Middlesbrough Council contacted Valuing Care in April 2022 to discuss supporting them in completing their domiciliary fair cost of care (FCOC) exercise. They were aware of other councils in the area following similar approaches and wanted to gain consistency in a key market for them.
- Understanding the current cost structure through surveying the market
- Managing the data collection process
- Checking provider templates for accuracy and consistency
- Identification of fair cost of care rates from the survey results
- Creation of Valuing Care model benchmark rates to match the geographical area
- Final reporting and data loading
All of the data collected used the LGA toolkit so that a common approach could be taken regionally on reporting and data recording.
In addition, the Council were keen to ensure a source of benchmarking data that could be used to compare their survey results against. This would ensure that the information supplied by providers could be “sense-checked” against other independent sources.
The survey collection
The survey collection will complete at the end of June 2022 with report writing due to start in July 2022. Once completed, the final proposed model rates for 2022/23 will be recommended to the Council. The report will be completed with sufficient time for the Council to complete their market sustainability report before the October 2022 deadline.
By conducting the exercise in this way, they can be reassured that their market sustainability plan captures the balance between paying providers a sustainable rate and ensuring value for money for council taxpayers.
