Major care home providers refuse to sign contract with council in fees row

Northumberland County Council is in dispute with a local group of care homes over fee levels, affecting more than half its care places.

Trade association Care North East - Northumberland has said that the fees the council offers would make its members’ businesses unsustainable.

A Northumberland spokesperson said: “The majority of local care home providers have signed a contract with the council, but Care North East - Northumberland represent the larger national and regional care home companies, so the providers which are have not signed the contract operate rather over half of the care homes, and 62% of the beds.”

Northumberland said care fee levels had increased in the past five years at most councils in the region with the result that “Northumberland has moved from being among the highest payers in the region to being one of the lowest. 

“However there are authorities elsewhere in the country paying substantially lower fees than Northumberland, and we have asked the national providers represented on CNEN to explain to us how they can operate in those local authority areas if the fees in Northumberland are inadequate. So far they have not done so.” 

The council said it was discussing with CNEN evidence which was “purporting to demonstrate that fee levels are inadequate. 

“We remain open to the possibility that further evidence might provide grounds for us to recommend a further increase to fees.”

Northumberland said that since contracts with CNEN members ended on 1 April it had “not so far had significant difficulty in arranging placements for people who need to move into care home accommodation”.

In April this year Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care, secured permission to proceed with judicial review proceedings against Essex County Council challenging the fee rates it pays to independent care home providers.