Care home operator accuses councils of wasting cash
ONE of Scotland’s leading care home operators has claimed councils are wasting millions of pounds on in-house care, while underfunding care for vulnerable elderly residents in private homes.
Robert Kilgour, chairman of Renaissance Care, sought information from councils under freedom of information rules about the amount they spend on homes they run themselves. He said the figures proved many local authorities are asking private providers to operate on far lower funding than their own services, confirming long-standing complaints from the sector about an unequal playing field.
The figures also show that councils charge more for private residents who pay their own fees in their own homes than they pay the private sector, leading to accusations councils are using these fee-payers to subsidise their care home costs.
Mr Kilgour called on the Accounts Commission, the public spending watchdog for local government in Scotland, to carry out an investigation into how much local councils spend on their care homes.
He said: “Local councils need to address growing inequalities in funding between local authority and independent homes.
“What is taking place is a blatant misuse of public money, with tens of millions of pounds wasted every year.”
The freedom of information requests to all 32 local authorities have provided a detailed breakdown of their care home operations.
Under a national agreement, councils pay care homes £594 a week for residential care and £690 for full nursing care. But the FOI responses show the costs to many councils of their own care home provision is in excess of £1,000 a week. Examples where this is the case include East Lothian, Orkney, South Ayrshire and Shetland.
A Cosla spokesperson said:
“Care homes in Scotland have had unprecedented financial support and prioritisation from Local Government against a hugely challenging financial backdrop.
“Cosla has worked with the sector to develop a care home cost model, used to determine the national care home contract fee in a clear and transparent manner that takes account of changes in cost pressures.
“This is just one recent development in councils’ long history of striving to protect care home provision.”