NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL
HEALTH AND ADULT SERVICES EXECUTIVE
22 MARCH 2024
FEES AND CHARGES FOR IN-HOUSE & COMMUNITY CARE SERVICES 2023/24
REPORT OF THE CORPORATE DIRECTOR, HEALTH AND ADULT SERVICES
1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
1.1
This
report sets out the proposed changes in fees and charges that
individuals pay towards the costs of NYC care services, plus meals,
transport and laundry services for 2024/25.
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 Each year the revised maximum charges to users of our in-house services are agreed based on the uprating of existing charges. What people actually pay of course depends on the result of individual financial assessments.
3. CHANGES IN CHARGES FOR 2024/25
3.1 The uplift of charges is an exercise carried out annually and the new charges are implemented in April to coincide with the benefit uplift awarded by DWP (from Monday 8th April 2024 for 2024/25).
3.2 The Council’s Fees and Charges Strategy was approved by Executive Members in November 2022, after income budgets were reviewed. Given the historically high levels of inflation that the UK is currently experiencing, a minimum inflationary increase of 6% was approved for 2024/25 budget setting and although the charges in this paper are dealt with separately, a similar uplift has been used in places. Other uplifts are linked to the increase in costs which will be paid to providers.
3.3 The proposed new rates for services which are not subject to the means tested financial assessment are outlined in Table 1.
TABLE 1: CHARGES FOR SERVICES NOT SUBJECT TO A FINANCIAL ASSESSMENT
|
Description of Service |
Rates |
Proposed Rate 2024/25 |
% Increase |
|
2023/24 |
|||
|
Meals; |
|
||
|
Main |
£3.10 |
£3.30 |
6.5% |
|
Sweet |
£1.20 |
£1.30 |
8.3% |
|
Full Meal |
£4.30 |
£4.60 |
7.0% |
|
|
|||
|
Laundry |
£5.75 |
£6.10 |
6.1% |
3.4 Transport charges are currently £8.20 per journey (with a cap of £43 per week). It is proposed that these figures are increased to £8.70 per journey (6.1% increase) with a cap of £45.60 per week (6.0% increase).
3.5 Table 2 below details the proposed charges for those services being directly provided by NYC and which are subject to a financial assessment. Charges for residential support will be in line with the Council’s approved Actual Cost of Care rates, although this will only apply to new packages. Existing packages will be increased in line with inflation.
TABLE 2: FEE SCHEDULES FOR NYC-MANAGED SERVICES 2024/25
|
|
|
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
% change |
|
Elderly Persons Home |
||||
|
Existing Packages |
Weekly rate |
£637.00 |
£690.00 |
8.3% |
|
New Packages (ACOC) |
Weekly rate |
|
£875.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Learning Disability Services |
||||
|
Day Centre |
Per place per day |
£75.50 |
£81.00 |
7.3% |
|
Respite |
Per 24 hour period |
£273.00 |
£295.00 |
8.1% |
|
|
Weekly rate |
£1,911.00 |
£2,065.00 |
8.1% |
|
Personal Care at Home |
||||
|
Per contact visit |
|
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
% change |
|
Days |
15 min |
£10.10 |
£10.70 |
5.9% |
|
|
30 min |
£14.80 |
£15.70 |
6.1% |
|
|
45 min |
£19.50 |
£20.70 |
6.2% |
|
|
60 min |
£24.50 |
£26.00 |
6.1% |
|
Nights |
15 min |
£12.50 |
£13.25 |
6.0% |
|
|
30 min |
£18.70 |
£19.80 |
5.9% |
|
|
45 min |
£24.80 |
£26.30 |
6.0% |
|
|
60 min |
£31.00 |
£32.90 |
6.1% |
3.6 Table 3 below details the proposed charges related to the deferred payments process. The valuation fees are set by Align Property Partners and the increase reflects that there has been no change in these rates for a number of years.
TABLE 3: FEE SCHEDULES FOR DEFERRED PAYMENT COSTS 2023/24
|
fee |
2023-24 rate |
2024-25 rate |
% increase |
|
Legal costs |
188.00 |
199.00 |
5.9% |
|
Land registry search |
51.00 |
54.00 |
5.9% |
|
Valuations |
350.00 |
400.00 |
14.3% |
|
500.00 |
600.00 |
20.0% |
|
|
Admin fee (set up) |
148.00 |
157.00 |
6.1% |
|
Annual fee |
424.00 |
450.00 |
6.1% |
4 ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS
The option of not increasing charges has been discounted as this would be inconsistent with the cost increases paid to providers and would mean that the council incurred more of that cost. No increase would also be inconsistent with the Council’s Fees and Charges Strategy.
5 CONSULTATION
Consultation originally took place as part of the introduction of the Fairer Contribution policy via the Area Committees through a questionnaire to user representative groups as well as being considered by Care and Independence Overview and Scrutiny Committee. No further consultation has been undertaken for this annual uplift process.
6 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The budget for income from in-house service provision is approximately £4.7m in 2024/25 and the planning assumption currently incorporated into the Medium Term Financial Strategy assumes ‘inflation’ will be charged. The actual levels of income generated arise from a combination of the level of charges, the number of people who pay and, critically, the assessed levels of contribution from those people.
7 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
Legal advice has been provided for these proposals
8 EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
An Equalities Impact Assessment was undertaken as part of the introduction of the Fairer Contribution policy and it is therefore not considered necessary to undertake another assessment for routine uplift. However we do continue to monitor the impact of the change of policy regularly and this is reported to the Care and Independence and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee on a periodic basis.
9 CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
There are no climate change implications arising from these proposals.
10 REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendation will help the council to recover inflationary cost rises in adult social care where appropriate.
11 RECOMMENDATIONS
The Corporate Director Health & Adult Services in consultation with the executive member for Health and Adult Services is asked to:-
(a)
Approve the new
charging rates as outlined in section 3, particularly Tables 1, 2
and 3 and paragraph 3.4 of this report, to be effective from 8
April 2024
Report prepared by Anton Hodge, Assistant Director – Resources