Homes Under Closure Threat From Funding Crisis

{mosimage} The Church of Scotland has warned it may have to close its care homes if the Scottish Executive does not bridge a massive funding deficit. The warning came as the General Assembly was told by Rev David Court, the convener of the Social Care Council, which manages the Church’s nursing and residential homes and care services, that it was “not being funded at an adequate level” by the Executive.

He said there was a gap between the cost of providing care and the amount of money given to homes by the government, via local authorities, of between £74 and £180 per person, per week.

Places in the Church’s care homes cost between £345 and £587, while maximum contributions from the local authorities are from £407 to £471, depend-0ing on the individual.

The Church of Scotland has 31 residential care homes and a range of additional services. This amounts to a deficit of more than £7 million a year.

Under its charity status, the Kirk’s Social Care Council receives 73 per cent of its £46 million budget from the Executive. The bulk of the rest comes from either those people who can afford to pay for their places (14 per cent) or other sources such as fund-raising and legacies (12 per cent).

The Kirk’s funding represents just 1 per cent of the budget.
“The bottom line is that we would like to see adequate funding for the services we provide across the board,” said Mr Court. “We would like the local authorities to pay what we need to provide the services.

“They are currently paying a much reduced level, so there’s a gap. We need that to be bridged. What does it cost them to provide their services? I’d like to know. They say that they can’t afford it, and that they hope we can afford it. But if we get to a point where we cannot sustain a service, we will have to close it.”

Since 1992, the Kirk has closed 15 care homes for the elderly, but the forthcoming safety legislation from the Executive, following in the wake Rosepark Nursing Home fire in 2004, when 14 elderly residents died, will place even greater pressure on the Church’s finances.

“The reality is that services are reviewed, and we cannot continue at the level at which we are subsidising things,” said Mr Court. He also voiced concerns that the Executive’s legislation would hit the quality of service in the care sector.

Citing the pending closure of Keith Lodge, a 40-year-old Kirk care centre for 29 children with severe learning disabilities in Stonehaven, in August, Mr Court said that it had incurred a deficit of £360,000 last year.

Budgetary pressures, combined with an unwillingness from Aberdeenshire Council to fund the home, meant the Kirk had no option but to close it, he added.

Mr Gordon Cowie, an elder attached to the presbyteries of Kincardine and Deeside, said: “We are dealing with the truly helpless and marginalised in our society. I have had heartbreaking phone calls from parents asking if I would somehow get more time for them.”