Shropshire Star

We need to value Shropshire's home carers, says officer

A group that represents Shropshire's home-care providers today said the country needs to reassess how it values the profession.

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Nicky Jacques, chief officer of Shropshire Partners in Care, was speaking after an investigation revealed that 95 UK councils have had home-care contracts cancelled by private companies struggling to deliver services on the funding offered.

Around 250 organisations employing more than 14,500 people are represented by Shropshire Partners in Care, with the home-care providers set to find out their Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Council fee-rates for 2017/18 in the next few days.

Councils are facing ongoing restrictions on their own budgets, with an expected knock-on effect for care providers employed by the authorities.

Care providers are also facing their own cost increases with the living wage, increased pension contributions, and significant hikes in the regulations fees from the Care Quality Commission. Some firms will see an increase in the fee from £800 to £3,000.

Mrs Jacques: "I think there are very real challenges facing the home-care sector at the moment. There are very real challenges facing the care sector as a whole but particularly the home-care sector.

"Now is quite a delicate time of year. As we approach April we are negotiating fee rates for our members with Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council and they have some very real cost pressures facing them that come into effect on April 1."

The Local Government Association, which represents councils across England and Wales, has warned that the care system faces collapse without a long-term funding solution.

Mrs Jacques said that the issues of providing funding for home-care would need addressing as more people require assistance in their own homes.

Mrs Jacques added that the country needs to change its attitude towards the profession of social care, and place more value on the work of carers.

She said: "Social care in peoples' own homes is not well regarded. The chancellor announced a green paper looking at transforming social care and we look forward to that."

Councils confirm social care commitment:

A commitment to ensure social care is available for all those in need has today been reaffirmed by Shropshire Council.

The authority said it worked closely with the care provider market through its partnership with Shropshire Partners in Care (SPIC), and direct contact and engagement with providers on a one-to-one basis.

Andy Begley, the council's director of adult services, said: "Last year we worked with our colleagues in SPIC to support providers to complete a 'Fair Cost of Care' exercise. This exercise considered costs related to all areas of care provision commissioned by the council.

"When comparing our rates paid for domiciliary care commissioned from providers in 2015/2016, we can see the average rate paid by Shropshire was £16.03 per hour, which was more than the West Midlands average of £13.82, the England average of £14.28 and the family group average of £15.26.

"We are working closely with providers during this time of significant increase in demand for care, whilst facing ever increasing cost pressures to continue to deliver a variety of high quality care to individuals in Shropshire who require support. Providers do sometimes cease a domiciliary care contract but the incidence of this happening is not routinely collated. We are aware of two providers in the last two years that have cancelled their contracts with us.

"Only one of these was in the last 12 months, and was actually an out of county provider. We contract 95 providers in total, who are accredited to provide care in Shropshire."

Telford & Wrekin Council spokeswoman Emily Taylor said: "We have had one care home close in December 16, but that was not related to fees. We have had a handful of domiciliary care packages handed back in the last 12 months for various reasons. They include no longer part of their specialism, a case being too complex or less complex, a price that is no longer sustainable and through staff who have left or they can no longer cover that area of the borough. All have been re brokered and care covered."

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