Background to the Market Sustainability Plan
In December 2021 the Government published a white paper that outlined a 10 year plan, which put personalised care and support at the centre of adult social care, which ensures that people:
- have the choice, control and support they need to live independent lives
- can access outstanding quality and tailored care and support
- find adult social care fair and accessible.
A fund was announced in December 2021, to support local authorities to:
- prepare their markets for reform
- support local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care.
All local authorities were asked by the Department of Health and Social care to:
- complete a Cost of Care exercise (by October 2022)
- produce and publish a Market Sustainability Plan
The fair cost of care in our area
We completed our local Cost of care exercises in October 2022, which looked at:
- Adults aged 65 years + care homes
- Adults aged 18 years + domiciliary care
Our Cost of care exercise was supported by Valuing care, an independent organisation, and the reports (referred to as Annexe B) are now available to the public.
The government funding received for 2022-23 is being distributed to providers based on the findings of both exercises and in accordance with the grant conditions from Government.
Next steps
We also submitted a draft Market sustainability plan to the Government in October 2022 and will hold engagement sessions with local care providers that will inform our final plan before publication (end of March 2023).
Though not a requirement of the government, we are keen to engage with all care markets to inform our market sustainability plan. We continue to work on our understanding of our local cost of care in other settings, which includes:
- supported living
- 18-65 years care homes
- extra care housing
All Cost of care exercises will be used as part of our wider financial assessment arrangements to inform future fee setting.
Get in touch
If you would like to know more information about our plan or our scheduled sessions contact our provider engagement team.