Care sector 'at breaking point' amid concern over changes to funding
The chair of the Jersey Care Federation has expressed her "grave and urgent concerns" after a decision was made to increase care rates without consulting its members.
Cheryl Kenealy says the lack of discussion could have damaging consequences to the care sector, as it's unclear how the rise will be fairly applied.
On Monday (5 December) the Minister for Social Security and the Minister for Health and Social Services announced that weekly care rates would increase by 12% from 1 January 2023.
In an email to Deputies Karen Wilson, Elaine Millar and Assistant Minister Tom Binet, Ms Kenealy said she was "shocked" and "in some disbelief" that the ministers did not consult care givers on the "serious strategic matter".
Ms Kenealy said the relationship between the Federation and the government "is not reciprocal".
She said: "Our hope was that new ministers would be the start of positive change in terms of how we work with government, but at the very first hurdle, regarding the most serious issue facing our industry, we have an unclear, only partially distributed, un-consulted on message which goes only to a few care homes."
Her frustration is not only that the Federation was not consulted, but also that home care providers have been excluded from the update to the Long-Term Care scheme.
The government has revealed that it is undertaking a review of the home care sector.
The Minister for Health and Social Services, Deputy Karen Wilson, said: “The Jersey Care Commission’s recently published report highlighted the need for Government to do more to support the care sector - in recognition of the vital work it does for our community.
"The commissioning of a market review of the home care market is an essential step to ensure that the Island has a sustainable and equitable care market and we both look forward to working with the sector over the coming months.”
In response, Ms Kenealy challenged the implication that the government had been working with the care sector:
"We are extremely unhappy to see the media statement today which implies that we have endorsed this LTC Update, when in fact we had no prior knowledge of what it would contain and we have serious concerns about it’s content."
She outlined five of these concerns:
There is no back payment for the care home rate to September 2022, and businesses were not prepared for the increased rate.
The home care rate is described as experiencing an 'up to 12%' increase. This suggests that everyone will receive a different rate.
There is also no back payment for the home care rate, so many providers will be running at a loss.
The media statement referred to a 'weekly' and an 'hourly' rate. This makes it impossible to accurately apply.
Many clients are still not receiving payments due to delays on reviewing the current structuring of payments.
Ms Kenealy has requested a joint meeting between the government and the Jersey Care Federation to review the LTC update.