Overview
Barnet Council provides adult social care services to over 5,000 residents aged over 18 years old. Roughly 1,300 of these residents receive chargeable social care services.
When people living in Barnet need adult social care, as well as assessing their care needs, we also assess their income to decide how much they pay towards their care. Some people don’t pay anything, some people pay a contribution, and some people pay for all of their care (these people are known as self-funders). There are also some services that we do not charge for.
Barnet sets out what and how people need to pay in our Fairer Contributions Policy. For residential and nursing care, our charging framework is based on statutory guidance, details of which are set out on our website.
What are we proposing?
As part of the councils annual budget setting process for 2025-26, we have been reviewing a number of aspects of the adults social care service existing charging arrangements to help support the current financial position in a way which is fair and takes into account the actual costs incurred by the council.
As such, we have come up with a set of proposals that we would like your views on.
These proposals include the introduction of charges, or an increase in charge, to the following areas:
- A yearly fee for appointeeship services for residents with savings over £3,000.
- A weekly fee for assistive technology services for all residents using these services.
- Cost recovery for arranging care for people above the capital/savings threshold: A yearly £2,000 fee for residents who have their care arranged by council and pay for it themselves.
- Increasing the weekly fee for respite care services to £250.
Why are we proposing changes to our charging arrangements for Adult Social Care
In Barnet the council plays a big part in people’s lives. Every year, we spend over £300million providing public services that you, your family and friends use every day.
As well as supporting our communities, we are committed to the responsible management of the council’s finances. However, like many local authorities and households across the country, Barnet is facing unprecedented financial challenges across all areas of our work. These challenges include the continued uncertainty over government funding, and economic uncertainty with high inflation, high interest rates, and the cost of living continuing to rise.
Adult Social Care in particular are facing large increases in the cost of providing services and ever-increasing demand for services and needs to find ways to make these services sustainable.
The council also has a duty to set a balanced budget and is currently facing severe financial pressures as a result of the above.
This means we are having to look very closely across the whole council to close this gap through savings and income, particularly where we are not recovering statutory costs.
To find out more please read our FAQs
How to have your say
We are keen to hear your views on our Adult Social Care Fees and Charges proposals, in particular we are keen to hear from our current and future users of Adult Social Care services and how these changes will impact on them.
You can find out more about each of the services and our proposals by clicking on the images below and then completing the relevant questionnaires:
If you are unable to complete the questionnaires online and would like to request a paper copy or another format of the questionnaire, please email: engage.adults@barnet.gov.uk
Any paper copies should be sent to Adult Social Care Fees and Charges Consultation, London Borough of Barnet, 1st Floor, Communities, Adults and Health, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale, London, NW9 4EW
The council is also consulting on its Executive Fees and Chagres. To find out more and how to have your say please visit this page.
Your comments and responses to the questionnaires will assist us in making a final decision on whether we should proceed with implementing the proposed charges. Once a decision has been made, we will write to service users who may be impacted to advise of them of the outcome of the final decision.
