Forum Brief: Care homes

A report published today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds that care homes are underfunded by £1 billion per year.

The report coincides with a survey by the Liberal Democrats which suggests that more than half of care homes for the elderly in England have considered closing in the last year due to funding problems.

Forum Response: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

A spokesman for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation told ePolitix.com: "It is now widely accepted that in recent years the fees paid by the typically budget constrained social services departments throughout the UK have been to low to offer reasonable returns to independent sector providers of care holes for older people."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Paul Cann, director of policy at Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com: "We welcome the report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which makes a coherent case for an extra £1 billion spending in order to stabilise the long term care sector.

"The lack of core funding is driving many good care homes to the wall, leaving thousands of older people with chronic illness in crisis.

"The underlying shortage of social care funding must be addressed in this July's Comprehensive Spending Review, if the crisis is to be averted and older people be guaranteed sustainable, high quality long term care."

Forum Response: Age Concern

Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern in England, told ePolitix.com: "The government has to loosen its purse strings so that local authorities can give a decent quality of care to older people. If these costs are what it takes for homes to offer quality of care then these are the amounts local authorities should pay to the care homes.

"In particular the problem of paying care home fees is exacerbated for people who pay for their own care home places. Homes can end up hiking their fees in order to subsidise the low fees paid by those funded by their local authority. This is extremely unfair on those who pay their own costs.

"However, extra money is needed not only to support those in care homes but also to develop a range of housing and support options, which should include opportunities for older people to get the care they want in their own home.

"Age Concern welcomes this research and we hope that the 'toolkit', included in this report, will go some way to offering a robust and transparent method of calculating reasonable costs and end the impasse between care homes and local authorities, which can only be detrimental to older people.

"We believe that both local and central government must stop passing the buck and work together to solve the current crisis."

Forum Response: Counsel and Care

Martin Green, chief executive of Counsel and Care, told ePolitix.com: "Today's Joseph Rowntree Foundation's report found that the fees councils are currently prepared to pay are between £75 and £85 a week below the reasonable costs of running an efficient and good-quality care home. In fact, Counsel and Care identified this issue over two years ago in our report 'The Choice is Yours?''

"It is sad to see that the situation is continuing and in fact getting worse. We are calling for a thorough review of the care sector and a new long term approach."