* Care Forum Wales chief executive Mary Wimbury.
A "double whammy" of rock bottom fees and soaring
costs will inevitably lead to more care home closures across North Wales, it’s
been warned.
Care homes in the region are struggling with
increases of up to 100 per cent for utilities and insurance, along with hikes
of more than 20 per cent for things like food and incontinence products.
At the same time, the fees providers receive in
North Wales can be up to £10,000 a year less per person than those given to
their counterparts in South Wales for providing exactly the same level of care.
In recent months it’s been revealed that four care
homes in North Wales - Trewythen Hall in Gresford,
Bay Court in Kinmel Bay, Gwastad Hall in Cefn y Bedd and Morfa Newydd in
Greenfield - have already had to shut with the loss of more than 160
beds, piling even more pressure on the beleaguered social care system and the
NHS.
According to Care Forum Wales (CFW), the situation
is one of grave concern, with many care homes teetering on the brink of
financial ruin.
CFW Chief Executive Mary Wimbury said she expected the situation
to get worse before it gets better.
She says local authority fees do not cover basic requirements or
come close to meeting the actual costs of providing care.
There was also a widening North-South divide with the six North
Wales authorities at the bottom of the fees table.
Ms Wimbury said: "People are struggling, they've been
through a really difficult few years because of the pandemic and now on top of
that, high inflation, staff wages increasing, cost of food, heating,
insurance."
Helena Herklots, the Older Person’s Commissioner
for Wales, is among those worried about the deepening crisis in the social care
sector.
Speaking to the BBC, she said: “We are hearing about closures of care homes but also
concerns about whether the care home their loved ones are in was going to close
in the future.
"It's creating uncertainty and anxiety among older people,
family and their friends and they're also dealing with the cost of living
crisis."
Among those on the front line is Ceri Roberts, a
director of Cariad Care Homes in Gwynedd.
Cariad run two homes – Bodawen in Porthmadog and
Plas Gwyn in Cricieth – where they employ 130 to look after 76 residents.
She said: “I’ve been
managing care homes since 2005 and year on year, it gets tougher. .
“Our food costs have gone
up by 22 per cent in the last 12 months and there’s been a 21 per cent increase
in the price of incontinence products. At the same time, utilities have gone up
100 per cent. Those three items are the bulk of our costs other than payroll.
“We have been paying our
staff the Real Living Wage for almost two years and we did that voluntarily. We
just felt that the work the staff do is exceptional. It’s a tough job. It’s
physically and emotionally a very difficult job. We’re very grateful for the
team that we have and they deserve to be rewarded for the work that they do.
“On top of that, we
recently introduced a loyalty bonus so the staff, providing they work their
contracted hours as per their contract, they can then get an additional hourly
rate on top of their salary just to give them that little bit extra and over the
year, which would give them £480 per annum, regardless of their position.
“So, it’s important that
the fees we receive are a fair fee for the care that is provided. But they’re
not.
“Year on year, it’s a
battle. Every year, we receive a letter from both health board and the local
authority saying ‘this is what we’re going to be paying you this year’.
“I don’t know of any other
industry that would put up with that. I can’t go to Tesco and buy my weekly
shop and then tell them how much I’m prepared to pay them for what I’ve bought.
It’s crazy.
“All we’re asking for is a
fair and reasonable fee for the service we provide, a fee the covers the actual
cost of providing care to ensure the service is sustainable and will be there
for future generations.
“Welsh Government have a
document called Let’s Agree to Agree which says that commissioners need to
consult with providers with regard to fees but there’s never any consultation.
“We are now in consultation
with the local authority because we will not be viable with the fees they are
willing to pay
“The Real Living Wage has
gone up by just over 10 per cent and the increase from the local authority is
only 3.5 per cent, so how do you make things balance?
“If my care homes were in
parts of South Wales, I would be paid up more than £7,000 more for every
local authority funded resident more per annum so that would that would
potentially equate to around £500.000.
“The extra money would
enable us to have additional staff and we could invest more money in the homes.
It could be put to good use instead of the constant struggle to make ends meet.
“Clearly, vulnerable people
in South Wales are valued more than people in Gwynedd. Food costs the same in
South Wales as it does here. It’s very unjust.
“I would anticipate that
more care homes will close if things don’t change. It’s inevitable.”
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