NEWS / IN FOCUS
Chocolate factory to care village Planning consent for a £60m redevelopment of the former Cadbury’s Factory in Keynsham has been obtained from Bath and North East Somerset Council by Freeman Retirement Living and Taylor Wimpey. The landmark buildings have been secured for development by Bristolbased charity, the St Monica Trust.
The Trust plans to convert the iconic red-brick buildings into a state-of-theart retirement community, featuring 120 assisted living apartments and a 105-bed care home offering a range of specialist care. The St Monica Trust is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year and the Keynsham site will be its fifth retirement village.
Greensleeves acquisition Greensleeves Homes Trust has acquired Gloucester House, a 54bed care home in Sevenoaks, Kent.
This acquisition brings the total number of care homes managed by the Trust to 18.
CMM Insight is CPD Accredited Attendance at CMM Insight conferences now counts towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD). CPD is a commitment to lifelong learning, a skill that is invaluable to all people across every segment of society. According to the Care Quality Commission, ‘CPD offers an assurance that the worker is maintaining and developing their skills and knowledge in order to support people who use services. ‘As well as being an indicator
of quality, there is a wide range of business benefits associated with the consistent achievement of relevant qualifications within the workforce… qualifications and CPD are of crucial importance to providers and managers alike.’ The CMM Insight Lancashire Care Conference is on 23rd September and the Berkshire Care Conference is on 15th October. CMM website subscribers receive a discount to CMM Insight events.
Immigration rules will cause nursing chaos The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has released new research revealing that changes to immigration rules will risk intensifying the severe shortage of nurses in the UK, compromising patient safety, as well as costing the health service millions. Under the new rules, people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) must be earning £35,000 or more before they are allowed to stay in the UK after six years. These rules will force many nurses to return to their home countries, leaving employers with nothing to show for the millions of pounds spent on recruiting them. The effects of the new rules will start being felt in 2017. The RCN has calculated that up to 3,365 nurses currently working in the UK will potentially be affected
and estimates that it will have cost the NHS alone £20.19m to recruit them – money which will have been wasted if they are forced to leave the UK. The figures for future years are even more worrying, particularly if overseas recruitment continues to rise as a result of a shortage of homegrown nurses and a crackdown on agency nurse spending. If international recruitment stays the same as it is now, by 2020 the number of nurses affected by the threshold will be 6,620, employed at a cost of £39.7m. If workforce pressures force a higher rate of international recruitment, the number of nurses affected could be 29,755, costing over £178.5m to recruit.
In focus Phase 2 of the Care Act delayed WHAT’S THE STORY?
In response to concerns expressed by the Local Government Association and many other stakeholders about the timetable for implementing the cap on care costs in April 2016 (Phase 2 of the Care Act), the Government has announced a decision to delay its implementation until April 2020.
WHY HAS THIS HAPPENED?
In March, the Government consulted on its proposals to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, chaired by Andrew Dilnot. The formal consultation closed in the preelection period and was not published. The announcement of the delay allows time to be taken to ensure that everyone is ready to introduce the new system and to look at what more can be done to support people with the costs of care. There were substantial implications for local authorities and a fear that implementing the cap in April 2016 could destabilise an already fragile care market.
WHAT ELSE DO WE KNOW?
The proposals to cap care costs and create a supporting private insurance market were expected to add £6bn to public sector spending over the next five years. But there are no indications the private insurance market will develop as expected. The Government had stated that it will continue with other efforts to support social care, in particular through the Better Care Fund, which will drive the integration of
social care and the NHS. Separately, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP has written to Dr Sarah Wollaston in her capacity as Chair of the Health Committee explaining the decision, emphasising the intention to use the delay to ensure that there is better planning and to work with the financial sector. The letter certainly appears to suggest that a lack of preparedness by local authorities was the main reason for the delay (although it also cites the impact of the new national living wage).
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The introduction of the cap on care costs system is probably the biggest reform to how care is paid for since 1948 and, therefore, it is vital to ensure that the new system is ready to work as intended from the first day. The National Audit Office had also highlighted particular concerns about the timetable for delivery. The Government statement announcing the delay also said, ‘We will work hard to use this additional time to ensure that everyone is ready to introduce the new system. It will also provide an opportunity for us to continue to work together to consider what else we might do to support people to prepare for later life, including the risk of needing care and support. For example, the new pension flexibilities that were introduced in April create a real opportunity for us to work with the financial sector to look at what new products may be developed, thereby creating even more choice.’ So, four and a half years to resolve the situation and satisfy a series of competing demands. CMM September 2015 15