Consultation on the Social Care Charging Policy
‘Contributing to your care’ – Non-Residential Charging Policy Consultation
The City of Edinburgh Council and Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership (EHSCP) work together to provide a range of adult social care services to support:
- older people
- people with disabilities
- people with mental health needs
- people with substance issues
- carers
The support we provide includes care at home, day support, assisted transport, care homes and respite.
The demand for services and cost of providing them has increased but the funding we have is not increasing by the same amount. Therefore, we need to explore all potential options to change the way we provide services in order to reduce costs and increase income to the Council and EHSCP.
One area we are looking at making changes to is our policy on charging for non-residential adult social care services. Non-residential services are care and support that a person receives in their own home or in the community and does not include care homes. Currently, we apply charges for some of these services, such as Care at Home and telecare, while others are provided for free.
We are looking at increasing the amount we can ask people to contribute to the cost of their care, and at introducing new charges for some services which are free of charge at the moment. This would mean that some people could be charged more for services they receive, and some people could be charged for services they currently receive for free.
Any income raised by increasing charging will be used to deliver essential care and support to people who need it.
We are committed to ensuring that:
- people will not be charged more than they can afford to pay. We will work out what is affordable for each person using a financial assessment process.
- people will not be charged more than the cost of the service they receive
- we support people to maximise their income (in terms of allowances and benefits)
Why your views matter
It is important that we hear from people who may be affected and understand the impact that changes will have on them before deciding what changes to make.
The purpose of this consultation to ask people who use our non-residential services and people who care for them for their views. We also welcome views from staff, members of the public and third and independent sector partners.
How to tell us your views
You can answer as many or as few of the questions as you would like to.
We realise that some people may find the information in the survey hard to understand and there is an easy-read version available to complete instead for those who prefer it. Where possible, we have given examples to show how the change would work if it did happen.
We are also hosting focus groups with people who currently receive care and support from us, where people can tell us what they think about these changes. You can register your interest in attending a focus group by emailing Health&SocialCare.ChargingConsultation@edinburgh.gov.uk .
More information
If you need any more information or help with this consultation, please contact us on Health&SocialCare.ChargingConsultation@edinburgh.gov.uk