Council Moves Forward With Modernising Care For Older People
The Highland Council’s Housing and Social Work Committee today (Wednesday) agreed to proceed with plans to modernise care for older people in the areas.
The Committee agreed to close Corsee Home in Nairn due to the high cost of the service provision, the diminished demand for places in the home and the availability of alternative high standards of care locally.
At the same time, the Committee agreed to include Invernevis House, Fort William on the list of seven residential homes, which the Council believe may be more cost effectively run by the independent sector, freeing up more monies for improving and extending home care support. Interested parties will be invited to bid to run all the homes or one of the four area "lots".
These are:
A sub-committee of councillors is to be set up and provide further information on the tender process to a special meeting of the committee. Members are keen to maintain a timetable which will see tenders received by May/June next year and a contract or contracts awarded in August. Members recognise that delay could prolong the concern of residents and staff.
The Council currently spends £11 million per year on providing care for 330 residents in 21 care homes. At the same time, it buys services from the independent sector to provide residential care for 1,000 older people.
It costs the Council approximately £10,000 more per person per year to provide care in Council care homes as compared with the cost of purchasing that care from the independent sector.
Residential care is being reviewed because Care Commission standards require care providers to upgrade facilities, including the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Councillor Margaret Davidson, Chairman of the Housing and Social Work Committee said: "Members have made it very clear indeed that they want to retain the very best services for older people. This is entirely what the current exercise is about – securing the continuity of the highest quality of service, which offers the best value for money for every community care pound we spend.
"We want to take the tendering process with the independent sector to the next stage by issuing a detailed brief which will allow interested parties to make a bid for all or some of the homes. Once the bids are received officers will evaluate them and elected members will decide how best to proceed."
She said that when the Council carried out a review of care services, older people highlighted their wish to remain in their own homes. "Our ability to develop a modernised home care service has been thwarted because so much money is tied up in the provision of care homes."