No sign of agreement in Glasgow care homes fees dispute

The war of words between Scotland’s largest local authority and a group of private care homes has escalated in an ongoing dispute over fees.

Glasgow City Council has accused independent care homes of a “concerted resistance” to the introduction of a contract limit on the cost of providing care home beds, citing the homes are demanding “excessive” fees.

The council is looking introduce a new tendering process, a preferred supplier scheme and it is hoping to limit any increase in fees to 1% per year.

However, the appetitite for these plans has stalled. With so few care homes bidding for contracts, that the council is faced with running out of care home places within six months.

Under the current arrangement councils pay care homes a nationally agreed rate, but this is due to expire in April 2015.

Speaking to the BBC, Councillor Malcolm Cunning, executive member for social care at Glasgow City Council said: “The private care home sector has done everything possible to thwart and undermine the council’s efforts to introduce a new way of purchasing care home places for vulnerable older people.

“Many providers have either turned their back on the process or demanded fees that were excessive, unrealistic and completely unsustainable.”

He added: “Others have taken the council to court, just as they threatened they would do even before we launched the new tendering process.

“In the face of such concerted resistance there is no chance the new tendering process will deliver best value for the taxpayer.”

However, Scottish Care, which represents several hundred independent care homes across Scotland, has dismissed the claims as “nonsense”, claiming many independent homes were facing cost pressures of up to 12% per year.

Scottish Care Chief executive Ranald Mair, said: “Some of the care homes affected are run by charities and churches. Glasgow is committed to paying its own care workers the living wage but not committed to paying other people enough to pay the living wage.

“All we asked for was an annual review of what Glasgow would pay.”

He added: “What we really want is proper discussion about the future needs of the city, not how we can get care on the cheap.”

Glasgow’s health and social care committee are now facing the prospect of abandoning the proposed new contract, in a move which could increase the costs of care and have implications for other councils across Scotland.