Chamwood Court Care Home is a small business at risk of closing down due to the massive cuts to local authority budgets across the country and increase in the national minimum wage.

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Seven of its eight residents are funded by the Sheffield Council and their payment has not increased for 10 years.

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Nesar Rafiq, the director of Chamwood Court Care Home, said that, over the last six years, the minimum wage has increased almost £2 an hour, and the payments had no increase. He added: “One of our residents was funded for £475 a week in 2012. In 2019 that rate is still the same.”

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Last year, Mr Rafiq tried to ask for an increase and Phil Holmes, Council Director of Adult Services, told him that there would be none and if he wished he could close the business.

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Mr Rafiq said: “We have been informed we will not get any more money for the residents, not even one penny.” He added: “We want to pay our staff £10 a week. These people are in care for us, in care for society, and should they lose their job?”

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Sheffield Council has blamed the British government for these issues in social care services, because of its continuous cuts to local authorities.

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Even with austerity and the continuous cuts in the Revenue Support Grant, Councillor Chris Peace, the Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care, said that the Sheffield Council will continue to invest in social care.

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She added: “We had to make policy choices which the government did not have the guts to make. These not only deal with the effect of the cuts they have made over the last few years and the increase in demand, but they also incite the integration of health in social care.”

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Councillor Jayne Dunn, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, added: “Even without the funding we need, we are still prioritising social care and that echo and sentiment runs through the Council’s 2019/20 Revenue Budget.”

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