Local authorities were required by October 2023 to start work to 'move towards' paying a 'fair cost of care'. This was part of the wider funding reform changes that were to be introduced but have now been delayed. However, the need to continue to engage with providers around fee levels and market sustainability has remained.
This is intended to make sure that providers get sustainable funding, to provide high quality and consistent care. Funding was made available in 2022 to 2023 to help local authorities to prepare their markets for reform. It also helps move towards paying providers a fair cost of care. Barnsley used this funding to award above inflation fees increase.
There was completion of a cost of care exercise in 2022 and 2023. The aim of this was to find the actual cost of care for the local area. This was a key requirement of the grant funding made available to councils. We've engaged with a range of providers (representative of the local market) as part of the cost of care exercise. Because of this we've been able to better understand of the actual costs of providing care in Barnsley. This will now be shared with DHSC.
The cost of care exercise undertaken by us was submitted to the Department of Health and Social Care by 14 October 2022. The submission is available now to review.
We were required to complete a fair cost of care exercise across the two areas of support. This was domiciliary care and residential care. A template was designed to help providers to supply the right details.
The Annex B documents set out the changes and adjustments we've made to the data it received through the cost of care exercise. Fee discussions for the coming year have used these details along with other data. These will inform future fee discussions with providers.
A market sustainability plan document will be added at the end of March 2023.
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