Devon care homes call council’s legal action over care home fees “appalling”

Devon care homes have called Devon County Council’s decision, to lodge an appeal over the High Court ruling ordering it to raise its fees, “appalling”.

Alan Beale, one of the claimants in the Judicial Review and member of the Devon Quality Care Forum (DQCF) which represents the care homes involved in the court case, said: “Given that Devon County Council (DCC)has now confirmed it will make no change to its fees, it seems, in our opinion that they are simply not taking account of the needs of people with dementia, despite the judgment, which is disgraceful. The Council also seems not to be concerned that its fees are so low that a large number of care homes may close.

“It is simply not good enough to say that vulnerable elderly people who are forced to move when care homes start to close will be found alternative accommodation. DCC knows, as we do, that such forced moves at short notice will inevitably affect the health of the people involved and that mortality rates will increase. To create this situation at the same time the Council is intending to spend £11 million refurbishing its own care homes is immoral.

“DCC itself identified the 25 homes at risk of closure and stated in its documentation that one of the main risk factors is a high dependence on DCC funded residents.

“This is another way of saying that DCC’s fees are too low. Therefore, DCC seems to be indicating that to be able to survive on DCC’s fees, homes must be in areas that can attract a large proportion of self-funders who will pay higher fees for the same standard of care, thereby subsidising DCC funded residents. In our opinion this is an acknowledgment by DCC that homes cannot be financially viable on the fees it sets which we find appalling.

“We regret to say that the decision by DCC leaves us no alternative but to continue to resort to legal action to try to protect our residents.”

Devon County Council announced that it has lodged an appeal against the High Court ruling ordering it to raise its fees, and has confirmed there will be no change to their current fee structure or levels.

Despite the threat of Devon care home closures, the council has lodged the appeal to put a stop to “excessive, costly and unreasonable bureaucracy” surrounding the legal interpretation of the public sector equalities duty.

Devon County Council’s cabinet member responsible for adult social care, Cllr Stuart Barker said: “We have conducted a thorough assessment of our fee level decision with regard to fairness and equality and concluded that the current banding structure and fee levels, set using a model that the High Court has fully supported, are fair and should remain unchanged.

“We have also decided to appeal against the High Court’s ruling that insufficient regard was made to our equalities duty, because we believe the Court’s decision was wrong and will result in an excessive, costly and an unreasonable layer of bureaucracy on all local authorities that will divert millions of pounds away from the care of vulnerable people.”

In its assessment, the council said “that care homes are paid at a level which enables them to meet the care and accommodation needs of individuals placed in their homes by the council. And that their levels are correctly banded to reflect the differing levels of need.”

It concluded that the fee levels for 2012/13 “are fair and sufficient to keep well-run and efficient homes in business.”

Cllr Stuart Barker said: “It concerns me that elderly people may be frightened or anxious hearing what these few care home owners are implying, that they may not receive a reasonable level of care or worse, that their homes may be at risk of closure, when that is not the case.”

The assessment also highlighted that “by setting a significantly above the rate of inflation increase, it expects care homes to be in an enhanced position to maintain provision of services.”

The assessment stated that if care homes unable to adapt to changing needs and preferences run the risk of closing unless they have a strong private client base. And that in the last financial year, over the same period that care home owners say the Council’s fees were too low, there has actually been more new care homes coming into the market, than closures.

Cllr Stuart Barker said: “There is an over supply of traditional residential care, and not enough provision of specialist residential care, for people with dementia for example.

“That’s why we are encouraging independent care home owners to change and increase their specialist provision.

“This year, when setting our fees, we also made £800,000 available to private care home owners to invest in their businesses to help them fund the changes needed to meet the growing demand for specialist residential care.

“This is on top of our £11.6 million investment in Centres of Excellence for people with dementia and their carers, which has been loudly applauded by the Alzheimer’s Society as well as by Government.”

Devon County Council declares it is has “decided to take a stand on behalf of all local authorities”.

It is challenging the High Court’s ruling that equality was insufficiently regarded by the council when setting its fees.

The council has lodged an appeal saying that the Court’s decision “was flawed and failed to acknowledge how the council already complies with its equality duty.”

It will also claim the Judge was wrong in assuming that the council hadn’t given proper consideration to the costs of caring for people with dementia, and failed to ask for evidence of how the Council had done this.

Cllr Barker said: “Equality already runs 100 per cent through everything we do.

“Every decision we make with residents, their families and carers is individually assessed, and identifies their personal level of need. Our fee banding structure is set to reflect the costs of this individual care and accommodation. This is where every consideration is made with regard to equality.

“Expecting councils to then add a further layer of bureaucracy, red-tape and form filling in providing a gold-plated equalities assessment for every single decision made is not only unnecessary but will cost councils millions that could far better be spent on providing more care for vulnerable people.

“I cannot believe that the Public Sector Equalities Duty was ever intended to be interpreted in this way and it is high time a clear line was drawn in the sand to avoid a constant round of needless, costly and ultimately fruitless legal challenges.”

The three care homes involved in the latest legal process are South West Care Homes Ltd, South West Residential Homes Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of South West Care Homes Ltd), Forde Park Care and Chartbeech Ltd.