Hertfordshire County Council

Hertfordshire County Council

Hertfordshire County Council commission Valuing Care to support their residential Fair Cost of Care Exercise. Valuing Care are supporting Hertfordshire County Council with their residential cost of care submission. They are providing a seamless service that encompasses the collection of provider data and template checking. 

The support includes:

    • Helping Providers to complete the templates including 1-1 telephone support
    • Managing the data collection process 
    • Checking provider templates for accuracy and consistency
    • Identification of fair cost of care rates from the survey results

All of the data collected will use the IESE tool for residential and nursing. This will ensure a consistent approach can be taken regionally and help providers concentrate on one reporting format. The survey collection started in June 2022 and is well on its way towards completion. The target date is the end of August 2022.

To read more about how Valuing Care supported Hertfordshire County Council, please click here 

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North Tyneside Council

North Tyneside Council

Middlesbrough Council contacted Valuing Care in April 2022 to discuss supporting them in completing their domiciliary fair cost of care (FCOC) exercise. They were aware of other councils in the area following similar approaches and wanted to gain consistency in a key market for them. North Tyneside Council contacted Valuing Care in May 2022 to discuss supporting them in completing their domiciliary fair cost of care (FCOC) exercise.

Valuing Care were assigned the following tasks:  

    •  Managing the data collection process 
    • Checking provider templates for accuracy and consistency
    • Identification of fair cost of care rates from the survey results
    • Creation of Valuing Care model benchmark rates to match the geographical area
    • Final reporting and data loading

In addition to the domiciliary review, North Tyneside Council were keen to understand more fully the cost of Extra Care providers in their area. With that in mind they commissioned Valuing Care to complete an additional project that will start after the main FCOC exercise is complete.

To read more about how Valuing Care supported North Tyneside Council, please click here

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Middlesbrough Council

Middlesbrough Council

Middlesbrough Council contacted Valuing Care in April 2022 to discuss supporting them in completing their domiciliary fair cost of care (FCOC) exercise. They were aware of other councils in the area following similar approaches and wanted to gain consistency in a key market for them.

Valuing Care were assigned the following tasks:  

    • Understanding the current cost structure through surveying the market
    • Managing the data collection process 
    • Checking provider templates for accuracy and consistency
    • Identification of fair cost of care rates from the survey results
    • Creation of Valuing Care model benchmark rates to match the geographical area
    • Final reporting and data loading

All of the data collected used the LGA toolkit so that a common approach could be taken regionally on reporting and data recording.

Read more on how Valuing Care are supporting Middlesbrough Council here.

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Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council

Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council

Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council Choose Valuing Care to help them better understand their residential Care Costs. With the DHSC October deadline fast approaching, BCP Council recognised they needed to better understand their core provider costs in their local market. Looking across their services they concentrated on three key areas:

These three areas are: 

    • Older People’s Residential and Nursing Care
    • Older People’s Domiciliary Care
    • Learning Disabilities Residential, both in and out of the Local Authority area

 

Following recommendations from neighbouring councils they chose Valuing Care to support them across the projects. The company recommended taking a different approach in the two service areas to ensure the better match the particular cost structures of their core markets.

Read more on how Valuing Care are supporting Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council here.

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Newham Council Work with Valuing Care to Help Them Meet the Conditions of the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund

Newham Council Work with Valuing Care to Help Them Meet the Conditions of the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund

The DHSC published guidance in December 2021 that set out conditions to access funding. 

Among others, these conditions included the need to:  
  • Conduct a cost of care exercise to determine the sustainable rates and identify how close they are to it
  • Engage with local providers to improve data on operational costs and number of self-funders to better understand the impact of reform on the local market (particularly the 65+ residential care market, but also additional pressures to domiciliary care)
  • Strengthen capacity to plan for, and execute, greater market oversight (as a result of increased section 18(3) commissioning) and improved market management to ensure markets are well positioned to deliver on our reform ambitions

Newham were keen to meet the requirements and were also aware that it had been some while since they had conducted a full local cost of care survey.

Following discussions, Valuing Care set out a bespoke project plan that took the DHSC guidance and combined this with Newham Council’s local needs. In addition, given the timescales, they were keen to bring in a company with experience based on previously completed projects of this nature.

The cost of care project will include the following client groups:

  • Market Surveys & Analysis – A robust and systematic approach to engage care providers to collect underlying cost data and validate reported costs. Sound statistical techniques to identify usual the costs of care within a locality.
  • Benchmarking – Valuing Care have used the collective intelligence from previous surveys to construct a range of cost models that calculate fair prices for services, reflecting local staffing costs and property values. This facilitates benchmarking of the local survey results, providing commissioners with increased confidence in what constitutes reasonable cost.
  • Reporting – Clear and accessible reporting that provides Commissioners with clear recommendations on what constitutes a fair price for services within a particular area. Development of pricing models which calculate a fair price for bespoke packages of care.
In addition, the information collected will provide the Council with a dataset and methodology ready for setting the metered Care Cap rate. This comprehensive approach will be crucial for any scrutiny the new Care Cap rate will receive ready for its implementation in October 2023.  Finally, all data collected with be uploaded into Valuing Care’s cost modelling tools. The software will ensure their commissioners have the skills and information to manage the market during the initial 3-year funding timescales set out in the DHSC guidance.  

The project will leave Newham Council with all cases recorded on a central system with a detailed breakdown of their costs. Going forward commissioners will be able to:

  • Underlying cost details of their targeted residential packages
  • Staff rotas relating to each individual package 
  • Comparing this information to Valuing Care’s national and local models to provide a detailed breakdown of cost per package
  • Storing all of this information into their own environment within the Purchaser software so all information can be captured once and reused over future years 
  • Using Valuing Care’s software and models to manage inflation requests from providers

The project will leave Newham Council with all cases recorded on a central system with detailed breakdown of their costs. Going forward commissioners will be able to:

  • Continuously compare current costs to Valuing Care’s model costs
  • Uplift cases by inflation in a targeted manner ensure value for money and sustainability
  • Conduct their own surveys which include data collection and uploading tools
  • Conduct scenario modelling for key variable such as regional Living Wage indexes
  • For Working Age Adults, review individual cases with the greatest variance, either by Provider, profitability, or sustainability

To view a video of the Purchaser and Commissioner software see below. 

If you are interested in knowing more about the Cost of Care review project or Valuing Care’s software please contact us.

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24th January 2022 | Ray Hart
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The Upcoming Care Cap – Why What Councils Pay for Residential Care is so Important to the Metered Rate.

The Upcoming Care Cap – Why What Councils Pay for Residental Care is so Important to the Metered Rate

The introduction of the Care Cap is less than 2 years away and there have been many headlines regarding its implementation and the different financial ramifications this has for Councils and self-funding residents.

However, one aspect that may have been overlooked so far is the rate that Councils currently pay for residential care and how that is used to calculate the metered rate. If the Care Cap guidance become reality, then an example of a weekly contribution for a full self-funder will be as follows:

Council fee rate – £600
Daily living charge – (£200)
Amount counted towards the Cap – £400

Pretty easy so far……

However, what happens if a self-funder cannot or does not want to purchase a care home placement at £600 per week and instead chooses a different home at a more expensive rate? Then, in that scenario the additional fee above the Council rate does not count and those additional funds needs to come out of their pocket.

Again, this is fair if someone is buying a place in a home regardless of the choice available around them at the Council’s rate. Unfortunately, across a large swathe of the country, self-funders cannot buy a placement near them at the Council’s rate. Indeed, in many places the Councils themselves are having trouble buying at that rate too.

In that scenario the amount that counts towards the Care Cap looks much less fair and could well be open to a deluge of complaints by self-funders across the country. These are the same self-funders that were promised that they would meet the Care Cap when they spend £86,000.

With the Daily Living Charge being set nationally it is likely that the complaints would concentrate on the Council Residential Fee Rate putting the current Council process under scrutiny. 

How is the Council Standard Residential Fee Rate Set?

Most local authorities will have a standard residential fee rate that they will purchasing older people’s residential care already in place. This rate is usually set yearly and ratified at Cabinet meeting each February. In addition, a nursing fee rate is set that is normally the standard rate plus the Free Nursing Care element 

The rate could have been set based on a historical rate that has been uprated for inflation or following a cost of care exercise completed sometime ago. Either way, with the local residential fee rate being so crucial for the Care Cap, this figure needs to be right, transparent and defendable.  

If this local rate is not reviewed thoroughly it may open up the Council to challenge on whether the process was transparent, reasonable and timely. Given the immediacy of the Care Cap implementation, challenges could centre on 2 key aspects

1) Is the residential fee rate truly reflective of the cost of supply in the local market?

A lot has changed within the last few years regarding the cost of supplying care. There have been increases to staff rates, additional regulation, higher utility bills and much more. In many places in the country these costs have affected the sustainability of some providers and this needs to be reflected in the latest fee rate and not rely on a inflation estimate.

To get to an accurate figure It is highly likely that a survey of care home costs will be required. This is the best way to ensure that any local variations are taken into account and fully represented in the local rate. However when conducting a survey it is important that any costs reported are realistic and are truly reflective of the actual costs of providing care. Any template returns need to be scrutinised by experienced professionals with a sound statistical technique applied to any results.

In addition once a survey and the resulting calculations are complete independent benchmark analysis needs to be undertaken to ensure that the figures are within an overall acceptable range. This may be a comparison with neighbouring local authorities. 

2) Can any additional services or facilities by Care Homes over the standard rate be justified?

Even after the standard fee rate is set accurately it is likely that there will be a good proportion of the market’s fees will be greater than the Council rate. If a care home is still above the set rate how can this be set out in a transparent and equitable manner?

Under the Care Act the Council will have the duty to support self funders through this purchasing process and any differences may lead to confusion and anxiety. Council commissioners can help smooth this part of the process by working with private care homes to set out a menu of additional service prices over and above the standard fee rate. These could include:

  • Quantified premiums for larger rooms
  • Staffing levels over and above the standard requirements rates which have been built up through over 50 area wide surveys over the last decade
  • Additional Costs for non-standard facilities
  • Additional Costs for services not normally provided in ‘standard residential care’

Again this could be done as part of the initial survey or call off framework contracts for self-funders could be developed that enable new placements to be bought in a fair and transparent manner. At the moment this is an area that Councils have left to the market. The new duties of the Care Act no longer give commissioners that choice.

The Time to Start on The Care Cap Implementation is Now

When you consider the confusion of self-funders entering the market, the additional workload and the possibility of a large level of complaints arising in 2023, setting up a pre-emptive system to aid self-funders through the Care Cap process is crucial. Valuing Care can help with both key questions above and are currently working with their customers to implement solutions.

Contact us to find out more on what Valuing Care has to offer in regard to the Care Cap.

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28th January 2022 | Ray Hart
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Dorset Council Choose Valuing Care to help them better understand their residential Care Costs.

Dorset Council Choose Valuing Care to help them better understand their residential Care Costs.

With so many underlying pressures in the care market, Dorset Council recognised that they needed to tackle the situation through a detailed review of all their commissioned residential costs.

Looking across the market they concentrated on two key areas: 

  • Older People’s Residential and Nursing Care 
  • Learning Disabilities Residential, both in and out of the County

As market leaders in the field, they chose Valuing Care to work on both projects, taking a different tact in the two areas to ensure they got the most value added from the work.

Creating a Sustainable Learning Disabilities Cost Model using Valuing Care’s Purchaser Software

The Council wanted to create a sustainable framework for all their residential placements, one that could be used for both new placements and reviewing existing placements. In addition, with so many placements spread across the southwest they want to be sure that any model they used could be flexed to meet geographical variations. Based on this, they asked Valuing Care to collect information on all their current residential packages and load them onto their Purchaser software to create a Dorset specific cost model. 

By proceeding in this way Dorset Council created a long lasting and maintainable record that they could easily update going forward. 

Working in partnership with Valuing Care they are collecting:

  • Underlying cost details of their targeted residential packages
  • Staff rotas relating to each individual package 
  • Comparing this information to Valuing Care’s national and local models to provide a detailed breakdown of cost per package
  • Storing all of this information into their own environment within the Purchaser software so all information can be captured once and reused over future years 
  • Using Valuing Care’s software and models to manage inflation requests from providers

The project will leave Dorset Council with all cases recorded on a central system with detailed breakdown of their costs. Going forward commissioners will be able to:

  • Continuously compare current costs to Valuing Care’s model costs
  • Uplift cases by inflation in a targeted manner ensure value for money and sustainability
  • Review cases with the greatest variance, either by Provider, profitability or sustainability

Older People’s Residential and Nursing Cost of Care Review

Valuing Care conducting a full survey of all care homes for older people within the Dorset Council area. The company met with provider representatives to explain the process and answer any initial question they had. 

Following this they have sent their tried and tested templates to all providers and are currently collecting provider returns. Survey requests were due at the middle of December 2021 with the Council expecting the final report by the end of January 2022. 

 

This report will be used as the basis for setting fee rates for 2022/23 and will include:

  • Aggregated Provider survey returns analysed for reasonableness and reported using Median rate analysis
  • A comprehensive benchmarking exercise against Valuing Care’s independent model rates which have been built up through over 50 area wide surveys over the last decade

In addition, the information collected will provide the Council with a dataset and methodology ready for setting the metered Care Cap rate. This comprehensive approach will be crucial for any scrutiny the new Care Cap rate will receive ready for it’s implementation in October 2023.

If you are interested in knowing more about the Cost of Care review project or Valuing Care’s Purchaser software please contact us using the button below. 

Contact Us

If you are interested in knowing more about the project or Valuing Care’s Purchaser software please contact here. 

 

24th January 2022 | Ray Hart
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Southend City Council

Southend City Council

Southend City Council contacted Valuing Care to discuss project support capacity in completing their Fair Cost of Care requirements for the DHSC. For this exercise Valuing Care are supporting the survey collection exercise in both residential and domiciliary care.

The support includes: 

• Understanding the current cost structure through surveying the market  
• Managing the data collection process 

Read more on what Valuing Care are supporting Southend City Council with and what is planned here.

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Central Bedfordshire work with Valuing Care to better understand their Care Costs.

Central Bedfordshire work with Valuing Care to better understand their Care Costs

Over time, Central Bedfordshire have worked with Valuing Care on a number of care costs projects to provide them strategic oversight and transparency of costs in their care market.

In 2021 they again called on the company to work on 2 key projects:

  • Cost of Care Review for Older People’s Residential and Nursing Care
  • Learning Disability Placement Review using Valuing Care’s Purchaser Software

Cost of Care Review

Valuing Care conducting a cost review of care homes for older people within the Central Bedfordshire area. The Council were keen to separate out the additional cost resulting from the COVID pandemic. To facilitate this, Valuing Care requested two years of cost data from care home providers, with aim of calculating the financial impact on operating costs. Valuing Care helped in the consultation with providers and the survey received a good response rate.

The Council are now in receipt of the report ready for budget setting in 2021/22. In addition, the information provided will help the Council with the strategic overview needed to implement a successful Care Cap framework.

 

Learning Disabilities Spot Placement Review Using Valuing Care’s Purchaser Software

In 2017 the partnership conducted an in-area review of the current Learning Disability provision and found that the rates paid by the Council were broadly in line with their market costs. In 2021, the Council wanted to go further and create a sustainable framework for all their spot residential placements. Based on this, they asked Valuing Care to collect information from a list of targeted providers.

Rather than just collect the information in Excel, Central Bedfordshire asked Valuing Care to load all the cases onto the company’s Purchaser software so that they had a long lasting and maintainable record going forward.

 

Working in partnership with Valuing Care they are collecting:

  • Underlying cost details of their targeted residential packages
  • Staff rotas relating to each individual package 
  • Comparing this information to Valuing Care’s national and local models to provide a detailed breakdown of cost per package
  • Storing all of this information into their own environment within the Purchaser software so all information can be captured once and reused over future years 
  • Using Valuing Care’s software and models to manage inflation requests from providers

The project will leave Central Bedfordshire with all cases recorded on a central system with detailed breakdown of their costs. Going forward the Council will be able to:

  • Continuously compare current costs to Valuing Care’s model costs
  • Uplift cases by inflation in a targeted manner ensure value for money and sustainability
  • Review cases with the greatest variance, either by Provider, profitability or sustainability

If you are interested in knowing more about the project or Valuing Care’s Purchaser software please click the button below.

Contact Us

If you are interested in knowing more about the project or Valuing Care’s Purchaser software please contact here. 

 

24th January 2022 | Ray Hart
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Durham County Council

Durham County council

In early 2022, Durham County Council contacted Valuing Care to discuss project support capacity in completing their Fair Cost of Care requirements for the DHSC. All of the data collected used the LGA toolkit so that a common approach could be taken regionally on reporting and data recording. The project will leave Durham County Council with a verified statistical sample that has been benchmarked against Valuing Care’s own internal models.

It was agreed that domiciliary care support provided the best approach and Valuing Care were tasked with the following: 

• Understanding the current cost structure through surveying the market  
• Managing the data collection process 

Read more on what Valuing Care were tasked with and what is planned here.

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