Care Homes: Fees and Charges
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that care home fee rates set by local authorities include (a) the economic situation, (b) workforce and (c) inflation.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
We recognise the importance of local authority fee rates to adult social care providers, which meet the costs of delivering care and enable providers to recruit and retain staff. We have therefore provided the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund to local authorities since 2023/24, with one of the three target areas that local authorities can spend their allocations on being to improve fee rates to providers.
A letter sent out to council leaders in January set out the expectation that in 2025/26, when commissioning services, local authorities should ensure fee levels for care and support services take account of the actual costs of care in their area, including inflationary and all other pressures, such as the rise in National Living Wage and the changes to employers National Insurance contributions.
As part of our monitoring of the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund grant conditions, and to understand fee rates more generally, local authorities are required to provide an annual return to the Department, including data on the fee rates they pay care providers. The Government publishes this data annually, with the latest data being available to view at the following link:
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →