News

A breakthrough was reached this week in the funding row between private care home owners and local authorities in Scotland. It followed talks between Scottish Care, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) and the Scottish executive.

Scottish Care, which represents the majority of Scotland's private care homes, has agreed to suspend action against local authorities for three months until an independently-chaired working group of representatives of the three organisations reports on a new pricing framework in November.

The group had previously threatened to refuse council-funded residents unless the council agreed to a £50-a-week fee increase per resident.

Aberdeen-based members of the umbrella group had already begun refusing residents, and had been accused by Aberdeen Council of holding the residents and the council "to ransom" when they were unable to meet demands.

It had looked as if the crisis was to escalate with the news that similar action would be taken in north and south Lanarkshire unless local authority fees were increased within the next six months. However, Scottish Care has now agreed to lift the restrictions on these councils.

The breakthrough came after Cosla approached the Scottish executive about the funding dispute, and the executive agreed to commit an extra £17.5 million to the sector to be spread over the current and next financial year.

Once agreed, the new pricing framework, which will be backdated to 1 July 2001, will allow councils to negotiate fees on a council-by-council basis. Private care homes will then receive backdated payments.

The development breaks a three-month dispute which began with the rejection of Cosla's proposal for a weekly baseline rate of £346 per resident. Cosla and Scottish Care have both welcomed the progress made this week and are hopeful that a resolution will be reached by the working party.

Cosla's social work spokesperson Rita Miller said: "I am absolutely delighted with this breakthrough and Scottish Care's assurance that there will be no further action against councils and that all current action by their members will be lifted.

"Local negotiations will now be able to be concluded and this must be applauded," she added.

Describing the meeting's outcome as a victory, Scottish Care chairperson Joe Campbell said: "We think we were right to accept the offer on the table and suspend our action.

But he added: "The real work starts now with the tripartite talks and we are very confident that we can prove that the real costs of care are very much higher than many people had thought hitherto."