Contributions policy consultation

Overview

The council’s Health and Social Care Committee agreed on16th April 2014 to seek the views of service users and carers on the proposed introduction and impact of a new Adult Social Care Contributions Policy.

From April 2014 all local authorities in Scotland are required to provide Self Directed Support to residents with eligible social care needs. This offers individuals more choice and control over their how care and support needs are met.

All current services users with eligible social care needs will be supported by their social worker or community care officer to move to Self Directed Support on review of their support plan.

Moray Council’s current charging policy for all non-residential social care services does not fit with the new way of working under Self Directed Support, however, and it is proposed to move to a new financial contributions policy which aims to ensure everyone is treated fairly and in the same way.

All current service users or their representative were sent a questionnaire asking what they thought about the change and how it might affect them.

A series of 10 drop-in information events were held around Moray to provide more information on Self Directed Support, the financial assessment and the contributions policy.

Feedback

We asked:

We wanted to know what services people uses, if they have had a financial assessment and if they currently pay a charge.We asked if people understood why the council was proposing to bring in a contributions policy and if they agreed everyone should have a financial assessment to fairly work out what they can reasonably afford to contribute towards their care and support needs.

We asked how people felt they would be impacted by a financial contribution policy, if there was anything they thought could be put in place to reduce the impact of the policy and invited any further comments.

You said:

People said they found some of the information confusing and the majority were unclear why the policy was being proposed. The prospect of any kind of change was a concern.

There was uncertainty among people to how the current charging policy impacts on them, with many unclear as to whether they are being charged for services and whether they have had a financial assessment.

There was clear support for the financial assessment process on the grounds of fairness. People acknowledged that the policy would have an impact (positive and negative) but pointed out they will not know the full extent until they go through the financial assessment process.

We did:

We organised two further information events to give people another opportunity to talk to staff and have their questions answered.We considered that any further written information would be produced by working closely with service users and carers.

We agreed that the policy would be phased in, applying to new people when they come in to Community Care and are eligible for services and at annual review for people who already use care and support services.

The proposed policy was considered at meetings of the Health and Social Care Committee on 5th November 2014 and the Policy and Resources Committee on 2nd December 2014 and approved for implementation

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