Plymouth City Council has agreed an increase in fees to the city’s adult social care providers to recognise the rising cost of providing care for vulnerable adults.
The Council is awarding an 8.5 per cent rise for care homes and supported living provision and up to an 11 per cent increase for domiciliary care providers, which help adults to live independently in their own homes.
The aim is to ensure providers receive a fair fee so they are able to fully cover their costs and provide good quality support for the people they look after.
The funding increase takes into account the costs involved in ensuring the city’s most vulnerable adults and older people are cared for safely. This includes the new National Living Wage, which is going from £9.50 to £10.42 per hour in April 2023. The Council is committed to ensuring that hard working care staff across Plymouth benefit from the increased funding with rises in their hourly rates.
Councillor John Mahony, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: “We have faced extremely tough decisions this year in order to balance the Council’s budgets and providing adult social care is the biggest financial commitment that we have. For every £100 we receive to fund services, £44 is spent on caring for adults who need our help.
“It’s vitally important that our city’s most vulnerable adults receive high quality, consistent care and the decision to increase funding will help care providers and their staff to manage the increasing costs they face, but also encourage people to join the care profession”.
There are a range of job opportunities across the sector and more details can be found at www.plymouth.gov.uk/workincare.