Care and Support West Cost Pressures Report 2022

This cost pressures report follows a letter sent to Senior Officers in the Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire & Bath and North East Somerset local social and health care area in early December 2021 underlining their Duty of Care to local citizens in relation to the delivery of Social Care. The letter also went to each Council’s social care lead Elected Member and a number of local MP’s.

Care and Support West (C&SW) is clear that the complex range of work care staff undertake, and care sector organisations deliver needs to be adequately funded if it is to be maintained and continue into the future. Whilst we welcome the recently announced planned 1st April 2022 rise in hourly rates for care workers from £8.91 to £9.50, we need to emphasise that the funding available from the local authority and CCGs to pay for care is insufficient for provider organisations to meet this rise.

This, added to the planned rise in National Insurance in April 2022 for both staff and employers creates an increasingly impossible challenge for care providers. Alongside this the significant and continuing rise in utility costs together with the failure over many decades of service commissioning fees to match the real cost of care places many care organisations in a situation where sustainability is being questioned on a weekly and monthly basis. 

The letter was clear that if the government rhetoric of: “The care and support workforce are our biggest asset” is to be appropriately rewarded then the following areas require urgent attention.

a)    Fee rate increases to ensure continuity of care and recognise the extreme cost pressures will need to be >10% immediately to maintain status quo but see b) below for urgent ongoing work required to support the sector going forward.

b)    A minimum of £15 per hour for care staff is essential in the coming years to recruit and retain staff in the sector therefore urgent co-productive work needs to be initiated between providers and commissioners to achieve this.

c)     Communication with providers about fee rates should be by, or directly after, the beginning of the 2022 New Year to enable providers to plan the sustainability of their services.   

As we publish this report, senior officers, and Councillors in the local authority, as well as their colleagues in the CCG will have had the original C&SW letter for over a month. Despite this social care providers remain in the dark about funding from the 1st April 2022.

We urgently ask that those in power review the analysis and recommendations contained in this report and immediately confirm the required funding for the next financial year will be available to social care providers. We also urge officers and Councillors to work with C&SW as the local Care Association representing the local social care sector so that we can work in partnership to achieve a long-term sustainable model of social care. 

David Smallacombe

Chief Executive Officer

Care and Support West