Derbyshire County Council set to increase care fee contributions during backlash over failed sale of care homes

Protesters At Derbyshire County Council'S County Hall Opposed To The Authority's Feared Closure Plans For Eight Care Homes.

Derbyshire County Council is expected to confirm its latest annual increase in its care fee contributions which it uses to help cover independent care home and home care agency costs for the county’s residents as it prepares to possibly close eight of its own care homes and sell a further one.

The Reform UK-controlled council continued with the former Conservative administration’s plans to sell eight of its care homes to address a multi-million pound budget deficit and adult social care costs before the planned sale of the homes to a single provider collapsed leaving them in danger of closure.

UNISON, opposition councillors and campaigners fear that more private care provision dependency could eventually lead to job losses and increases in funding and fees and it is not yet clear what the financial and human cost of the collapsed sale of the eight care homes will mean while the future sale of a ninth home, Ada Belfield, in Belper, is still being pursued.

As the council proposes an expected increase for 2026-27 in the care fees it uses to help fund the independent sector and support residents in care, some have questioned the scale of costs the council will face as it opts to transform adult social care with a move away from running its own care homes to supporting more dementia patients and helping more people to stay at home.

UNISON Derbyshire Branch Secretary, Martin Porter, said: “This [care fee rates] increase, though welcome, is essentially irrelevant as Derbyshire County Council has lost control of the market across most of the county.

“In some places, particularly in High Peak and Derbyshire Dales, there are no care home places that will accept Derbyshire County Council rates without a top up.

“For many people the only question is who will pay it, family members or the Derbyshire council taxpayer. This is another reason why we must keep as much of the care market as possible in local authority ownership.

“When the private sector gets a monopoly prices go up, quality goes down, or both. We have sadly already seen this in the market for care homes for looked after children.”

The council’s Cabinet will consider at a meeting on March 12th increasing the fees it pays to cover the costs for the people under its care in independent sector care homes, nursing homes and specialist care homes by 3.8 per cent as well as a rise of 3.7 per cent for the fees it pays providers to look after residents at home.

Care home fees are accumulated and paid for with funding from Government, locally raised revenue and contributions from those receiving care.

In calculating a potential increase in care home fees, the council says it has taken inflationary pressures into account including a rise in the National Living Wage by 4.1 per cent, rising costs, and changes in the rules on Statutory Sick Pay which means employers pay SSP from day one of any illness, instead of from day four.

Cabinet Member for Adult Care, Cllr Joss Barnes, said: “The council continues to face significant financial challenges, in both cost and demand pressures on its services, particularly in children’s services and adult care.

“We have a legal duty to ensure there is a sufficient and sustainable care home and home care market in Derbyshire while also balancing the books.”

Campaigners who have opposed the sale of Ada Belfield in a long-running campaign have raised concerns that privatisation will give care companies the freedom to raise fees to any level they choose and the campaigners claim that nearly 90per cent of private care home residents nationally require council supplements to pay for their accommodation.

Belper Together campaigners who are still urging the council not to sell Ada Belfield have said it is difficult for them to believe that it will be cheaper for the council to maintain people in private facilities.

Campaigner Di Houlden argued that with no public sector provision available at an affordable price she fears private operators have free rein to raise their fees to make profits unlike the council which is statutorily obliged to provide adult social care.

She has also said that in addition to finding places for residents and the funding for ever-increasing differences in fees between public and private provision, Derbyshire County Council may also have to pay for staff redundancies.

Labour, Green Party and Liberal Democrat opposition councillors previously argued the net savings of the former Tory administration’s decision to sell care homes were not stipulated in a relevant report and that no account was taken in the report of any possible increase in expenditure resulting from the decision.

They also argued the decision could have a detrimental effect on some of the most vulnerable older people and the changes did not take into account an increasingly older population and what they believe is an increasing demand for residential care.

Green Party county councillor, Gez Kinsella, has previously said he fears the failed sale of the eight care homes and their feared closure will mean residents will have to move out and there could be job losses and this could mean a distorted market and fees could be driven up elsewhere including at the Ada Belfield care home.

UNISON fears the council is now determined to close the eight care homes after their failed sale, despite strong public opposition and warnings from unions, families and campaigners about the impact on vulnerable residents and staff.

It has also argued the sale of care homes will not save money but will lead to the council having to pay more to meet new costs to care for the elderly.

But the union says it would prefer care homes to stay in public ownership but would accept a transfer to a private care owner if it could save a care home from closure.

UNISON, which represents full-time and part-time staff who provide public services in the public and private sectors, has welcomed support from a significant number of Labour MPs, including Chesterfield’s Toby Perkins, over shared concerns about the council’s adult social care plans.

Nine Labour MPs appealed to the former Conservative council administration in July, 2024, to reconsider its proposals to close the care homes after they claimed this could prove to be ‘devastating’ with ‘serious consequences’.

And four concerned Derbyshire Labour MPs have also backed UNISON’s campaign which has already involved a demonstration outside The Grange care home, in Eckington, and protests outside the council’s County Hall, in Matlock, with campaigners including Chesterfield and District Trade Union representatives.

MPs including NE Derbyshire’s Louise Sandher-Jones, Chesterfield’s Toby Perkins, Mid-Derbyshire’s Jonathan Davies, and South Derbyshire’s Samantha Niblett have also met with care home staff and distressed relatives of residents based at the eight care homes facing closure.

The former Conservative council based its original decision to sell the care homes on a need to refocus adult care services by supporting more dementia patients and helping more people to stay at home due to what it claimed was a decline in demand for residential care.

Despite the new Reform UK council administration taking control after the May election it echoed a similar strategy but the council confirmed in December that the planned sale of all the homes to one provider had collapsed.

UNISON fears the Reform UK-controlled council is now determined to close the eight care homes after their failed sale, despite strong public opposition and warnings from unions, families and campaigners about the impact on vulnerable residents and staff.

Even though the union says it would prefer care homes to stay in public ownership it would accept a transfer to a private care owner if it meant saving a care home from complete closure.

Cllr Barnes has said he has been ‘devastated’ over the failed sale and that care home residents are being supported with a dedicated case worker, families are being consulted and kept involved in the process, and that staff will also be supported with redeployment and employment processes.

The council has stated the focus of its in-house care homes is now based upon ‘wraparound care’ for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers including long-term specialist dementia care coupled with respite day and night breaks while working with health partners to increase the number of community support beds to help with timely discharges from hospital.

Cllr Barnes said: “Supporting older and disabled people is one of our highest priorities and we are absolutely committed to maintaining and developing quality residential and home care in Derbyshire.

“There’s a good quality care home market in the county with 78per cent rated Good or Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.

“We have a legal duty to ensure the care home and home care sector is sustainable and effective and we work closely with providers in the private, voluntary and independent sector to ensure it is.”

Cllr Barnes, has previously said current residents will remain at the Ada Belfield care home under any new provider at no additional cost and staff will not lose their jobs because they too will move forward with any new provider.

He has also argued that by selling and or leasing the care home the council is expected to make efficiency savings and reduce its overspend and that the council has changed the way it supports Derbyshire residents by creating specialist, efficient, effective and sustainable care to help more people stay in their own home for as long as they can.

Cllr Barnes has argued the council will stop operating some of its residential care homes including Ada Belfield to enable it to focus resources on short term, specialist care for older people and those with dementia and their carers, including integrated and flexible specialist dementia day services and respite.

He stated more people want to remain living independently in their own homes for as long as possible and that is why the council has remodelled its in-house care services to help more people to live at home by allowing them to come home from hospital and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.

Cllr Barnes has also claimed there is a need for more specialist care for the growing number of people with dementia so the council has refocused its care services on dementia-specialist care homes, creating wraparound care for those with dementia, including overnight respite and day breaks to help support carers.

He claims the changes being implemented to adult social care will help create a sustainable care service for the future.

The eight affected care homes which the former Conservative council agreed in November 2024 to stop operating and to sell and which now face closure include: The Grange, at Eckington; Thomas Colledge House, at Bolsover; New Bassett House, at Shirebrook; Briar Close, at Borrowash; Castle Court, at Swadlincote; Lacemaker Court, at Long Eaton; The Leys, at Ashbourne; and The Rowthorne, at Swanwick.

Labour Group Leader, Cllr Anne Clarke, said: “I am extremely concerned about the levels of care home provision across Derbyshire.

“The Cabinet papers note that the Market Position Statement highlights the challenges in High Peak especially, and would like more nursing provision in the area – this is after the council closed down Goyt Valley House care home [in 2022] and the Jubilee Day Centre in New Mills [in 2024].”

Cllr Clarke added that she understands the council would like to develop additional nursing provision in the High Peak and she questions whether the council now views its closure of the Goyt Valley House care home as a mistake.

Cllr Barnes said: “Every year we look at the fees we pay to independent sector providers and meet with representatives from care homes and home care agencies to discuss the business pressures they face and their costs.

“The council’s Cabinet agreed to transform its in-house care services to focus on providing wraparound care for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers alongside closer working with health partners to increase the number of community support beds to help with timely discharge from hospital.

“The decision follows a decline in demand for traditional residential care as people choose to stay in their homes for as long as possible. By the time they need to go into care they need more intensive support, such as nursing care, which we can’t legally provide.

“These changes are helping us create a sustainable care service for the future, able to help those who need us most.

“The health and wellbeing of our care home residents, their families, friends and our valued colleagues remains our top priority and we continue to do everything we can to support them to find suitable new homes.

“We are currently assessing offers we’ve received to lease Ada Belfield as a going concern which we’ll be considering in the coming weeks. The lease would cover the whole site, with the leaseholder required to sub-let the library back to the county council at no cost.

“It is hoped that current care staff would transfer as part of those arrangements and that current residents will not incur additional costs as a result of moving to the new provider.”