Cumbria Fairer Contributions Consultation

The Department of Health has recently produced new guidance to councils on how they should charge people for non-residential adult social care services. The guidance requires that the new way of charging is implemented from April 2010. The guidance is called 'Fairer Contributions: Calculating an Individual's Contribution to their Personal Budget'.

The new system is intended to be fairer for all people, in that the contributions they make will better reflect the actual care being given. The system is also closely related to the introduction of personal budgets, this is where people receiving care have a greater say in how they tailor their care package to their needs.

Cumbria County Council is working closely with voluntary organisations, service user and carer groups to make these changes and ensure they are introduced with necessary support and guidance for service users. 

Individuals will find out precisely how these changes will affect them, after their annual financial reassessment in April 2010.

There is no option to not implement these changes.  However, the council carried out a three month consultation process to hear the views of service users and carers on how the changes should be implemented.  The consultation sought views on:

1. How best to inform people of this change and how it will affect service users.

2. What transitional support ought to be put in place to help people whose contributions have changed.  

3. What information we should publish and include on our website.

We asked many local organsations to help us and held three public meetings in January 2010.  The report of the consultation process can be downloaded using the link on the right.

The fairer contributions consultation process was distinct from consultation on the level of charges, which was part of the Cumbria County Council budget consultation.