Camden: Leonard Cheshire, the Living Wage and fees for residential care for younger adults

The request was successful.

Dear Camden Borough Council,

Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) claim that they would like to pay their carers the Living Wage but that they are not paid enough by social care funders such as yourself to do so.

I wonder if you could please tell me:

1) what representations Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) have made to the Council asking for increases in the fees paid for social care provided by them, in order to pay their carers the Living Wage.

2) Some idea as to the fees currently being paid by the Council to LCD for residential care, per resident per week. A range of fees or a set of anonymised figures of the fees perhaps. Other councils have opted to supply statistical median and range as they were concerned that individual fees could make it possible for people to have a guess at which residents had which fees.

3) Equivalent information for fees paid to other providers for residential care in care homes for people with physical impairments under the age of 65.

Thank you

Yours faithfully,

Doug Paulley

Stephen Carter, Camden Borough Council

1 Attachment

Camden Council - Information request (FOI/EIR) - Housing and adult social
care

Our reference: 9934391

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Dear Mr. Paulley

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request received on 30
January 2015

You requested information on:

Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) claim that they would like to pay their
carers the Living Wage but that they are not paid enough by social care
funders such as yourself to do so.

I wonder if you could please tell me:

1) what representations Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) have made to the
Council asking for increases in the fees paid for social care provided by
them, in order to pay their carers the Living Wage.

2) Some idea as to the fees currently being paid by the Council to LCD for
residential care, per resident per week. A range of fees or a set of
anonymised figures of the fees perhaps. Other councils have opted to
supply statistical median and range as they were concerned that individual
fees could make it possible for people to have a guess at which residents
had which fees.

3) Equivalent information for fees paid to other providers for residential
care in care homes for people with physical impairments under the age of
65.

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and will be answered within twenty working days.

If appropriate, the information may be provided in paper copy, normal font
size. If you require alternative formats, e.g. language, audio, large
print, etc. then please let me know.

For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions which may
prevent release of the information you have requested. There will be an
assessment and if any of the exemption categories apply then it will not
be released. You will be informed if this is the case.

If the information you request was obtained from or relates to a third
party then they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken on
whether or not to release the information to you.

In some cases there may a fee payable for the information requested. This
will be considered and you will be informed of the fee payable if this is
the case. In this event the fee must be paid before the information is
processed and released. The 20 day time limit for responses is put on hold
until receipt of the payment.

If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact me.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Carter
Information Access Officer (HASC)

Email: [email address]
Phone: 0207 974 4372

Dear Stephen Carter,

I wonder if you could please check the status of my request for information, and advise me as to a potential timescale for response? Responses should be sent "promptly" and in any case within 20 working days, so at the latest by 27 February 2015 but I haven't received it as yet.

I do appreciate the pressures on service providers, particularly during these times of enforced national stringency, but I would appreciate some idea as to when the information may be provided.

Yours sincerely,

Doug Paulley

Carter, Stephen, Camden Borough Council

Dear Mr Paulley

Apologies for the delay in our response. I have been in the Midlands owing to illness in the family. However, I have checked the case folder and can see nothing from the team. I have therefore reminded them that a response is due and that we are now in breach of the act/ As soon as they contact me I will update you with a timeframe

Best regards

Stephen Carter
Information & Records Management Officer

Telephone: 0207 974 4372

show quoted sections

Stephen Carter, Camden Borough Council

1 Attachment

Camden Council - Information request (FOI/EIR) - Housing and adult social
care

Our reference: 9934391

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. Paulley

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Further to your email, received on 30 January 2015, we are pleased to
enclose the requested information.

 

You requested
I wonder if you could please tell me:

1) what representations Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) have made to the
Council asking for increases in the fees paid for social care provided by
them, in order to pay their carers the Living Wage.
Response:Leonard Cheshire Disability were sent a letter and cost matrix to
complete on the 3^rd of Dec 2014. They were given till the 9^th of January
2015 to complete if they felt the current fee Camden pays did not
sufficiently cover their costs. However, LCD wrote back to inform Camden
they would not be seeking an inflationary uplift this year.
2) Some idea as to the fees currently being paid by the Council to LCD for
residential care, per resident per week. A range of fees or a set of
anonymised figures of the fees perhaps. Other councils have opted to
supply statistical median and range as they were concerned that individual
fees could make it possible for people to have a guess at which residents
had which fees.
Response: We have only one customer with LCD for whom we are paying circa
£1,300 to £1,400 a week.

3) Equivalent information for fees paid to other providers for residential
care in care homes for people with physical impairments under the age of
65.

Response: We are unable to give you this information as the fees vary and
are dependent on the needs of the individuals, size of home, staffing and
location. We do not have set fees for residential care homes for people
with physical impairments under the age of 65.

We hope that the information is useful to you.

Please note the information is still covered by copyright legislation. You
are not authorised to re-use this information for commercial or research
purposes as defined by the Re-Use of Public Sector Regulations 2005. If
you do wish to re-use this information please contact the Information
Access Team, Legal Services/ Second Floor, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street,
London WC1H 9JE, who will assess your request. 

If you are unhappy with any aspect of the way in that your request has
been processed then you have the right to issue a complaint. If you wish
to issue a complaint, please set out in writing your grounds of appeal
(within 2 months of this correspondence) and send it to: Access to
Information Team, Legal Services, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street, London,
WC1H 9LP and your complaint will be administered through our Internal
Review procedure.
 
If you are still not satisfied following the Internal Review, you have a
right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office. They can be
contacted at: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 01625 545 700
[1]www.ico.gov.uk

 
Yours sincerely

Stephen Carter
Information & Records Management Officer

Email: [email address]
Phone: 0207 974 4372
 
 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Dear Stephen Carter,

Thank you.

In regards to Q3, I acknowledge that a number of factors are taken into consideration in calculating fees charged to residential care service providers, not least the needs of the person whose care is commissioned; and also the difficulties in comparing between different providers.

I wonder if you could still provide the range of fees paid though, please. I still would like to have some idea of the fees paid by the council for residential care provided to people under the age of 65 with physical impairments.

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Doug Paulley

Carter, Stephen, Camden Borough Council

Dear Sir thank you for your email. I will forward it to the team who provided the data and reply to you asap

Best regards

Stephen Carter
Information & Records Management Officer

Telephone: 0207 974 4372

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Dear Carter, Stephen,

Thank you;

Have you any idea as to timescales as to when you will be able to provide a reply please?

Yours sincerely,

Doug Paulley

Carter, Stephen, Camden Borough Council

Dear Sir

Apologies for delay in response, I have been informed that Adult Social Care might hold the data you require. I emailed them to request this on 03/03 and I will chase them now to get you a time frame

regards

Stephen Carter
Information & Records Management Officer

Telephone: 0207 974 4372

show quoted sections

Carter, Stephen, Camden Borough Council

Dear Sir

Please see the data from our ASCIT team

The median, mean, max and min average weekly commitments for clients in residential care are as follows:

Mean: 826.80
Median: 787.91
Max: 2403.18
Min: 190.54

We hope that this helps

Best regards

Stephen Carter
Information & Records Management Officer

Telephone: 0207 974 4372

show quoted sections

Dear Carter, Stephen,

Thank you for the information.

Yours sincerely,

Doug Paulley