Issue - meetings

At the last meeting of the Committee, Members considered a report on a review of the adult services charging policy.  The Committee resolved that they receive a report back on the outcomes of the consultation and the attached report to Cabinet gives the outcomes and recommendations.

The Committee considered a report on a review of the Adult Services Charging policy.   A formal consultation had taken place between 2 November 2010 and 31 January 2011. 

The report outlined how all Councils were under severe financial pressures due to reductions in grant funding from central government along with growing financial pressures resulting from the rising elderly population and increased demand for care.

Cheshire East Council was projecting an over-spend of £9.2m in Adult Services and was seeking ways to address this.  One such method was to look at changing what people pay for care services including closing the gap between the charges service users pay for commissioned care services and the real cost of that commissioned care service.  Consideration was also given to new charges that could be introduced to offset the administrative costs the Council pays for certain tasks (eg Deferred Charge Agreements and Appointeeships).

The impact of the changes would primarily be in the community provision offered to around 4000 customers.  The report outlined that many people would be unaffected by the changes as they were entitled to a free service (66%), some would see a small change due to the percentage of disposable income as a charge rising from the current level of 90% (19%).  Those who paid a flat rate fee may see their charges increase – this was currently 8% of customers.  People paying full cost or standard charge (7%) would see the greatest increase but would be able to consider purchasing care services from the open market at competitive prices. 

The proposals relating to charging for community provision were aimed at removing as much subsidy as possible – the current policy was 90% of disposal income.  During the consultation process, respondents felt that increasing this charge to 100% of disposal income was too high an increase, in too short a timescale.  Officers explained that if a customer’s circumstances changed they could be reassessed.  The report summarised the findings following the consultation process which had provoked a wide range of reactions.  Many people had sympathised with the Council’s financial position whereas others felt that social care users were already in an economically and emotionally vulnerable position and should not be penalised further –suggesting other options such be explored instead such as increases in Council tax or staffing/bureaucracy cuts.  There was also debate over whether the assessment of what is essential and what is disposable was flawed.

The report outlined the range of consultation undertaken including public meetings, facilitated meetings at Day Centres, discussion and engagement with Third Sector groups, website information, letters in invoices to service users and a poster campaign. 

During discussion of the item the following points were raised:

      Whether a review following a customer’s change in circumstances would be done quickly and robustly?

      How many customers were currently awaiting a review following a change in their circumstances – either financial or care needs?

      Whether any work was taking place to ensure people were claiming all benefits to which they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 99