Agenda item

FAIRER CONTRIBUTIONS POLICY, CHARGING WITHIN A PERSONALISED SYSTEM

CMT Lead Officer: Director for Community Services

Minutes:

Further to minute 27, the Director for Community Services submitted a written report providing a summary of the outcome of the consultation process that had taken place, about the Council’s proposed policy on charging for non-residential services in the context of the introduction of personal budgets and setting out the options for Cabinet.  

 

The report indicated that scrutiny had confirmed that the consultation process had been extensive and properly carried out and supported the recommendations in the report, with the exception of recommendations R4 (relating to the maximum contribution and cap on contributions) and R5 (relating to a transitional period), set out in minute 65 above. 

 

In response to the scrutiny recommendations R4 and R5, the report stated that the officers had quantified the impact and believed that the removal of the cap was supported in the consultation.  It was the most equitable option and would impact on a small number of service users. A significant number of service users would no longer pay anything for their care. Given the current economic climate and the impact on Council budgets going forward, neither of the Task and Finish Group recommendations was considered to be financially affordable.

 

In response to questions, Cabinet Members were advised that if the Council set the maximum contribution at 100% of the personal budget, service users would have a financial assessment and contributions would start above an income of the level of income support plus 25%.  If service users could not afford to pay, the current buffer level would continue.  A homeowner with savings of more than the government threshold would be expected to pay the full cost of care if they moved into a residential home.

 

Agreed that –

 

(1)

authority is delegated to the Director for Community Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Adult Health and Social Care, the responsibility for ensuring a new Fairer Contributions Policy is implemented, underpinned by the principles for fairer charging set out in the 2009 Department of Health guidance and that the new policy includes the decisions at (2) to (7) below;

 

(2)

the new operating system for Adult Social Care has a simple financial assessment, conducted at the beginning of the process, so that people enter into a care assessment knowing the likelihood that they may have to make a contribution, and a full financial assessment and benefits maximisation check is completed during the Self Directed Support Process;

 

(3)

 

the minimum collectable contribution level is maintained at £2.50 per week for 2010/11, but where service users are invoiced (i.e. where a service user does not have a Direct Payment and the Council organises services on their behalf) for very low contributions, these are collected on a quarterly basis;

 

(4)

 

the policy is revised in line with Department of Health guidance so that the charging system is fair to all service users. Contributions should be based on ability to pay and not the cost of individual services. This means that all subsidies relating to service provision must be removed and the Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidance policy will no longer be used when assessing contributions for residential respite. The contribution will be based on the amount of the personal budget and not individual components of the support plan;

 

(5)

Disability Related Benefits and Disability Related Expenses is excluded in the assessment process, on the basis that expenses incurred in relation to a disability are met by the benefits intended for this purpose;

 

(6)

the maximum contribution is set at 100% of the personal budget;

 

(7)

the revised policy is applied from 1April 2011, thus giving service users a five month period in which to prepare. Any further delay in implementation would lead to a significant impact on Council budgets.

 

(Councillor Michael Leaves having declared an interest, withdrew from the meeting during consideration of the above time).

Supporting documents: