Social Care Fees and Charges - Budget 2026/27
Argyll and Bute Council · 19 May 2026
Back to Argyll and Bute HSCP Finance and Policy Committee — 19 May 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 Finance & Policy Committee Date of Meeting: 19 May 2026 Title of Report: Social Care Fees and Charges – Budget 2026/27 Presented by: James Gow, Head of Finance The Finance & Policy Committee is asked to: • Note that the Responder Service is to be maintained as a 24 hour, 7 day per week service. • Note the responder service is non-statutory and will cost £2.0m in 2026/27; • Endorse the introduction of a £5 per week charge for the responder service and note the IIA; • Note that the HSCP expects to implement the charge from September 2026 so there is sufficient time to implement and communicate the change and fee waiver process; • Endorse the increase in the social care weekly charging cap from £145 to £167 from 6 July 2026; and • Note that Argyll & Bute Council approved the above changes to fees and charges at Council on 29 April 2026. • Note that there remains some degree of risk in respect of this responder service charge. 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 The IJB approved its budget and savings plan for 2026/27 at its meeting held on the 25th March 2026. In response to the public engagement exercise, it was decided that the Responder Service should be maintained as a 24 hour service as communities indicated its value and the proposed saving was removed from the plan. However to support ongoing sustainability of a non statutory service it was agreed by the Integration Joint Board that the service in future would be part funded by the introduction of a new fee set at £5 per week. The purpose of this report is to seek formal approval from the IJB for the implementation of the charge, to be implemented in September 2026. 1.2 This report also seeks approval for an increase in the weekly fee cap and highlights that the IJB does not have delegated authority to set fees although it has included this new fee within its budget as approved by Argyll & Bute Council. The weekly fee cap has not consistently risen with the annual inflationary uplift and the proposed uplift falls below the rate had this been the case. 2. Recommendations 2.1 The Finance & Policy Committee is recommended to: • Note that the Responder Service is to be maintained as a 24 hour, 7 day per week service. • Note the responder service is non-statutory and will cost £2.0m in 2026/27; • Endorse the introduction of a £5 per week charge for the responder service and note the IIA;
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2 • Note that the HSCP expects to implement the charge from September 2026 so there is sufficient time to implement and communicate the change and fee waiver process; • Endorse the increase in the social care weekly charging cap from £145 to £167 from 6 July 2026; and • Note that Argyll & Bute Council approved the above changes to fees and charges at Council on 29 April 2026. • Note that there remains some degree of risk in respect of this responder service charge. 3. DETAIL OF REPORT 3.1 The budget for 2026/27 was approved by the IJB on 25th March 2026. As outlined in the budget paper, further governance processes are required in order to effect an increase in fees and charges for the responder service. Fees and Charges are not delegated to the IJB and therefore Council approval was required. 3.2 Responder Service Charge There is a day time and night time responder service operating in all 5 Argyll & Bute mainland operational areas (Kintyre, Mid Argyll, Oban & Lorn, Cowal and Helensburgh & Lomond), plus Bute. The Responder Service does not cover the other islands. It is not a statutory service and does not typically provide planned care, it is an emergency response for cases that fall short of requiring a blue light response. The cost of the service is approximately £2.0m in 2026/27. The process for accessing the service is via the telecare service in the first instance with calls being passed to the responder service where appropriate and / or where there is no named person / key holder available to provide help. As stated in the budget report, the intention is to implement a charge for access to the responder service at £5 per week. This is in addition to (but separate from) the charge for telecare. It will not normally be possible to access the responder service (currently provided by Carr Gomm under contract) unless clients have the telecare service in place. The charge for the telecare service from 1 April 2026 will be £7.25 per week. The charges are being kept separate as some clients may wish to access telecare only (eg if family members can respond) and telecare clients who live on the islands (apart from Bute) have no access to a responder service. Based on a charge of £5 per week and 2280 clients the maximum income available would be around £590k in a full year. This is not a realistic estimate of the income the HSCP will receive: 1. Some clients are likely to opt out as they have nominated key holders who can respond rather than using the responder service. 2. Some clients will be covered by a fee waiver. There are generally a small number of these clients, most of which have a terminal illness. 3. Some telecare clients are already in debt and increased charges are likely to add to debt. 4. There will be some requirement to increase administrative staffing to manage the increased workload associated with billing (1.5 FTE approx. @ £40-60k gross). A more realistic estimate is that the net financial benefit will be £300k in a full year. The budgeted saving for 2026/27 is £160k in 2026/27. The rationale for implementing a fee for the service includes:
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3 • Feedback from the budget engagement process strongly supported the maintenance of a 24 hour, 7 day per week responder service. • There was some support for increased charging in preference to service reduction. • The service is not statutory and therefore the HSCP can charge for it. • The suggested fee will cover no more than 25% of the full cost of the service, therefore any free personal care included in the service will be met from the publicly funded element of the contract. • The public feedback also highlighted the psychological importance of the availability of the service for both clients and their families, even if they do not use it often or at all. There is a separate exercise underway to re-define the contract and expectations associated with it as there is variation across the area. 3.3 Fee/Charge Waiver A significant number of people are currently living in poverty and are having to manage on-going cost of living pressures. This is currently recorded as a very high / red rated risk on the strategic risk register. Therefore, it is important that the new charge is supported by a waiver system. This is already currently applied to telecare clients and there are currently around 20 active approved waivers. These cases would automatically receive a waiver for this new charge. Reasons for approving a waiver are as follows: • Terminally ill • Financial hardship • Disability related costs • Risk of harm • Service redesign Upon the introduction of the new charge all users will be provided with details of the waiver process and will be encouraged to discuss this with their social work support should they feel that they are unable to pay or entitled to a waiver. Where individuals choose not to pay for the responder service but at a later date require help from the service in response to a call, charging will commence. It would not be desirable for more costly interventions to be deployed in cases where someone requires support from the responder service. An IIA for the charge is included as appendix 1. This has been considered and endorsed by the IJB as part of its budget approval process. 3.4 Weekly Social Care Cap There is also a cap on the weekly contributions individuals can be asked to make towards the cost of their full package of social care. The cap has historically been based upon 7 hours of homecare provision per week. There is a complex means testing process to establish the amount individuals can be asked to pay but, at present, this won’t exceed the cap, currently £145 per week. The cap was increased for 2026/27 as fees and charges were under review at the time the standard annual fee increase was approved. It has also been frozen several times in recent years and is no longer aligned to the 7 hours per week homecare rate. The cap was frozen during a period where the Scottish
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4 Government had a policy intention to end social care charging altogether, this didn’t progress. The table below outlines the recent history: It is proposed that for 2026/27 the weekly cap should be increased from £145 to £167. The rationale for this increase is that it covers the increase in the homecare rate plus £10 to reduce the gap that has been created in recent years between the cap and the cost of 7 hours of homecare (at our cheapest 2025/26 rate). It should be noted that the cap will apply to all social care clients in receipt of chargeable services, including those with lifelong conditions (LD, PD and MH Clients). The suggested cap is still going to be circa £35 per week below the 7 hours of homecare rate for 2026/27. A full 28 hour per week homecare package will typically cost between £840 and £1100 per week. At present there are around 17 clients who would move from the current cap to the new one (their care package is over £167 per week). There are a further 40 or so people who will pay more than they currently do but less than £167 as a result of this change. This change is not considered to be a policy change as it is just narrowing the gap between current rates and those set by the policy of setting a cap at the equivalent of 7 hours of care. The number of people impact is expected to increase slightly as financial assessments are reviewed and will take account of increasing costs and changes to client incomes including increases in pensions and benefits. Personal care is free and there are no proposed changes to processes. 3.5 Governance Argyll & Bute Council have not delegated responsibility for setting fees to the IJB. This creates an issue as the IJB have approved a savings programme which requires an increase in the fee for the responder service. If not approved alternative savings measures will require to be identified. Council legal have confirmed that it is not possible for the setting of fees and charges to be delegated to the HSCP per the Council’s constitution. The Council’s Scheme of Administration and Delegations reserve to the full Council the power to fix the levels of charges for any services. Changing this would require a change to the Council’s constitution. Council approved the changes outlined in this report on 29 April 2026. 4. RELEVANT DATA AND INDICATORS 4.1 The data provided in this report is largely drawn from the social work finance and management systems operated by the HSCP / Argyll & Bute Council. It also relies Year Home Care Rate £ Means Testing Cap £ Cap at 7 hours per week £ 2019/20 17.96 125 125.72 2020/21 18.48 125 129.36 2021/22 19.04 125 133.28 2022/23 21.48 125 150.36 2023/24 23.40 125 163.80 2024/25 25.62 125 179.34 2025/26 27.16 145 190.12 2026/27 28.93 TBC 167 202.51
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5 upon the budget engagement exercise as reported at the March 2026 IJB meeting along with the Integrated Impact Assessment (presented to the IJB in March). 5 CONTRIBUTION TO STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 5.1 The increase in fees and charges is necessary for the HSCP to deliver upon its savings programme and to operate within the approved budget. 6. GOVERNANCE IMPLICATIONS 6.1 Financial Impact – the increase will enable the HSCP to recover additional fees as a contribution to the cost of providing social care services. 6.2 Staff Governance – there is additional resourcing required to establish the new charge and administer it in the longer term. 6.3 Clinical Governance – some individuals who require the service may not wish to pay for it or apply for a waiver. 7. Professional Advisory 7.1 Professional advice has been provided throughout the development of the budget and the IIAs. 8. EQUALITY & DIVERSITY IMPLICATIONS 8.1 The proposal to implement a new charge will impact on people with protected characteristics, most clients in receipt of the responder service are older adults, they will be asked to contribute towards the cost of the service. The increase in the weekly cap will have implications for a small number of service users in receipt of chargeable services but is not a policy change. 9. GENERAL DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES COMPLIANCE 9.1 None. 10. RISK ASSESSMENT 10.1 The proposed fees outlined in this report aim to address the financial risk facing the IJB including delivery of its budget and savings programme in 2026/27. Other risks include: • A higher number of people than expected refuse to pay for the responder service or cannot afford to. • Use of the responder service is reduced as a consequence of fewer clients. This could result in harm or more expensive interventions being required. • A higher number of clients access the service but build up significant debts. • There is a small risk of challenge as the responder service, on occasion, is used for the provision of social care out of hours which could be described as personal care which is free to service users. This risk is mitigated as personal care is not the main reason for the service provision and the new charge will fund less than 25% of the service cost. The service is primarily to provide out of hours, unplanned assistance.
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6 The increase is the weekly social care charging cap will also result in additional costs and will add, to some extent, to the risk associated with the cost of living situation and poverty. 11. PUBLIC & USER INVOLVEMENT & ENGAGEMENT 11.1 The introduction of a new charge to help maintain the responder service is supported by the budget engagement which took place in February and March 2026. 12. CONCLUSIONS 12.1 This report seeks formal approval for the new charge for the responder service at £5 per week. It also requests Argyll & Bute Council increase the weekly cap on Social Work / Social Care fees to accommodate this and the inflationary increase on the cost of providing care. The report also notes that the IJB is responsible for approving its own budget but does not have delegated authority for setting fees. 13. DIRECTIONS Directions required to Council, NHS Board or both. Directions to: tick No Directions required √ Argyll & Bute Council NHS Highland Health Board Argyll & Bute Council and NHS Highland Health Board 14. PREVIOUS REVIEW OF THE REPORT Meeting Title of report Date Output (if relevant) Argyll & Bute Council Social Care Fees and Charges 29 April 2026 Approved Finance & Policy Committee Social Care Fees and Charges 19 May 2026 TBC AUTHOR NAME: James Gow, Head of Finance / John Dreghorn, project Manager EMAIL: james.gow@argyll-bute.gov.uk / john.dreghorn@nhs.scot Appendix 1 - Integrated Impact Assessment