Worcestershire County Council are undertaking a transformation programme which includes a review of the prices paid for generic home care services and older people residential services. The Council commissioned Valuing Care to provide independent specialist advice on what constitutes a fair price for services, to ensure that value for money was being achieved for taxpayers, but also that the market for services was sustainable.
Home Care Services
The council had collated detailed information about the services they were purchasing and therefore did not require a full local survey: they requested that the company use their pricing model and national intelligence of operating costs, to calculate fair prices for services in Worcestershire. The price review provided the Council with a reliable indication of what it usually costs to provide care services in the area, which could be used to inform future rates for services; also, to assist the Council to develop a range of actions with the aim of ensuring a sustainable market, able to deliver the required quality and capacity of services to meet the needs of the local population.
Valuing Care completed a review of the prices currently paid by the Council and benchmarked the prices paid using its pricing model and a review of job advertisements in the local employment market to independently construct Value for Money (VFM) rates for the following types of care:
• Standard Daytime Care (delivered between 7am-10pm)
• Waking Night Care (delivered between 10pm-7am)
• Sleep-in Services (delivered between 10pm-7am)
• Extra Care Services (1:1 hours
The VFM rates also reflected the average travel times and transport costs identified by VC in recent cost of care surveys undertaken for other County Councils (Cambridgeshire, Somerset, and Oxfordshire).