Support to Purchase a Care Home Service

Valuing Care can support you to purchase a new care home service for a price that has been assessed by them as offering Value for Money.

Ideally you should visit a minimum of 3 establishments and request a detailed quote for the service.

Next step would be to compare the quoted price with the Valuing Care model price by entering the service details into the Care Home Fees Calculator.

Cost Breakdown

If the quoted price has been assessed as not Value For Money then you can purchase a cost breakdown for £120 (inc VAT). This provides you with a PDF document summarising the "model costs" for the specified placement. You can use the information to discuss the weekly fee with the provider. The Valuing Care cost breakdown provides you with the benchmark information to start to understand the costs and make informed judgements as to what you feel is acceptable. As an example the provider may be able to evidence that they pay a higher salary to staff than our model as an incentive to provide a more consistent workforce. The breakdown is based on one bed,  so it is useful to know how many occupied beds the provider has as this will enable you to understand how the individual costs relate to the overall establishment costs. As an example:

• The Valuing Care cost model would expect a weekly cost for gardening services to be in the region of £5.92 per bed
• If the care home has 66 beds this would equate to an overall weekly cost of £390 / annual expenditure of £20,370
• This would reasonably assume a full-time salary for one person (including on-costs - NI/ pension / cover / AL etc)
• If the provider in this example stated gardening costs of £10 per week you would be in a good position to challenge as this would equate to almost double the model expected rate.

Price Negotiation

Valuing Care recognise that financial discussions relating to the care of a loved one can be difficult and that you may prefer to purchase an independent service to manage this on your behalf. For a fee of £250 (exc VAT) Valuing Care will assign your case to a Financial Analyst/ Negotiator who will work on your behalf to secure the best price for the service. They will contact the provider and request a detailed breakdown of the fee to include all operating costs and profits. If the provider engages with the process the Negotiator will then compare each reported cost with the "model" cost for that geographical location and challenge any that are higher or lower than expected. The Negotiator will do their best to secure a model price for the service. This service is available for new services only.

Please Note

Prices are set by the providers and buyers cannot insist they pay the model rate, the charge rates are not overseen by Government Legislation

If there is a high demand for beds in your area then the provider may not be willing to engage in a discussion about negotiating fees however the information may be a useful to challenge annual inflationary uplift requests.