Care sector catering suffers from 'lack of direction'

That is the view of Lee Sheppard, divisional manager care homes at Apetito, who says this absence of leadership leaves care homes having to make difficult decisions about how they spend money without the support they need. It is a situation that has been been thrown into stark relief by the publicity around the recent Laing & Buisson research into council funding for care services in Sefton, LIverpool. He said: "National newspapers were quick to run the headline that some care homes are spending as little as £2.27 per resident, per day, on food. What didn't feature quite so prominently in their reporting is that Sefton Council makes a weekly contribution of £389 towards the care of an older person, while the true cost to care homes is at least £483. "That's a shortfall of almost £100 per week, per resident. A shocking figure but sadly, the reality facing UK care homes. What this means is that care homes have some very difficult decisions to make about how their money is spent. "Food – and nutrition specifically - doesn't have to be the casualty." He added that Labour spokesperson for Care and Older People, Liz Kendall, had recently said that elderly people in care homes need 'decent, nutritious food'. "But what does this mean in practice and how does a home deliver this with squeezed budgets? Add to the challenge that there is no clear definition for what is meant by 'nutritious' food. "While it can't be denied that there is a plethora of guidance available, the fact remains that it is only guidance, nothing more formal. "The Care Quality Commission signposts the National Association for Care Catering (NACC) as 'the primary source of guidance on nutritional care in social care settings' but in addition, there is an enormous body of very detailed research available from a variety of different sources. "This makes it incredibly difficult for care homes to decipher and really understand what is important. "The upshot is a lack of consensus and critically, a lack of direction for care homes to navigate their way through the various guidance and research available."