Agenda item

To see approval for the submission of the fair cost of care report, provisional Market Sustainability Plan and spend report to the Department of Health and Social Care by 14 October 2022.

           Cabinet received a report which updated on progress in relation to a nationally mandated fair cost of care exercise and sought authorisation to approve the submission of the required returns outlining the results of this exercise, intended to establish fair fee rates for care home fees for residents aged 65 years and over and for homecare fees for adults 18 years and over.

The Government announced its planned implementation of the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund on 16 December 2021. It was part of a range of reforms outlined within the social care white paper, ‘People at the Heart of Care’. The total funding outlined was as follows: 2022/23 - £162m, 2023/24 - £600m and 2024/25 - £600m.

To date only the allocation of the 2022/23 amounts had been announced with North Tyneside receiving £0.696m.

The purpose of the fund was to support local authorities to prepare their care markets for reform including allowing self-funders to access local authority rates for residential and nursing care (pursuant to section 18(3) of the Care Act 2014 which has been announced as coming into force in October 2023) and to support local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care. Up to 25% of allocated funding in 2022 to 2023 could be used to fund implementation activities associated with meeting the fund purpose.

As part of the condition of receiving grant funding in 2022/23 and future years, local authorities had to evidence the work they were doing by submitting to the Department of Health and Social Care by 14 October 2022 the following;

1.    The results of a cost of care exercise for 65+ care homes and 18+ homecare

2.    A provisional Market Sustainability Plan (a final plan must be submitted by February 2023)

3.    A spend report detailing how funding allocated for 2022/23 was being spent

The Government would assess the information submitted and use it to review the fund distribution and conditions ahead of allocating funding for 2023/24.

The Government had worked with a number of organisations to produce recommended tools and the Authority had used the recommended tool for both care home and homecare data collection. Initial engagement sessions were held with providers and two independent organisations were engaged to support with the two data collection processes.

Deadlines were set for providers to submit their information by 12 August for care homes and 21 August for homecare providers. The collection process for care homes had been completed with 26 of the 30 homes located within the borough submitting information. This was an excellent response rate of 86.7% which compared very favourably with a reported national response rate of approximately 25%.  The collection phase for homecare was still in progress and ongoing contact was being made with homecare providers to offer support and encourage participation in the process.

The next phase of the process was the checking and validation of the data collected with queries sent to providers where anomalies or incomplete data was identified. 

Throughout the process, officers from North Tyneside had taken part in regional and national work to ensure consistency of approach, sharing of resources and learning from best practice.

Cabinet considered the following decision options: to accept the recommendations set out in paragraph 1.2 of the report; or alternatively, to not accept the recommendations and to propose an alternative approval mechanism to ensure that the terms and conditions of the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund could be met.

Resolved that the Director of Children and Adults Services in consultation with the Director of Commissioning and Asset Management, Director of Resources, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources and the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, be authorised to approve the submission of a fair cost of care report, a provisional Market Sustainability Plan and a spend report outlining the use of the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Grant to the Department of Health and Social Care.

(Reason for decision: to allow care providers to sufficient time to analyse, collate and submit their information as well as giving the Authority time to evaluate the results of the exercise and develop a provisional Market Sustainability Plan which ensured sufficient, high-quality care continued to be available to support the residents of North Tyneside.)