15th May 2009
By Paul Dicken
Councils in Wales are charging widely different amounts for home care services and using different financial assessments to decide who pays, a report has found.
The Welsh Assembly Government commissioned economics consultancy LE Wales to research charges for non-residential social care services as it prepares an Assembly measure on the issue.
Its report, published on May 8 after consultation, found that hourly charges for home care varied from £5.60 to £15.32, with day care services free in seven authorities. Day charges varied from £1.50 to £88.33.
Authorities were also disregarding differing proportions of income or benefits in financial assessments.
Deputy Minister for Social Services Gwenda Thomas said the report provided ‘conclusive evidence of the anomalies and inconsistencies’ in the present system and reaffirmed that the Assembly Government was right to push ahead with a measure to address the issue.
The Welsh Local Government Association said it was seeking a ‘firm and public commitment that local government would be fully compensated by any changes effected by an Assembly Measure’.
The WLGA acknowledged there was a case for reducing the wide variations in authorities’ approaches, but said ‘local democratic autonomy’ should not be compromised.
The report identified 13 possible options for changes to be used either in combination or individually, including applying a maximum charge and setting £50,000 of savings as the sole threshold for charges to be applied.
