing out in terms of government funding and how Bromley receives the minimum, visit www.londoncouncils.gov.uk For media enquiries, please email Amanda.day@bromley.gov.uk or call 020 8313 4390.