* Mario Kreft MBE, the Chair of Care Forum Wales, with the wooden spoon outside the headquarters of Denbighshire County Council in Ruthin.
A council has been
awarded a wooden spoon for paying the lowest care home fees in Wales and
refusing to hand out free personal protective equipment even though it’s been
paid for by the Welsh Government.
According to
social care champions Care Forum Wales (CFW), Denbighshire County Council
deserve to be named and shamed because they are “literally the lowest of
the low in terms of their meanness of spirit which would even make Ebenezer
Scrooge blush with embarrassment”.
An investigation
by CFW revealed that the six North Wales local authorities were at the bottom
of the league table for paying the lowest rates for residential care.
According to the
Chair, Mario Kreft MBE, it was clear that they were operating a fee-fixing
cartel because the lowest five were paying exactly the same amount, £711.83 per
person, per week for fully regulated care.
The only exception
in North Wales was last year’s wooden spoon recipient Flintshire County Council
which pays marginally more, £727.55, placing the authority sixth from bottom.
It all adds up,
says Mr Kreft, to a growing North-South divide with the betrayal of elderly and
vulnerable care home residents in Denbighshire and the rest of North Wales who
are being treated with “utter contempt”.
As a result, a
care home in Denbighshire receives £10,432 less per resident, per year than a
care home in parts of South Wales.
In a 50-bed care
home that’s a difference of more than £500,000 a year for providing exactly the
same level of service and being subjected to the same regulations.
Mr Kreft
said: “We could have given the wooden spoon, which recognises the meanest local
authority which pays the lowest residential care home fees, to any one of five
North Wales councils because they are joint bottom of the league of shame.
“Last year it was
awarded to Flintshire who are slightly out of the frame this year and this year
it’s Denbighshire who deserve to be branded as the Scrooge council, although it
must be said that the fees in Flintshire are still abysmally low.
“What tipped the
balance was that Denbighshire Council is the only North Wales council to turn
down the offer of free PPE from the Welsh Government who recognised the
importance of protecting vulnerable people and staff in care homes. It’s an
open and shut case.
“Members of the
Senedd, particularly those who represent North Wales, should not turn a blind
eye to this injustice.
“When you look at
care homes in Denbighshire, they are almost without exception small and
medium-sized local businesses – family-run organisations like most of our
economy in North Wales.
“They provide
crucial services to their communities, often reflecting the local culture and
language , as well as providing vital support to families in the run up to
Christmas so the way they are being treated is truly shameful.
“Care homes in
Denbighshire are being denied the opportunity to have the free PPE that the
Welsh Labour Government want them to have and they’re being denied by a Labour
run county council.
“The public in
Denbighshire need to ask what the Dickens is going on because the Leader of the
council, Cllr McLellan, and his chief executive, Mr Boase, are behaving like latter
day Scrooges.
“How is it that
the older, vulnerable people in Denbighshire – people who have given so much to
this country – are demoted to the bottom of the pile, especially after all
we’ve been through with Covid. It’s totally unacceptable.
“If you live or
work in a care home in Denbighshire you will know that Covid has not gone away
even if most of the world thinks it has.
“This about the
Welsh Labour Government saying, after all the analysis by the Chief Medical
Officer and by all of the other experts, that Covid is still with us and it’s a
very nasty, infectious disease that still has the potential to kill,
particularly if you’re elderly and vulnerable.
“I don’t
understand why a Labour local authority is refusing to provide care homes in
the area with free PPE that’s been paid for by the Welsh Government.
“This is a total
betrayal of vulnerable people because these are the very people who should
matter most to us, particularly at this time of year.
“What you’re
seeing in Wales is a North-South divide. If you are old and vulnerable, you’re
very lucky if you live in South Wales while those in Denbighshire are the
unluckiest.
“These are
statutory services and the law clearly says that the fees paid by local
councils and health boards should reflect the true cost of care.
“But Denbighshire
is brazenly ignoring its legal obligations to these people and acting
unlawfully because the fees they pay come nowhere near the actual cost.
“It’s also
institutional prejudice against the private sector who actually enable the NHS
to function and if you haven’t got somewhere to discharge hospital patients the
whole system will come to a grinding halt.
“Domiciliary care
is also struggling financially because of irresponsibly low fees at a time when
recruiting and retaining staff is more difficult than it’s ever been.
“All of which
means that social care is in the eye of a perfect storm and Denbighshire have
chosen this moment to decide not to hand out or find a distribution point for
people to get the PPE that the Welsh Government has provided.
“It’s a total
disgrace and the wooden spoon has gone to an authority that has shown utter
contempt for older people who need to be in a care home along with those who
cared for them through the most hideous global pandemic.
“Denbighshire
County Council is the lowest of the low and shamefully deserving of this year’s
Care Forum Wales Wooden Spoon Award.”
A spokesperson for Denbighshire County
Council said: “In 2023/24,
Denbighshire County Council accepted the indicative care fee rates that were
agreed by the Regional Care Fees Group consisting of the 6 Local Authorities
and the Health Board. We also continued to offer providers the
opportunity to enter in to an ‘open book’ discussion with us if they could
evidence that our indicative fee did not cover their specific costs.
“Denbighshire
County Council took the difficult decision, back in July 2023, not to store and
distribute PPE to its care providers based on the fact that there was no
funding from Welsh Government to support this and unfortunately the financial
pressures that the Council is under as a local authority led to it having to
make this very difficult decision.
“The amount of PPE
the Council was delivering to care providers had reduced significantly over the
last 12 months and whilst recognising that many of its providers utilised the
service, others hadn’t. Without any additional Welsh Government funding
Denbighshire County Council was simply not in a position to continue renting a
storage unit and staffing it.
“Care providers
expressed to the Council that they were disappointed that Welsh Government was
unable to continue the funding for storage and onward distribution, but also
added their thanks for the support they have received over the last 3 years and
they took the opportunity to collect PPE from the amount the Council had left.
“We continue to be
committed to engaging and working with the sector as we have done for many
years.”
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