Leading domiciliary care providers’ representative, the United Kingdom Homecare Association, reacts to the emergency budget of the new Government as follows. While recognising that a 2.5% increase in VAT will affect many businesses, this additional cost is a double-blow for the UK’s homecare providers. Regulated care services are currently exempt from VAT, meaning that although customers are [...]

Earl Howe: My Lords, the Care Quality Commission is revising its current quality rating system for adult social care and is working closely with the adult social care sector to develop a more user-friendly system that provides people using services with the information they need to make decisions about their care. That is absolutely in [...]

Government efforts to reduce the numbers of dementia patients entering hospital will include the introduction of a fixed-fee tariff for providers of community care. The policy was announced by health minister Earl Howe last week in response to a question in the House of Lords, although details of how it would work are yet to be [...]

Care homes across England will struggle to meet increases in the costs of care for older people, putting the number of beds at risk, figures published today reveal. Market experts Laing and Buisson said fee rates had risen by 0.5% in England, compared with a rise in costs of 2.1% for homes, as local authorities pass [...]

Senior NHS managers have warned that the health service is facing its “greatest ever challenge” in maintaining quality services during the funding squeeze. With the health service in England having been told to find up to £20bn of savings by 2014, Nigel Edwards, acting head of the NHS Confederation, warned there was “no silver bullet” [...]

A study covering seven industrialised countries has shown the UK’s health care system as being the most efficient. The study covered the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and America and looked at the key performance areas of quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and healthy lives. More than 27,000 patients and primary [...]

Government efforts to reduce the numbers of dementia patients entering hospital will include the introduction of a fixed-fee tariff for providers of community care. Health Minister – Earl Howe The policy was announced by health minister Earl Howe last week in response to a question in the House of Lords, although details of how it would [...]

As the Lib-Con coalition announces the launch of a commission on long-term adult care funding, Vern Pitt reminds the government of the gaps and a social worker, a service user and a care home manager call for action The funding of long-term care in England will be considered by a commission, reporting within a year, [...]

Can workforce development meet a care home residents’ future care needs? This study examines the best way of meeting the future needs of older care home residents. Exploring evidence from an in-depth study of three residential homes, it confirms that training care staff in basic clinical skills can enhance health and social care provision for [...]

Over 90% of care service providers met the deadline for registering with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in its first round of registrations, it has revealed. The finding follows concerns that providers would struggle to meet deadlines after the CQC admitted it had made administrative errors with the process that delayed some providers in receiving notification [...]