1. Please explain the process and provide key dates for engaging with care home providers between now and March 2023 to discuss, review and understand the findings of the Fair Cost of Care exercise and to take providers through the response submitted to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on the 14th October 2022.
The Council established a joint steering group for commissioners and providers (representatives of the personal care and care home market) to communicate and engage with the wider market. The Council will continue to engage via this mechanism on the findings of the Fair Cost of Care exercise once the Council has had confirmation around the availability of funding and grant conditions from the DHSC.
The Steering Group have been engaged in considering how best to allocate funding for 2022/23.
2. Care England is happy to support all local authorities to engage with providers and to meet the openness and transparency obligations of both parties as stated in the Market Sustainability Guidance and will continue to lobby central government for the funding needed for all local authorities to meet its Care Act obligations. Please state any support you feel Care England can offer your authority to assist care home providers this winter to accept new referrals from the local authority and NHS.
The Council supports continued lobbying of the government to ensure there is sufficient funding to allow local authorities to meet its Care Act obligations.
3. Please detail how the local authority share of the £162m allocated to the fair cost of care process issued with this year’s local authority funding settlement for 2022/23 was spent, or will be spent, during the period 2022/23. Please state the amount received and what funds were allocated to, or will be allocated/paid to 65+ care homes.
The Council are working with providers to better understand where to target the funding. It is intended that the 75% of funding allocated to Devon, will be used to support work force pressures in the current year.
4. Care England collects annual average care home fees for residential and nursing care on an annual basis. Please provide the average 2021/22 external provider fee rates for 65+ care homes with and without nursing per resident per week. For ease, Care England will accept the same values or calculation methodology as reported in Annex A of the Fair Cost of Care template (row 136) as submitted to the DHSC on 14 October 2022 to make provision easier for the local authority.
| Description | 65+ care home without nursing, £ per resident per week | 65+ care with nursing, £ per resident per week |
| Average 2021/22 external provider fee rate (using iBCF* definitions, consistently with 2022/23) | £802.34 | £979.57 |
*iBCF stands for Improved Better Care Fund
5. Please provide the average 2022/23 external provider fee rates for 65+ care homes with and without nursing per resident per week so far, for this financial year. For ease, Care England will accept the same values or calculation methodology as reported in Annex A of the Fair Cost of Care template (row 137) as submitted to the DHSC on 14 October 2022 to make provision easier for the local authority.
| Description | 65+ care home without nursing, £ per resident per week | 65+ care with nursing, £ per resident per week |
| Average 2022/23 external provider fee rate (using iBCF* definitions, consistently with 2022/23) | £872.67 | £1093.59 |
*iBCF stands for Improved Better Care Fund
6. Care England wish to understand the authority’s current cost of care assumptions and would ask for the latest cost of care data to be provided. For ease, Care England will accept the total fair cost of care median values for 65+ Residential, Residential Enhanced, Nursing and Nursing Enhanced as at April 2022 as reported on Annex A of the Fair Cost of Care template (row 71) as submitted to the DHSC on the 14th October 2022 to make provision easier for the local authority.
The DHSC has indicated that there will be a process of validation of the returns, following which it will notify the local authority (LA) that its cost of care reports are to be published.
Devon County Council has considered the Freedom of Information Act 2000 exemptions and the public interest test for the qualified exemption provided by section 22 of the Act. Based on the current decision that the Council made which pre dates the change of position around the policy and its delay, the Council intends to publish the Fair Cost of Care information at a future date. The Council has taken the decision not to provide the outcome of the fair cost of care exercise until such time that a) the feedback has been provided by DHSC b) the grant conditions for 2023-24 funding have been published and c) the funding allocation for 2023-24 is confirmed and d) the Market Sustainability Plan has been approved for publication by the Council.
The Council has taken this approach to ensure that the information is provided at a point where it is most likely to be accurate and where there is a formal Council decision about the agreed Market Sustainability Plan.
Should the Council make a formal decision to delay or to not to publish the information collected as part of the Fair Cost of Care exercise, we will review the public interest test in respect of a s.41 exemption. This is particularly the case in light of the recent decision by government to delay the policy reforms.