Community Care charges - correction to article

The article titled: ‘Council’s stark choice over care’ (in the paper) and ‘Councillors’ concerns over the increase to care service charges’ (online) highlighted an increase to Community Care charges in the Western Isles.

The report details came from the Comhairle’s Policy and Resources Committee meeting held last Wednesday, March 4th, which centred on a proposed 16 percent increase in charges, why this was felt necessary and councillors’ concerns about the increase.

In order to give a comprehensive view of how councillors come to these decisions the report carried extensive details from the meeting.

While the information from that meeting was reported correctly, the article did not make clear that the decision to support a 16 percent increase would have to be ratified at full Council, which was held on Wednesday evening.

In fact, on Wednesday evening, Councillors backed a different path on Community Care charges and instead of going for a 16 percent increase they supported a five percent increase per year for the next three years.

Unfortunately, due to human error, the report was not updated to include the new information from the meeting of the full Council on Wednesday evening and therefore the article did not give a full and accurate account of the matter.

We are sorry if this report caused any confusion or anxiety to our readership.

The Gazette has asked the Council to clarify what the decision of a five percent increase per year for the next three years will mean in total and what impact this will have on Council-run care home costs.