by Natalie Abraham

The Government has now released guidance to support Local Authorities in administering the £1.36 billion Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund, which was announced at the end of last year.

The Fund’s primary purpose is to support local authorities to prepare their markets for reform and to support local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care.

By the middle of October, as a condition of receiving funding, local authorities need to evidence the work they are doing to prepare their markets. They need to submit to DHSC:

  • Cost of care exercises for 65+ care homes and 18+ domiciliary care
  • a provisional market sustainability plan, using the cost of care exercise as a key input to identify risks in the local market
  • a spend report detailing how funding allocated for 2022 to 2023 is being spent in line with the fund’s purpose.
How can C.Co help?

We can help you provide all the evidence required by DHSC in order to access funding. The guidance specifies that local authorities may choose to work with an external contractor and that this is an acceptable use of funding as part of the allocation for implementation costs in 2022-23.

Over the last few years we have been carrying out fair cost of care exercises with commissioners and providers. We can confirm that these tried and tested Cost of Care tools meet the stringent rules of the new Government guidance. We have developed these tools in collaboration with the care sector, for use by the sector, ensuring they are extremely user-friendly, easy to understand and implement.

Implementation of the Fund is one of the first steps to achieving the Government’s 10-year vision for adult social care which sets out to ensure 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

With just six months before DHSC’s deadline, get in touch with us to find out how we can help you gather together the evidence for your submission which will support your application for funding.