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STATES OF JERSEY
FUNDING FOR FAMILY NURSING AND HOME CARE SERVICES – PETITION (P.122/2016) – COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 13th March 2017 by the Minister for Health and Social Services
STATES GREFFE
2016 P.122 Com.
COMMENTS
The Minister for Health and Social Services will support the Proposition on the basis that he has already set in train the actions suggested.
Health and Social Services ("HSSD") is making available transitional funding in respect of existing (at 31st December 2016) home-care clients. This will facilitate a safe and smooth transition for those clients by containing rises in fees in 2017 for those who are not in receipt of Long-Term Care benefit or the proposed Income Support flexible personal care component.
It is helpful to remind Members of the context of these changes. The introduction of the Long-Term Care Scheme in 2014, which included funding of care provided by approved providers in people's homes, prompted a change in the market for home-care. There are now more than 20 approved providers of home-care on the Island. Given this increase in the number of providers, it is no longer appropriate or fair for HSSD to carry on subsidising a single home-care provider – Family Nursing and Home Care Services ("FNHC") – such that it can continue to charge well below market rates. Other providers receive no such subsidy and their clients already pay market rates.
FNHC has said that it will be setting up a not-for-profit home-care business, which will run alongside its commissioned services, including district nursing, rapid response and re-ablement, as well as children's nursing services. The arrangements FNHC puts in place regarding the terms and conditions of staff following the funding settlement are a matter for FNHC.
My Department has agreed to commission services from FNHC in 2017 to a broadly similar overall value as in 2016 by increasing funding of its commissioned services. This involves fully funding the district nursing, health visiting, rapid response, re-ablement, and children's services that FNHC provides. Together with a subsidy of £9 per hour for existing home-care clients (up to the point where they receive the Long- Term Care benefit flexible personal care component, or December 2017, whichever is sooner), FNHC will receive £6.937 million in 2017, compared to £7,036 million in 2016.
New Income Support flexible personal care component
To help those who may have difficulty in meeting the cost of higher care fees, HSSD is working with the Social Security Department on plans to introduce a new Income Support flexible personal care component. Claimants with care needs a little below that covered under the Long-Term Care (Jersey) Law 2012 may, in future, have assessed care costs in the range £145 to £359 a week, which are not fully covered by either Income Support or the Long-Term Care benefit. This new initiative will help bridge this funding gap for those on low incomes.
The assessment process for the new Income Support flexible personal care component will be based on the same assessment process that is required for packages approved under the existing Long-Term Care benefit. FNHC clients are being offered a care assessment as part of the transition to the new fee structure.
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P.122/2016 Com.
Any individual who requires financial assistance to support their assessed level of need will receive the support required, with the outcome of the care assessment allowing support through either Income Support or the existing Long-Term Care benefit. This will ensure that individuals access the right care package with the appropriate funding.
The first step in introducing the flexible care component involves an amendment to the Income Support (Jersey) Law 2007 which is being brought by the Minister for Social Security at this Sitting (see P.5/2017 – Draft Income Support (Amendment No. 2) (Jersey) Law 201-). The detail of the new component will be set out in Regulations that will be debated by the Assembly in the next few months.
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