Care England Policy Digest (30 October - 3 November 2023)
Dear Care England members
Please see below the summary of all work Care England undertook the previous week with a forecast of what policy areas Care England will be focusing on during present week.
Please contact us at info@careengland.org.uk if you want to discuss any of the points below in more detail or to ask for further information on any issues you would like to raise.
These are extremely difficult times for the care sector, and costs are rising, but the funding we receive from local authorities keeps pace with increased costs.
For this reason, Care England has developed a range of tangible initiatives that can help reduce costs and be more sustainable. We have a VAT scheme which helps providers restructure to reclaim VAT. This can significantly impact your bottom line, and whether you are a business or a charity, there are opportunities to put more money into your services. There is also the potential to make claims for previous years, and this would be a helpful cash injection for any business.
Please look at the Care England website, where you will see a range of special offers, advice lines, and initiatives that can reduce costs and help you through this tough economic climate.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England
Key Policy Issues
Local authority market sustainability plans: insights report
On Thursday, the DHSC published their insight reports on every commissioning Local Authorities Markets Sustainability Plans, as outlined under The Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund (MSFCCF) 2022. This was designed to support local authorities (LAs) to build more sustainable care markets by developing their understanding of the costs of delivering care in their local area. The fund gave LAs £162 million in the 2022 to 2023 financial year to enable them to move towards paying more sustainable fee rates, where they were not already doing so, to providers of residential and nursing care for people aged 65 years and over and domiciliary care for people aged 18 years and over.
As part of the grant conditions for this fund, LAs were required to submit cost of care exercises to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). They were also required to submit and publish cost of care reports in February 2023 and market sustainability plans (MSPs) in March 2023, both on their websites. MSPs included:
an assessment of current market sustainability
anticipated impacts on market sustainability
strategies for improving market sustainability over the next 1 to 3 years
the cost of care for the local area and an explanation of how the exercise was carried out, including provider engagement
The department conducted an in-depth review of the provisional MSPs submitted by all 152 LAs in October 2022. The department has compiled this insights report, which is intended to be a resource for LAs across the country, highlighting some of the many approaches LAs are taking to building sustainable and innovative markets.
Shared challenges among LAs included concerns about the capacity of their elderly care markets, diversity of provision, provider exits, underpayment issues, and workforce supply constraints. The report organises information thematically, presenting case studies from provisional MSPs that showcase successful approaches employed by LAs.
Key themes identified in LAs' strategic approaches encompassed the expansion of domiciliary care markets, stabilisation and adaptation of care home markets, recognition of specialist needs, investment in alternatives to standard residential care, and a focus on person-led care and support. Market sustainability was seen as dependent on factors such as technology integration, closer collaboration with health services, proactive quality management, and workforce recruitment and retention. The report provides a comprehensive view of the challenges faced and the innovative strategies employed by LAs in the pursuit of sustainable and effective care markets.
Care England are currently going through this report and will provide a further update in due course. If any members have any enquiries on this document, please get in touch with Fraser Rickatson, Policy and Public Sector Officer, at FRickatson@careengland.org.uk
Bridging The Gap: Tackling Inequalities in England’s Social Care Sector and Beyond
England is grappling with staggering health disparities, with a stark 10-year gap in life expectancy between individuals in socioeconomically deprived regions and their more affluent counterparts and a cost of billions annually.
Much attention is given to the NHS; however, there is great potential and much work within the social care sector to hold the key to solving these matters, and more attention must be given to address both the inequalities within this sector in addition to the population as a whole.
This report aims to evaluate the current state of the ‘causes of the causes,’ of inequalities within the social care sector and discuss ways to improve them in order to better “one of the most unequal of the world’s developed states” through population level interventions from Government.
Care England is looking to aid in solving these matters and welcomes further discussion and involvement in any future efforts.
Read Care England’s full report here.
Key figures from Government and opposition parties, as well as members of the Care Home Parliamentary Network, were briefed following the publication of Bridging the Gap.
Wider Updates
SMART
Over the last three weeks, Care England has held several workshops to demonstration our new strategic management and audit repository tool, SMART.
The recordings from these demonstrations will be held on the Care England Website (you can access by clicking here) as well as further information on the tool, and where you can sign up for the system.
If you have any issues with the system, or would like to provide any feedback on the tool itself, please email Fraser Rickatson, Policy and Public Sector Officer, at FRickatson@careengland.org.uk
Dementia Summit
On 31 November, Professor Martin Green OBE spoke at the Dementia Summit at the King’s Fund, London. In his speech on ‘Understanding the Dementia Care Landscape in England,’ Professor Green emphasised the importance of delivering person-centred, flexible care and support that reflects the capacities and needs of individuals with dementia.
Daryl Garcia, Membership and Events Officer, and Ioan Bishop, Policy, Parliamentary and Projects Officer, were also in attendance. It was great to see the excellent work being done to enhance the education, research and care surrounding dementia front and centre at the event.