Laing and Bussion have published their annual survey of baseline fee rates for older local authority funded care home residents. Their survey found:

• Baseline fee rates will increase by 2.6% for the financial year 2009/2010, down from the last year's increase of 3%
• There is a large degree of variation between local authorities' baseline fee rates in different parts of the country.
• The numbers of residents placed in care homes by local authorities is likely to continue to decline for at least the next year.
• There is evidence of increasing numbers of local authorities using criteria in order to pay higher fees to well performing homes and lower fees to poorly performing ones.
• There is also evidence that local authorities are increasingly applying stricter eligibility critera for their assistance.

The baseline rate is the maximum amount a local authority would usually expect to pay to meet a care home resident's needs. The baseline rate may also be referred to as the local authorities usual cost. These amounts can be increased in certain circumstances. Laing and Buisson are a company that provide data, statistics, analysis and market intelligence on the UK health, community care and childcare sector. Further information about the survey, including how to buy it, is available through the following link. 

http://www.laingbuisson.co.uk/Portals/1/PressReleases/BaselineFees2009_PR.pdf