Fees paid by care sector

20

WQ.124/2019

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR TREASURY AND RESOURCES

BY DEPUTY M.R. HIGGINS OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 26th FEBRUARY 2019

Question

Further to the Minister's response to Written Question 35/2019, will she explain –

1. what fees are currently paid by the care sector;
2. what she meant by "a widening of the fee regime" in relation to new regulation of care legislation; and
3. whether it is intended to increase fees or introduce new ones and, if so, what the proposed timescale is for such measures?

Answer

The fees currently paid by care providers regulated under the Regulation of Care (Jersey) Law 2014 (the "2014 Law") are set out in Regulation of Care (Fees) (Jersey) Order 2018. These fees currently apply to providers of care home, home care and adults' day care centre services.

It is not intended to increase the fees set out in Regulation of Care (Fees) (Jersey) Order. However, at the point at which others services (for example, social work, mental health services and hospital) are regulated under the 2014 Law, those services will also be required to pay the relevant fee as prescribed by Order. All services will be notified in advance.

As set out in P126/2018, it is intended to review the registration, regulation and inspections functions set in other laws that relate to care providers (see Table 1 below). This review may result in amendments to those laws and/or changes in the fees currently charged. As it stands at the moment, the fees charged under each of those pieces of legislation varies in an inconsistent manner, for example, medication practitioners are only charged an initial application fee, whereas piercing and tattooing practitioners are charged an annual fee.

With this in mind, the reference to "a widening of the fee regime" in Question 35/2019 referred to the review of the fees set out in Table 1 in order to ensure consistency across the board, and any review and its outcomes will involve engagement with providers.

Table 1