Appeal to Ladyman in bed fees rumpus

The National Care Homes Association is to complain to community
care minister Stephen Ladyman over the National Care Standards
Commission’s refusal to refund bed fees to care home owners who
sell their businesses.

The owners pay annual fees of £60 a bed for homes with four
beds or more. If a home is sold six months after the fees were
paid, the former owner is not entitled to a 50 per cent refund and
the new owners have to pay a full year’s fees.

Sheila Scott, chief executive of the NCHA, said the NCSC policy was
unlikely to stand up if it went to judicial review, and pledged to
write to Ladyman to raise the issue.

But the NCSC said its policy was “clear and consistent”, and that
providers “have been informed of this in registration material
since the commission was established”.