Our existing home care contracts have just over two years to run although there are opportunities to end the contract earlier than that if we choose to.

Home care, particularly for older people, is an incredibly important key element of how we respond to social care need and it's a critical component of enabling people to remain in their own homes and communities for as long as possible.

The report summarises the current contractual arrangements, it notes that those current arrangements have generally worked reasonably well, and that the home care market nationally is a very fragile market, particularly in London, but we've managed to maintain capacity and maintain delivery at a local level. However, we are starting to see more and more challenges around that as the workforce issues become greater for providers due to the cost of living and cost of running a business.

The report talks about some of the ways in which we might want to think about a slightly different model for the future and identifies a number of key issues that that we will need to determine before we commence any commissioning process. This is an early opportunity for the Panel to be aware that we will be recommissioning these services at some point in the next two years and that may be something that the Panel would want to consider as we move through that process.

In response to questions,

In relation to the London living wage, the Council isn't yet a London living wage accredited organisation. There is a paper going to Cabinet this month that will seek agreement to become an accredited London living wage Council and that would mean that we could either choose to amend the existing contracts to pay the London living wage or we could do that as part of the recommissioning process. There is a significant financial impact, more than £1million a year, to implement the London living wage. 

We are in the process of undertaking a nationally required exercise in relation to determining the fair cost of care and the proposals around that will be going to Cabinet in October, prior to being submitted to the Department of Health and Social Care.

A Member requested an additional recommendation B be added that “it should be made a contractual requirement that care workers be paid, as a minimum, the London Living Wage”.

This was seconded and moved to a vote. There were four votes in favour and five against. Motion fell.

A Panel Member moved an amended version of the recommendation of “it should be made a contractual requirement that care workers be paid, as a minimum, the London Living Wage. This is subject to consideration of the forthcoming Cabinet paper and the full financial implications for the Council”.

This was seconded and moved to a vote. There were five votes in favour and four abstentions. Motion carried.

The Panel RESOLVED that “it should be made a contractual requirement that care workers be paid, as a minimum, the London Living Wage. This is subject to consideration of the forthcoming Cabinet paper and the full financial implications for the Council”