A legal duty to recover costs has meant that Bedford Borough Council has had to increase its fees and charges for Adult Social Care from January.
A report presented to the council’s Executive said the council is legally required by Central Government to ensure care costs are covered by fees where they are charged.
Bedford’s mayor, Dave Hodgson, told the council’s Executive yesterday (October 19) that the general approach to next year’s fees and charges was to freeze those that are “directly to residents” as a response to the Cost of Living Crisis.
“We have tried wherever possible to keep them as low as possible,” he said.
“For all types of businesses and organisations, it’s 10 per cent, we’d love to do it lower than that but we are unable to.
“For social care fees we should be looking for cost recovery, and we’ve actually capped the increases [this time]
“They would be much higher if we haven’t done this and they are still 12.5 per cent higher than we want them to be.
“But we thought we couldn’t take the whole increase to make them full cost recovery in one step,” he said.
The portfolio holder for adult services, councillor Dean Crofts (LibDems, Kingsbrook) said: “We had many meetings before deciding the 12.5 per cent fee for direct client payers.
“Looking back at last year’s papers, we had 2.5 per cent inflation, that was only 12 months ago.
“So with inflation being announced this morning at 10.1 per cent, that’s how much it’s changed in 12 months.
“That increase in inflation affects our care homes that we run,” he said.
Councillor Crofts added: “Nationally social care is in a mess, and with the reports in the press that the government is going to delay again potential reform it is [just] really disappointing.
“Our officers that are working really really hard this year to get these [government] reforms into place because they have insisted that we are ready for April next year,
“But they haven’t given us the money to get ready for April next year, they haven’t given us the money to recruit the social workers we need.
“We have to make decisions as a council now without knowing whether we’re going to get funding for these decisions, it is absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
“So in context, we wanted to cap the direct client payers [fees] for the residents of our borough.
“In our corporate plan, one of our key aims is supporting people.
“And that’s why we’ve capped the fees for direct payers and there was a bigger increase for authorities that will be using our social care homes next year.
“These are next year’s fees, remember, so we also had to take her into account inflation for next year as well as this year,” he said.
As well as agreeing to the proposed fees and charges for 2023, the Executive also delegated authority to directors (with consultation with portfolio holders) to vary charges, or to introduce new charges, during the course of the year where it is considered essential to do so.
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
