On 16 December 2021, the government announced the market sustainability and fair cost of care fund. This will support councils to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care. They can prepare their local markets for adult social care reform, such as the introduction of the £86,000 cap on care costs.
The care cap was due to take effect in October 2023. It would mean that no one in England will have to pay more than this sum towards meeting their care costs in their lifetime.
On 17 November 2022, the government announced a delay to the introduction of the financial elements of social care reforms until October 2025. The government has told local authorities they should continue to engage with the local provider market in respect of the cost of care report and the provisional market sustainability plan.
Publication of cost of care reports
Publication of Haringey’s cost of care reports ('Annex B') by 1 February 2023 is a condition of the market sustainability and fair cost of care fund.
The cost of care reports ('Annex B') detail the outcome of the exercises undertaken locally with the:
They collate and produce a median average of the costs incurred by those providers in delivering care. For the purposes of the exercise, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) consider ‘fair’ to mean the median actual operating costs for providing care in the local area, as shown by the outcome of the exercise.
The insight gained from this exercise helps improve our understanding of the local market and can inform our approach to developing the market. It does not sufficiently detail individual provider circumstances. As confirmed by the DHSC the outcome of the cost-of-care exercise is not intended to be a replacement for the fee-setting element of local authority commissioning processes or individual contract negotiation.
Market sustainability plan
Haringey’s market sustainability plan (MSP), detailing plans to support the local home care and older people’s care home markets.
- The first section of the plan assesses the current sustainability of these local care markets
- The second section assesses the impact of future market changes between now and October 2025 (given that charging reform is no longer planned for October 2023)
- The final section details plans to address the sustainability issues identified