North Wales MS Mark Isherwood questioned the Minister for Social Care this week over concern that North Wales now has the lowest Care Home fees in Wales, which he said “is putting pressure on providers to stop accepting new Continuing Health Care Patients and to give notice to their current Continuing Health Care funded residents”.
On Tuesday during the Business Statement, Mr Isherwood had called for an urgent Statement on Care Home fees after Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board wrote to providers in North Wales setting out a care home fee uplift of just 3.71 per cent for 2024-25.
The following day, he raised the matter again during a question to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on consistency of care funding within the care homes system in North Wales.
He said:
“As I stated (in the Business Statement), Gareth Davies (MS) and I met Care Forum Wales last Friday, and they told us that North Wales now has the lowest Care Home fees in Wales, putting pressure on providers to stop accepting new Continuing Health Care (CHC) patients and to give notice to their current Continuing Health Care funded residents, a distressing outcome that nobody wants to see, at the very time when need has never been greater and Health Boards so desperately need these care home beds.
“In her response, the Trefnydd stated 'that's something that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is actively addressing' on a cross-Ministerial basis. How, therefore, do you respond to the call for urgent intervention with the Health Board to ensure both a sustainable settlement, and a national approach to fee setting to provide a baseline figure that's acceptable to the sector and delivers good value for the taxpayer?”
Responding for the Welsh Government, the Minister for Social Care said there isn't a national methodology for agreeing the CHC rate.
She added:
“That weekly rate is paid by the Health Board for CHC, and it might vary depending on the needs assessment for the individual that is in receipt of that care. So, the care that's required and the residential care fee rates are set in accordance with the particular needs.
“I will speak further to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care about that, because, of course, there is an overlap. The CHC fund setting is not in my portfolio; care homes fee setting is. So, we'll have a conversation, and I'm sure we'll be able to get something together and submit it to the Senedd, or circulate it to Members, so that they have a better understanding of what's going on.”
