13.03.17
Providers warn CQC fee hike will divert ‘scarce resources from frontline care’
Fees that health and adult social care providers pay in order to recover the costs of their regulation are set to rise once again, despite opposition from NHS providers to the policy, the CQC has revealed.
The fee hike from the regulator comes in order to cover cuts to its budget that will see funding reduce from £249m in 2015-16 down to £217m by 2019-20, and after the CQC made over £10m worth of efficiency savings in 2016-17.
The amount of money that providers are made to pay for their own regulation depends on the type of care that they offer, as well as how close their sector already is to meeting the chargeable cost of their regulation. It also represents a move towards a full-cost recovery funding approach to meet the requirements of the Treasury.
The full outlined fee changes are now:
- £163 increase for a care home with 26-30 residents to £4,375 a year
- £823 increase for a single-location community social care provider (such as a home-care agency) to £2,192 a year
- £65,375 increase for a NHS trust with an income of £125m to £225m to £202,239 a year
- £1,952 increase for a single-location GP practice with 5,001-10,000 patients to £4,526 a year
- £113 decrease for a single-location dental practice with four chairs to £837 a year
David Behan, chief executive of the CQC, said: “The public are entitled to health and care which is safe, effective, high-quality and compassionate.
“All providers of health and care must be registered in order to provide services. CQC provides the public with independent assurance that services are operating in their interests. The fee paid by providers is the charge for being registered with CQC.”
The announcement has sparked concern from health providers who argue that the fees go against responses to a consultation last year urging the CQC to not raise their fees.
Head of policy at NHS Providers, Amber Davenport commented: “We are concerned that while trusts remain under severe financial and demand pressures this increase in fees will divert scarce resources away from frontline care.
“When the CQC started its consultation, we warned that the proposals meant that some trusts could see their fees hiked by 50% - for some this represents an increase of £100,000.
“Despite clear concerns raised by the sector throughout the consultation period, this is the scenario we are now seeing. And this comes on the back of as much as a 75% hike in fees for some trusts in 2016-17.”
Davenport also warned that rises in costs to providers would have a “significant impact on social care providers”, adding: “These stresses will have a knock-on effect on NHS services already struggling to absorb the fee rises from the previous two years.
“The government and national bodies must consider how best to support trusts to pay for these increases.”
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