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Please click here to view the letter sent to Derbyshire County PCT by a Derbyshire Care Home Owner.

 To: All Care Homes in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire

Continuing Health Care –
Any Willing PCT Approved Provider (AWP)

IT IS MOST IMPORTANT THAT YOU READ THIS LETTER NOW

DECISIONS FROM THE PROVIDER MEETINGS   8 / 9 FEBRUARY 2011
Further to the letters send to all care homes on 24 January, the Care Associations held meetings in Nottingham on 8 February and in Grantham on 9 February 2011. The meetings were well attended by around 100 people representing a significant number of Homes in the three Counties. Thank you to all of those who were able to attend and for your contributions to the discussion and for your questions, which followed common themes.

AT THE MEETINGS – THE THREE ASSOCIATIONS WERE MANDATED:-

• Members consider the AWP process NOT to be fair and equitable in meeting resident needs and providing a realistic and justifiable fee.
• They recommend all homes NOT to take up the AWP offer but to continue to offer their normal quality service under existing contracts.
• They further mandate the executives of the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire Care Associations to negotiate with the PCT’s on their behalf to engage with the PCT’s to develop a structure that fairly meets the needs of residents, staff and businesses.

The key features of any future arrangements must take into account.

• Department of Health Contract, which is not yet finalised but is due to be issued in April/May 2011.
• The new service specifications
• Laing & Buisson (East Midlands survey November 2010) report, to use its recommended nursing fee as a minimum basis, plus additional costs as required that would cover a resident’s assessed care.
• A professional costing tool, e.g. the ARC model to assess and cost resident needs on a case by case basis.
• If Contracts are to be for more than 1 year, an inflation linking mechanism.in the review mechanism.

Your Associations have engaged an expert Solicitor, who specialises in this area of law, to review the legality of the current AWP offer, then to contact each PCT with a view to re-open negotiations with the five PCT’s in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.We expect this to happen in the next couple of weeks

At the meetings all attendees agreed that
A         They would write to the PCT’s they deal with, advising the PCT of their agreement to continue to offer quality CHC services for both existing and any future CHC residents, pending alternative contract arrangements being agreed with the Care Associations (This will place Care Homes in a similar situation as Homes in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, where the PCT’s withdrew from the AWP process at the end of 2010 and are not requiring Homes to contract through this AWP process.)
B         Where Homes have already registered through the Bravo system and wished to complete  the registration application, they will proceed but would NOT accept the pricing structure proposed through AWP. (Within the website you are specifically asked if you accept the pricing structure).
TO DATE, WE ARE NOT AWARE OF ANY HOME WHO HAS REGISTERED an interest  WITH AWP AND ACCEPTED THE PRICING SCHEDULE !

On 9 February Re: Source  contacted all Homes saying that the letter sent out by the Association on 24 January “…contains a number of factual inaccuracies”. We have asked Re: Source to explain but to date they will not reply. We believe we know but they are minor points.
 
IF YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO ATTEND ONE OF THE MEETINGS...

You are urgently urged to follow the actions agreed by Homes at the meetings, a polite but firm letter to your PCT and support to the Associations in their endeavours on behalf of all Homes.

We attach a copy of a letter sent by a Home to Derbyshire County PCT. This is crystal clear and embodies all the points of concern to Homes. We suggest that you write along similar lines to protect your ongoing relationship with your PCT but to make it clear that you cannot afford to subsidise CHC by accepting the AWP pricing structure.

Although we are not aware that any Home has signed up to AWP pricing you should be aware that you may log in again and withdraw your acceptance of pricing.

To assist you, the PCT contacts are as follows:-

IF ALL HOMES SUPPORT THIS ACTION WE WILL BE ABLE TO CONTINUE WITH CURRENT CONTRACTING / PRICING WITH OUR PCT’s UNTIL A FAIR AND EQUITABLE DEAL CAN BE NEGOTIATED ON YOUR AND YOUR RESIDENTS BEHALF

If you want more information or to talk to someone in more detail please either
Email: info@nottinghamshirecare.org
Phone/FAX/SMS 0115 8242322 (Voicemail service, requests should be answered in 24 hrs)

Or, contact the relevant Chairmen