Consultation on Proposed Changes to the Non-Residential Social Services Contributions Policy ONLINE CONSULTATION QUESTIONNAIRE

Transcription

1 Consultation on Proposed Changes to the Non-Residential Social Services Contributions Policy ONLINE CONSULTATION QUESTIONNAIRE

2 Introduction The Council are reviewing our policy about the contributions adults are asked to pay towards the cost of their non-residential care and support. Recent changes to social policy such as the Care Act mean that it is now is a good time to do this. The Council want to make the policy clearer to understand, and make sure our policy is in line with national guidelines. This means considering changes to make sure our policy is up to date. The Council needs to explore opportunities to make more income so that Adult Care Services are available for people in the future. Since 2010, the funding received from central government has reduced and the Council has had to make some 148m of savings. Reductions in government funding are expected to continue, whilst pressures on our services will continue to rise. The Council want as many people as possible to take part in the consultation about the changes which are being considered. However you are affected, whether you currently receive care and support or care for someone else or either of these may apply to you in the future, your views will be important in shaping the future policy. These proposals are being put out for public consultation before the Council makes any decisions. You are invited to complete this questionnaire giving your views and comments on the proposed changes to the Contributions Policy under consideration. A brief description of each proposal is provided below. However you are strongly advised to refer to the full consultation document and/or Easy Read version as you complete the questionnaire. These two documents contain a full explanation of the Council's reasons for each proposal and their impacts. They also set out the alternatives the Council have considered and the reasons why the Council are not recommending them. These alternatives in particular may help you in deciding how you wish to respond Completed questionnaires will be analysed and the information provided will be reported to Council members as they consider making decisions about what changes to the policy, if any, should be made. Completed questionnaires should be returned to Contributions Consultation, Freepost RTEC-ZSGE-HSYK, Adult Care, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln, LN1 1YL. V Page 2 of 17

3 Data Protection Your responses will be kept completely confidential and kept in accordance with the Data Protection Act Our aim is to not be intrusive and the Council won't ask irrelevant or unnecessary questions. Before you give us your feedback can you please let us know if you have any help filling in this questionnaire? No, I did it myself Yes, I had help from my carer / support worker Yes, I had help from family or friend Completed on behalf of service user V Page 3 of 17

4 Proposal 1: To introduce a 72 hour notice period for cancelling care and to explain the way that refunds are calculated for cancelled or missed care. The current policy says where care is cancelled by the service user within the required notice period, they will not be charged. The current policy does not give a notice period. Proposal 1a) The Council is considering setting a notice period of 72 hours for service users cancelling care who wish to have their contribution reviewed for any cancelled care. This is so that the Council can give notice to providers of cancelled care and not have to pay them for that care. (This does not apply where care is cancelled in the event of emergency admission to hospital.) Question 1a) Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to set a notice period of 72 hours for cancelled care? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below; Agree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Do you have any comments or alternative suggestions? Please enter any comments or alternatives in the box below: V Page 4 of 17

5 Proposal 1b) The Council is proposing a new way of calculating when refunds are due for cancelled care. The same would apply where an arranged care visit is missed by the care provider, although the notice period would not apply in this situation. It is proposed that service users can ask to have their contributions reviewed every year, if they so wish, to see if any of their contributions should be refunded as a result of cancelled care or care missed by the provider. Where an annual contributions review is requested, the cost of care for the whole year will be compared with the total annual contribution paid by the service user. If the contributions paid by the service user are more than the annual cost of the services they received, a refund of the difference will be due. Question 1b) Do you agree or disagree with how the Council are proposing to calculate refunds where contribution refunds are due for cancelled or missed care? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below; Agree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Do you have any comments or alternative suggestions you would like to make? Please enter any comments or alternatives in the box below: V Page 5 of 17

6 Proposal 2: To change the rules covering the date when people begin to pay for their care The current policy says that contributions start from the date that the Council notifies the service user of the amount they are expected to pay. This means that contributions start sooner for people who send financial assessment information more quickly than for people who take longer to do this. The Council believes this is unfair and would like to introduce a fixed timescale so that contributions start at the same time for everyone. The Council is proposing to introduce a new rule so that everyone assessed to pay a contribution will be charged from 14 days after the financial assessment form is sent out. Question 2. Do you agree or disagree with the proposal that everyone will be charged from 14 days after the financial assessment form is sent out.? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below; Agree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Do you have any comments or alternative suggestions? Please enter any comments or alternatives in the box below: V Page 6 of 17

7 Proposal 3: To assess contributions against the full cost of services received and remove the current 250 maximum weekly charge The current policy provides extra protection to service users' incomes by only taking into account 90% of the cost of services and by having a maximum charge of 250 per week. The Council believes that assessing all service users against 100% of the actual cost of services and charging the full amount is fair. The Council has great difficulty in being able to put enough money in the budget for Adult Care and this means that it has to look very carefully at whether it can carry on helping service users to pay less, when this is an extra expense on the Council's budget. The Council is considering changing this so that: a) contributions are assessed against the full cost of services received by the service user and b) the current 250 maximum weekly charge is removed so there is no maximum limit Question 3a) Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to assess contributions against the full cost of services? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below; Agree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Do you have any comments or alternative suggestions? Please enter any comments or alternatives in the box below: V Page 7 of 17

8 Question 3b) Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to remove the maximum charge limit and have no maximum charge? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below; Agree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Do you have any comments or alternative suggestions? Please enter any comments or alternatives in the box below: V Page 8 of 17

9 Proposal 4: To set allowances for Disability Related Expenses through banded levels linked to eligibility for disability benefits (for new customers only) The current policy says that everyone who has particular regular expenses that they have to pay because of their disability, will have their need for an allowance for these expenses assessed individually. For new customers the Council is considering setting allowances for Disability Related Expenses through banded levels linked to the disability benefits people receive. This means that everyone who can show that they have particular regular expenses that they have to pay because of their disability, would be given an allowance according to the disability benefits they receive as follows; Level 1 at 10 per week for people in receipt of low level Disability Living Allowance Level 2 at 15 per week for people in receipt of middle rate Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment or Low Attendance Allowance Level 3 at 25 per week for people in receipt of highest rate Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment or High Attendance Allowance Individual assessment could still be requested. Agreeing DRE allowances by way of individual assessment takes extra time in the assessment and there is a risk that people s needs are assessed differently by different assessors. The levels set at 10, 15 and 25 have been identified by looking at the rates set by other councils and comparing the range of the DRE allowances currently assessed in Lincolnshire and how they relate to entitlement to different benefits. The Council thinks this should only apply to new customers because existing customers have had their DREs individually assessed already. Since they can request individual assessments under the new proposed policy it is logical to treat them as already having requested the assessments they already have. V Page 9 of 17

10 Question 4a. Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to award DRE allowances through banded levels linked to disability benefits for new customers? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below; Agree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Do you have any comments or alternative suggestions? Please enter any comments or alternatives in the box below: V Page 10 of 17

11 Question 4b. Do you agree or disagree with the proposed amounts set for the three bands? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below; Agree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Do you have any comments or alternative suggestions? Please enter any comments or alternatives in the box below: V Page 11 of 17

12 Proposal 5: To introduce an arrangement fee to cover the cost of arranging non-residential services for people who have savings and/or assets over the capital limits (i.e. self-funders) The Care Act gives a new duty to councils to help people, called self-funders, to arrange their non-residential services if they are asked to do so. Self-funders are people who have savings and/or capital, over the capital limits set by government which is 23,250 for 2015/16. The Care Act states that councils can charge an arrangement fee for providing this service, limited to the cost actually incurred in arranging the service. The current policy does not say anything about this as the Council has not had the power to charge for this support in the past. The Council is consulting about the principle of charging an arrangement fee to cover the cost of providing care management support for self-funders. It is proposed that an amount for the arrangement fee will not be set until the Council has had the experience of costing the service when the costs involved are better known. Question 5. Do you agree or disagree in principle with the proposal to charge self-funders an arrangement fee to cover the cost of providing this service? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below; Agree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Do you have any comments or alternative suggestions? Please enter any comments or alternatives in the box below: V Page 12 of 17

13 Equality Impact Questions Do you feel you will be adversely affected by the proposals? Please show by entering X in one of the boxes below: Yes No Don't know If you answered 'Yes' above please state which proposals and how you believe you would be affected by these proposals. V Page 13 of 17

14 Do you have things that you wanted to say and didn't have room for or is there anything else you would just like to say to us about the proposals? If so, please continue here: V Page 14 of 17

15 Equality Monitoring Introduction The Equality Act 2010 places organisations under a duty to ascertain how certain people with the following 'protected characteristics' are impacted by organisations activity and how steps may be taken to mitigate or eliminate such impact: Age Disability Race Sex (male / female) Data Protection Your responses will be kept completely confidential and kept in accordance with the Data Protection Act The Council's aim is to not be intrusive and we won't ask irrelevant or unnecessary questions. It is your choice to answer the following questions. If you do choose to answer them, this will help us to provide appropriate services to all sections of communities in Lincolnshire. V Page 15 of 17

16 Monitoring ethnicity This information will enable us to gain an overview of our community profile, benchmark our self against local and national statistics and identify any potential areas for improvement. This information will also help us in developing targeted initiatives Ethnic Background What is your ethnic group? Choose ONE section from A to F then tick the appropriate box to indicate your ethnic background a) White English/Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish/UK Irish Gypsy or Irish Traveller Eastern European d) Black African Caribbean Any other Black/African/Caribbean background Please state - Any other White background Please state - b) Mixed Mixed ethnic background c) Asian Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Chinese Any other Asian background Please state e) Other ethnic group Arab Any other ethnic group Please state - f) Prefer not to state Gender Gender Male Female V Page 16 of 17

17 Age Age Prefer not to state Disability Disability Do you consider yourself to be disabled? Physical Disability Learning Disability Mental Health Sensory Impaired Prefer not to state Post Code Please provide your post code to ensure that the Council have engaged with the communities that may be affected by this engagement exercise Post Code For Feedback purposes Name and Address or (only required if you want to receive feedback around the consultation) V Page 17 of 17