The Government has a 10-year vision for Adult Social Care which it sets out in the White Paper ‘People at the Heart of Care’. The first step in achieving this vision is the implementation of financial reforms.
The Fair Cost of Care exercise aimed to ensure that the social care market remained sustainable when the Care Cap was introduced in October 2023. It focused on 65+ residential care providers and 18+ homecare providers. This was supported by the Fair Cost of Care and Market Sustainability grant of £600m in 23/24 and 24/25.
The Department of Health and Social Care required documents to be submitted to them by 14 October 2022 in order for local authorities to be considered eligible for future funding from the Fair Cost of Care and Market Sustainability grant.
We submitted all the required documentation to the Department of Health and Social Care on 14 October 2022. This submission included -
- Annex A – detail from the costing exercise undertaken with providers
- Annex B – reports detailing the process followed for both 65+ residential care and 18+ homecare
- Annex C – a provisional Market Sustainability Plan
Since the submission on 14 October 2022, there have been many changes to this approach by the Government. This includes the Care Cap being pushed back by 2 years and the Fair Cost of Care and Market Sustainability grant being included into the wider social care funding.
In the interests of transparency and openness and in line with DHSC requirements, we have published the Annex B reports for both residential care and homecare and our Market Sustainability Plan.