B&NES Council's Cabinet meets on Wednesday, 10th October when it will learn that it has major problems with the system it uses to calculate personal care budgets. 60% of adults receiving care from the Council are covered by the scheme which B&NES created for itself. The B&NES current system is not fit for purpose. Assessed needs on the same number of need points can result in massive payment variations. People with around thirty points can receive payments varying from £6,000 to £25,000. Some preceiving £10,000 to fund their support per year have as few as twelve points, while others getting the same cash have 44
assessed need points. And who loses out? Mostly the elderly.
The Council is planning at the start of the next financial year to move to the national scheme known as RAS. Officials are telling Councillors this is necessary to achieve financial sustainability and meet the Council's efficiency (readers might interpret this to mean cost control) targets for adult social care. The council also believes it is necessary to achieve the central Government target of Personal Care Budgets to 100% of all adult social care users by next April. The change, officials claim, will address a range of equalities issues which have been identified in the current social care system.
Investigations by the Council have also revealed inconsistencies, both within and between social work teams, on the way personal care budgets have been calculated.
The current B&NES policy strongly favours focussing on critical risks, yet care plans have been offered by the Council on a holistic approach, contrary to policy.
The Council itself concedes there are major inconsistencies in resource allocation. 'Further analysis has shown that in general younger people tend to receive a higher level of resources than older people,' states the report. Does this amount to institutional age discrimination, even if unintended?
The same youth bias is indicated in figures comparing those with mental health issues under and over 65 years.
The new national RAS has to be calibrated locally to (the Council's words) ensure it does not exceed available budgets.
Redistributing the money on a more equitable basis will produce lots of winners and losers amongst the most vulnerable people in B&NES. That is going to be very difficult to handle.
The report implies that people losing out under the system be given up to a year to change to lower cost care packages. That will be hard for the Council to finance. Alternatively, the Council is considering witholding 20% of the allocated cash as a contingency.
The Council's initial belief is that making direct cash payments, rather than using the Council or Sirona to put together care packages, will allow those in need of care to manage with less Council cash.
B&NES also envisages service users being directed to their local community rather than to the Council. Is this a big new role for Parish Councils?