A Bath lawyer who specialises in providing legal advice to older clients has written to her former boss, Chancellor Philip Hammond, urging him to address the crisis in care funding in next week’s Budget.
Sarah Clarke, pictured, who is based in the Bath office of law firm Stone King, was previously a researcher in Mr Hammond’s parliamentary office when he was shadow health minister. 
She also works for Care Planning Services, which was set up three years ago by Stone King and Fidelius Independent Financial Advisers to provide joined-up legal and financial advice to help families plan care in later life.
In her letter to Mr Hammond, Mrs Clarke writes: “Our work includes advising local families and individuals on how care is funded, what an individual might expect to receive in terms of local authority funding and whether NHS continuing health care funding might be applicable in their circumstances.
“In my experience, there is a huge gap between what families and individuals think the State might provide and what in reality the state will fund.
“I would therefore urge you to clarify in your forthcoming Budget the government’s approach to funding long term care. There needs to be transparency around what the State can contribute towards caring for older people and what individuals and their families will be expected to pay.”
She said without confirming the government’s financial commitment to adult social care, families would remain unsure of how much they needed to save in order to care for their loved ones.
“The care system will remain chronically underfunded and as a result, the NHS will continue to suffer,” she said.
Mrs Clarke described the unacceptable situation where elderly patients who were ready to leave hospital were unable to because care services were not available, or could not be funded in the community.
She added: “Care home businesses and domiciliary care operators in the South West cannot provide adequate care services for the amount local authorities pay. At the moment, many care homes are relying on the unfair cross subsidies that have been allowed to prevail.
“This is where self-funding care residents pay substantially more than a fair rate in order to compensate for the unrealistically low fee rates provided by local authorities.”
Care Planning Services warned recently that privately-funded care and nursing home residents in the Bath area were having to subsidise residents in local authority care.
Mrs Clarke continued: “Unless something is done, care providers will have to make a choice, either go out of business or stop accepting local authority-funded placements – both of which would have devastating ramifications for those most needing care in our society.
“The care sector, those who work in it, those who run care businesses and individuals and families who rely on it deserve a clear statement from government to outline what its commitment is to funding long-term care. Without such a clarification, elderly vulnerable members of our society and their families will be left in the dark about how to plan for their long-term care.”
Bath Business News will report on next Wednesday’s Budget as it happens and carry full analysis of its impact on the national and local economy.
