Local authority rates paid for homecare
When an individual's homecare is part or fully-funded by the state, the money for it must come from their local authority's budget. These social care budgets are under immense strain.
As a result, local authorities are permitted to pay the homecare agencies which employ us far less per hour of care than what an individual would pay if they were funding their own care. This has serious implications for employers, employees and all those who draw on support.
The discounted rates charged to local authorities for state-funded care packages mean many homecare agencies struggle to cover their essential business costs, such that even the best-intentioned employers may find themselves unable to offer staff the level of pay and employment conditions they know their team deserve.
This is causing increasing numbers of homecare agencies to stop taking on local-authority funded clients altogether, reducing the availability of care for people who are unable to pay for their own care. This point around availability of care is particularly becoming in issue in deprived areas and could well affect us low-paid workers should we find ourselves in need of care in the future.
Given the constant need to ensure they work within tight budgets, local authorities end up locked into a substandard model of care planning called 'time-and-task' whereby the length of each care visit is calculated by adding up the minimum amount of time it should take a care worker to perform a set series of tasks (e.g. helping someone dress, prepare food, administer medication). This model is produces tight and inflexible visit times, undermining out ability to deliver the highest quality of support.
This is a systemic issue which affects both employers, employees and those who draw on support in equal measure. A sustained increase in central government funding to local authorities is likely necessary for councils to be able to raise the rates they pay homecare agencies and start the process of reforming their approach to care planning. We welcome policies designed to address this issue.