Long term care: Department of Health releases new guidelines to increase clarity
The Department of Health has released new guidance on long term care (LTC) designed to give older people greater freedom over where they live. The announcement comes after both the Liberal Democrat and the Conservative Parties outlined their plans to tackle the growing cost of LTC.
Making the announcement, Stephen Ladyman, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Community, said the new guidelines would provide elderly people relying on local authority assistance to finance their care home costs, with a greater choice of accommodation.
Under the new plans, people seeking a care home place will be entitled to choose the home they move into, as long as the accommodation meets their care requirements and does not exceed the 'usual cost' the council would be expected to pay to meet those needs.
If the resident insists on housing that exceeds the usual cost, the excess has to be paid by a third party or the residents themselves. In the event that the resident is unable to find suitable accommodation within the designated level, the council will have to cover the cost.
Rather than changing the basic rules regarding care home provision, the guidelines have been issued for the benefit of councils to clarify their obligations regarding housing the elderly. Yet despite the good intentions behind the move, the disparity between what local authorities are prepared to pay for care home costs and the actual cost of that care appears greater than ever.
"Ladyman has failed to solve the problem by passing the buck to local authorities. The only solution would have been for central Government to have set fair and regional market rates for care and provided cash-strapped councils with the funding they desperately need to pay for it," said Philip Spiers, director of the Nursing Home Fees Agency.
