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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Dorset Council

Dorset Council

With so many underlying pressures in the care market, Dorset Council recognised that they needed to tackle the situation through a detailed review of all their commissioned residential costs. As market leaders in the field, they chose Valuing Care to work on both projects, taking a different tact in the two areas to ensure they got the most value added from the work.

Dorset asked Valuing Care to collect information on all their current residential packages and load them onto their Purchaser software to create a Dorset specific cost model. 

Looking across the market they concentrated on two key areas:  

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

Read our full article here

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Central Bedfordshire Council

Central Bedfordshire Council

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
 

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.

Read our full article here.

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Managing Your Complex Care Packages During Rising Cost Pressures

Managing Your Complex Care Packages During Rising Cost Pressures

Budgetary spend on complex packages of care continue to grow with service demand and overall price increases across Continuing Health Care, Learning Disabilities, Physical Disabilities and Mental Health services.

The expectation is that this will grow again in 2022/23, beyond available resources as inflationary cost pressures from staffing, utilities and extra regulation push up provider costs.

With budget pressures so high it is very hard for commissioning managers to determine what the annual percentage increase in complex care packages should be. It can become extremely tricky to balance the need to ensure sustainability whilst also achieving value for money within such a tight inflation envelope.

Over the coming months providers will be writing to request a 5% or 10% increase, each demand will be supported with calculations to justify the uplift. Given the compelling reasons presented by providers it is hard to work out where the line should be drawn.

 

Historically the organisational approach has been to set a standard inflationary uplift which can favour some providers with excessive profits and penalise others that are operating at effective prices. Most authorities have been through a cost reviewing process at some point over the last few years, however the collected data quickly goes out of date if inflationary uplifts are not assigned on a line-by-line cost basis.

Valuing Care’s approach is to assess the value of the current price and assign an appropriate percentage on a cost line basis: the method is supported by the company’s Purchaser software which stores each case’s cost breakdowns and gives commissioners the ability to update cost lines for the relevant inflation, using Valuing Care’s model costs as a guide. 

 

Each case is stored within Purchaser so that details can be saved and uprated easily. Inflation increases can be accurate and reviewed, year on year. By assigning the correct inflation to the cases that need it most, packages remain sustainable and profit levels are capped elsewhere. So, the next time you receive a provider letter demanding an inflation increase on a care package where you do not truly understand the delivery costs contact us to see how Valuing Care’s Purchaser software can put you back in control of the increasingly challenging market.

 
21st January 2022 | Ray Hart
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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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Independent Age: Choosing the Right Care Home

Independent Age: Choosing the Right Care Home

People often find themselves doing this in a hurry when there’s a health crisis, but it’s a good idea to think about what you’d like sooner rather than later and discuss this with your family or friends.

Where to start
You should start by having a care needs assessment. This will give you more information about the care you need, and help you think about what support would be best for you. 

Choosing a care home to suit your care needs
There are various types of care home available, depending on the level and type of care you need. The outcome of your care needs assessment should give you an idea of which one would be right for you. If you’re moving as a couple, it can be more difficult to find a home to cater for both your needs

Residentail care homes
These offer personal care, including help with washing, eating and drinking, going to the toilet and taking medication. 

Care homes with nursing care
These offer personal care, but also have qualified nurses on duty at all times. They may specialise in particular illnesses or disabilities, such as dementia.

Care homes offering some residential and some nursing care places
These might be a good option if, for example, your condition is likely to deteriorate and you don’t want to move twice. 

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Care Cap Brokerage Software

Care Cap Sector 18(3) Brokerage Software

Valuing Care’s Care Cap software takes data from Fair Cost of Care (FCOC) exercises and self-funder surveys to populate their workflow software. The software provides the tools required for local authority brokers to meet their section 18(3) requirements to support self-funders in arranging care.

Using Purchaser and Commissioner as the base, the software enables commissioners to:

  •  Load a Catalogue of registered private providers onto a workflow system
  • Set additional service elements prices for first party top-ups
  • Work with providers to get Best Value for self-funders with clear and transparent prices
  • Create bespoke printed contracts that can be used for self-funders in their arrangements with private providers

Benefits will include:

  •  Storing and updating of individual self-funder contracts providing outputs into a self-funders Care Cap account 
  • Benchmarking Against Valuing Care’s VFM rates and other nearby authorities
  • Breakdown of additional service costs likely to be required by self-funders including extra staffing, larger rooms and higher property costs
  • Provider template upload so that self-funder additional services can be bought and stored easily
  • Evidence Base Calculations of Fair Price for Care Fee Rates

The software is primarily constructed to be used by Local Authority brokers, meeting their obligations to support self-funders under the 18(3) requirements. However, it can be adapted to be used as the base for a self-service module that can be used directly by eligible self-funders.

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The Telegraph – Care Costs could decimate your assets

The Telegraph – Care Costs could decimate your assets

Care costs threaten to decimate the wealth that elderly people have spent their lives accumulating, but what are the options available to keep costs down?  

 According to one report the average weekly fee for council registered carers is £396, while it rises to a staggering £759 for IFAs; 92% higher. All of this embroiled against a backdrop of multi-million pounds dividends for investors and huge director salaries. 

Such highly inflated fees give rise to one very important question; why aren’t foster care costs subject to the same level of scrutiny as other social care costs? Care costs threaten to decimate the wealth that elderly people have spent their lives accumulating, but what are the options available to keep costs down?

The price of care has risen in recent years, thanks to a combination of short supply, care home operators struggling financially, and cuts to local authority budgets. An individual in need of nursing care can now expect to pay over £50,000 a year on average, if they have income and assets that exceed the £23,250 threshold above which care has to be self-funded.

According to healthcare research firm Lang & Buisson, the average fee for self-funded nursing care – which includes medical care from registered nurses – is £1,000 a week. 

James Connington | 3 April 2018 | Subscription Required
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