Malnutrition risk in care homes hit by funding crisis

The number of elderly care homes achieving good standards of nutrition remains a subject of much scrutiny for the sector, with a Saga report looking into the expenditure of Sefton Council’s care homes finding that an average of £3.93 per day only is being spent on food.

Sefton Council’s homes have come under the spotlight due to a High Court case that ordered the authority to conduct a review of its care provision expenditure, with some care home owners having spoken out over what they feel to be unworkable levels of funding.

Under criticism, Sefton Council responded with the statement: ‘This challenge is not unique to Sefton but is faced by other local authorities right across the country’. Such pressure suggests that care provision has indeed been an easy target for local councils, coinciding with an estimated shortfall of £500m in social care funding as claimed by charity Age UK last month, and highlighting the importance of the Government’s upcoming debate regarding the proposals of the Dilnot Commission and the long-term financing of care.

The Office of National Statistics found that malnutrition related deaths, together with those caused by infection and super bugs, showed a steep rise in England and Wales during the last decade, recorded in both care homes and hospitals.

So far the Dilnot Commission reforms have not proved to be as politically divisive as the Coalition’s Health and Social Care Bill, with all three party leaders keen to reach a political consensus on the long-term funding of care. Nevertheless, Labour leader Ed Miliband has consistently called for PM David Cameron to ‘Drop the Bill’ as far as reforming the NHS is concerned, meaning that Government and opposition continue to take a completely different stance on two reforms whose fortunes are so closely intertwined.