Adult Social Care fees and charges consultation

We asked

We asked for your views on the proposed Adult Social Care Fees and Charges.
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.

You said

We received 279 responses across all 4 consultations. This included 9 paper copy responses:

Proposal 1 – Appointeeship

13% (3) agreed with the proposal
57% (13) disagreed with the proposal
A further 13% (3) disagreed with the proposal and offered an alternative suggestion. Alternative suggestions included:

Implementing a one-off fee
A financial assessment and means tested approach to billing.

Proposal 2 – Assistive Technology

33% (12) selected £5
6% (2) selected £10
61% (22) selected ‘Other’ and provided feedback such as:
1. £0 (the majority response from 16 respondents, 73%)
2. £2.50
3. £3
4. A monthly £10 fee
5. Miscellaneous

Although more respondents stated that they considered a zero charge to be reasonable, there was some support for introducing the lowest weekly charge proposed of £5 a week.

Proposal 3 – Cost recovery for arranging and administering care for people above the capital/savings threshold

54% (30 respondents) disagreed with the charge
21% (12 respondents) disagreed with how high the increase in fee was, citing the £300 one off bill to £2000 annual charge.
7% (4 respondents) suggested an alternative lower charge and/or method of charging.
7% (4 respondents) did not object to the annual fee
11% (6 respondents) provided ‘other’ feedback such as:

Complaints around the current billing system
Will seek alternative arrangements of care

Proposal 4 – Respite

92% (12 respondents) commented that the increase was too high.
8% (1 respondent) commented that the increase was fair.

We did

Based on results of the consultation and alternative options considered by the council, the council have decided to implement three of the proposals in full:

Appointeeship
Assistive technology
Respite care

With regards to the fourth proposal, the council have decided to reduce the annual charges to £1,851 in relation to cost recovery for arranging and administering care for people above the capital/ savings threshold of £23,250.

The Adult Social Care fees and charges were authorised under the delegated authority of the Leader of the Council, Cabinet Member for Strategic Partnerships, Economy and Effective Council and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care.