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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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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Newham Council

Newham Council

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: 

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

For each spend area, Valuing care will survey the market and produce model rates that meet the conditions set out in the DHSC guidance. With a DHSC deadline of September 2022, Newham Council will be completed well within those timescales with an estimated completion date of June 2022.  

Read our full article here

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Local Government Information Unit: Review of Council Support for Self Funders

Local Government Information Unit: Review of Council Support for Self Funders

LGIU, a local democracy think tank, published a report into independent ageing.

This report assesses local authority support for older people making decisions about choosing and paying for care and support In this report the Valuing Care Fees Calculator is a recommended solution for Councils in supplying information and advice to their citizens. Further details of the report and their recommendation of our company can be found below.

15th July 2013
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