Care homes get a raw deal in Sussex - report

East Sussex, Brighton and West Sussex social services are not paying anything like the weekly rate for an older person's nursing home care, recommended in an independent report just published.

Research by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation suggests a fair price for local authorities to pay for nursing home care would be around 459 a week.

This takes account of average wages paid to care staff across the country as well as all the other costs involved in running a nursing home, including land and property prices.

The Registered Nursing Care Home Association, which represents nearly 1,500 homes across the Uk, says the three authorities' social services departments are some way off the mark when it comes to paying a fair price.

East Sussex paid only around 357 a week, 100 below the Foundation's recommended rate.

Frank Ursell, chief executive officer of the RNHA, said both government and local authorities needed to wake up to the economic realities of looking after highly dependent older people.

He is calling for the government to increase financial support for social care, but to ring-fence any extra money so local authorities cannot divert the funds to other budgets.

It wants all social services departments to match the foundation "fair price" as quickly as possible in order to prevent yet more nursing homes from joining those which have been forced to close over recent years and to enable homes to meet new care standards laid down by the government.

"The question is : "Do local authorities here want to meet their social responsibilities? If they take no action, they could eventually find themselves at the bottom of the national league table when it comes to spending money on older people. What an indictment that would be on civic leaders."

A spokesman for East Sussex County Council said fees for nursing care homes had risen between 7.5 and 8.5 per cent since April 2001.

Currently nursing homes can expect from 352 a week for an elderly person with mental health or substance misuse problems, rising to 397 for a person with a physical disability arising before reaching pensionable age. The average fee is between 357 and 358.

Residential home fees run from 239 for a physically disabled person over pensionable age, to 322 for a person physically disabled before pensionable age.

Cllr Keith Glazier, lead cabinet member for social services, said: "We acknowledge the Roundtree findings what has been said and we join with it in calling on the Government to increase financial support for social care.

"Locally we accept we started from a very low base but have, in the last 12 months, raised fees by eight per cent. We are working hard with the independent care sector to narrow the gap still further."

Tony Andrews, chairman of the East Sussex Care Homes Association, said: "There is nothing new in this report. East Sussex County Council has already given us eight per cent more this year, but it needs to be 40 per cent and only the Government can supply this kind of money.

"It needs to open up its eyes and realise that if it doesn't do something about the situation soon there is not going to be any care homes left at all."