Care homes get a raw deal in Sussex - report

East Sussex, Brighton and West Sussex social services are not paying anything like the weekly rate for an older person's nursing home care, recommended in an independent report just published.

Research by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation suggests a fair price for local authorities to pay for nursing home care would be around 459 a week.

This takes account of average wages paid to care staff across the country as well as all the other costs involved in running a nursing home, including land and property prices.

The Registered Nursing Care Home Association, which represents nearly 1,500 homes across the Uk, says the three authorities' social services departments are some way off the mark when it comes to paying a fair price.

East Sussex paid only around 357 a week, 100 below the Foundation's recommended rate.

Frank Ursell, chief executive officer of the RNHA, said both government and local authorities needed to wake up to the economic realities of looking after highly dependent older people.

He is calling for the government to increase financial support for social care, but to ring-fence any extra money so local authorities cannot divert the funds to other budgets.

It wants all social services departments to match the foundation "fair price" as quickly as possible in order to prevent yet more nursing homes from joining those which have been forced to close over recent years and to enable homes to meet new care standards laid down by the government.

"The question is : "Do local authorities here want to meet their social responsibilities? If they take no action, they could eventually find themselves at the bottom of the national league table when it comes to spending money on older people. What an indictment that would be on civic leaders."

A spokesman for East Sussex County Council