Long Term Care Scheme hourly rates (FOI)

Request

A

Please advise the range of hourly rates agreed to be paid to home care providers by the Long-Term Care Department.

It has been made clear that different home care providers are being offered the opportunity to be paid are hourly rates ranging from £30 through to a much larger £36-£39. Being that all services provide the same level of service, are on equal standing with the Jersey Care Commission, employ from the same pool of staff and have very similar overheads (especially with the recent addition to once again purchase incredibly inflated PPE), there should be no difference in their value. This discretion also applies to fees being paid by LTC to care providers as a holding fee whilst care receivers are admitted to hospital or respite. Some care providers are being paid six weeks at the full rate and several more weeks at a reduced rate whilst others barely manage to charge for 48 hours and are expected to hold places indefinitely and cover overheads without payment.

B

Please provide the range in agreements in this respect also. These discretions have driven a drastic rise in salaries offered to staff, skewed by the few that can afford to. This means other, seemingly less valued care providers are unable to keep up with the others which is adding to the already very strained employment situation, and in some cases, driving providers out of business. As an increasingly needed service owing to our aging population, these services should be equally supported and encouraged. 

C

As there is such a range in opportunity for payment, please advise what metric is being or has been used to distinguish the value of each service and justifies the difference in value and payment opportunity. To many both inside and outside of the industry it unfortunately seems that public money is being distributed in a way that benefits certain people more than others, demonstrating the disgraceful culture of "the Jersey way" and our most vulnerable community members are the ones being most impacted due to the monopolising of home care services.

Response

A and B

The information requested is available on www.gov.je in response to a previous Freedom of Information request published on 7 February 2023. The only variation being that the average hourly rate for 2023 has moved from £30.27 to £30.46. The range of charges remains the same but within that range there has been some variation.

Long Term Care rates for Care Agencies 2021 to 2023 (FOI)

C

Information is also available in the above response. As is stated, different agencies provide different services, and these attract different rates. The Minister for Social Security has currently engaged an independent review of the care sector to ensure that the LTC provision remains sustainable, and this involves engaging all domiciliary providers to get their input to the process.

Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

Article applied

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.