Gwynedd ‘break away’ from other North Wales councils on care fees – PR firm reports on council meeting

Wrexham Council have been accused of acting ‘unlawfully’ over care fee levels, as Gwynedd Council may have stepped away from a fee standard across North Wales.

Gwynedd Council’s Cabinet met yesterday to debate a Residential and Nursing Fees report that would ‘increase the Gwynedd residential and nursing standard fee for the 2022/23 financial year’.

Two options were put forward to them with the second preferred by Officers as “…there is a sufficient supply of residential placements, but a lack of nursing and dementia placements. The recommendation therefore is to increase all fees but to prioritise the nursing and dementia fees for a higher increase in order to sustain the market.”

Councillors in Gwynedd were told of the wider context of North Wales, “We will be stepping away from the north Wales standard fees. Considering that each area’s fees is now different in any case, and that councils adapt the results of the model on a local level, there is a question mark over the future of the regional process in any case. Some other councils in north Wales have already noted that they are reviewing their fees as a result of the increase in costs and the pressures across the sector.”

At the time of writing there is no webcast replay of the meeting viewable, nor can we find any BBC reports – direct or via the outsourced ‘BBC Local Democracy Service’, nor any other local media. For what could be a first, we are using an account of a North Wales council meeting via a PR firm hired by Care Forum Wales (CFW) to detail what apparently occurred and the outcome of the vote.

They say:

Until now Gwynedd have worked closely with other North Wales councils when calculating the fees for care homes and nursing homes.

But at a Cabinet meeting councillors voted in favour of “stepping away from the north Wales standard fees”.

They have set aside an extra £1.6 million to pay for the hikes in fees for the different types of social care.

As a result, the weekly fee per person for Residential EMI care in Gwynedd has increased by 19.8 per cent to £780 while the rate for Nursing EMI care has gone up by 24.7 per cent to £900.

That means funding for Nursing EMI in Gwynedd is now £5,124 more a year per person than for exactly the same level of care across the Menai Suspension bridge in Anglesey.

The coverage the fee issue has had across the limited media in North Wales was also put to councillors in the ‘background’ to the report, which said: “There has been some attention and criticism in the media to north Wales fee levels in comparison with fees which are set by local authorities in the south. Gwynedd fee levels and those of the remainder of the councils in the north are currently amongst the lowest in Wales”. It appears many such articles were sourced from the PR firm that was helpfully covering the meeting yesterday – in effect being the ‘media’ for North Wales.

In a press release Mary Wimbury, the chief executive of CFW, said of the apparent decision by Gwynedd Council: “We are grateful to the councillors in Gwynedd for acknowledging their responsibilities and adopting a more realistic approach to setting fee levels to reflect the real costs of providing care.

“This decision is hugely significant because it hopefully signals the end of the iniquitous North South divide in social care.

“Apart from Gwynedd, all the other North Wales councils are lagging way behind in terms of fees, compared to authorities in South East Wales.

“The fact that Gwynedd have essentially broken away from the other local authorities in North Wales ramps up the pressure on others to finally do the right thing instead of treating the most vulnerable people in society like second class citizens.

“Anglesey, Denbighshire, Wrexham and Flintshire are all still paying rock bottom fees. The fees are so low that providers are having to refuse placements of potential residents because they don’t cover anywhere near the true costs of care. Wrexham and Conwy have promised in year reviews of their fees.

“As a consequence those councils are effectively imposing a stealth tax on decent, hard-working families because care homes have been forced to charge top up fees to remain financially viable.

“Even so, we have seen a raft of care home closures in recent times because the social care sector is incredibly fragile as was pointed out by the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, even before the pandemic began.”

Ms Wimbury added: “There is now nowhere to hide for all the other county councils in North Wales.

“Gwynedd Council have demonstrated that where there’s a will there’s a way.

“They have blown a massive hole in the fee setting cartel that was keeping the funding for social care artificially and unreasonably low.

“It is incumbent on the likes of Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire, Wrexham and Flintshire to take a close look at themselves in the mirror.

“All we are asking for is fair and sustainable funding so that we can provide the best possible care for the most frail and vulnerable people in Wales.

“Gwynedd have recognised their legal responsibilities and it now up to the other authorities to stop acting unlawfully and set fees that reflect the true cost of care.”

We put the question locally to Wrexham Council, and asked if they were acting unlawfully as claimed by Ms Wimbury.

Alwyn Jones, Chief Officer Social Care told us, “Wrexham Council is committed to supporting the care sector across the county.”

He added, “Care fees are set yearly using the North Wales Care Fees tool”.

Top pic: Gwynedd Council’s HQ.