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CARE HOME


ENVIRONMENT Editor


Matt Seex mattseex@stepcomms.com


Business Manager Mike Gammon


mikegammon@stepcomms.com Journal Administration


Katy Cockle katycockle@stepcomms.com


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Steven Dillon Publisher


Geoff King geoffking@stepcomms.com Publishing Director


Trevor Moon trevormoon@stepcomms.com


THE CARE HOME ENVIRONMENT is published monthly by Step Communications Ltd, Step House, North Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR, UK.


Tel: +44 (0)1892 779999 Email: info@thecarehomeenvironment.com Web: www.thecarehomeenvironment.com


Welcome to the April edition of The Care Home Environment, my first as Editor. The Government has set out its guidance


on how an allocated £1.36 billion will support local authorities in paying a “fairer rate of care” to adult social care providers. The Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund, announced in December, is one of the first steps in a 10-year plan for adult social care outlined most recently by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, in his speech to Care England’s 2022 Conference, which I attended in March.


Under the new guidance, local authorities must: n carry out cost of care exercises to improve understanding of how much it costs to provide care in their specific area, including assessing the various costs care providers face in the area


n ensure the care market in the area is sustainable and identify and increase rates where a fairer cost of care is needed


ISSN NO. 2398-3280


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According to the government’s plan, local authorities will receive an extra £162 million in year one, followed by £600 million over the following two years. As well as providing what it calls a “fairer cost of care” for care providers, the government intends for its controversial Health and Social Care Levy to raise more than £1 billion to help people live “safely


n spend no more than 25 per cent of funding in year one towards implementation costs to ensure remaining funding goes towards genuine increases in fee rates


and independently”, and to further the implementation of digital technology, as well as fund housing improvements and any upcoming reforms.


Under the government’s plan, local authorities will receive an extra £162 million in year one, followed by £600 million over the following two years


The levy is also intended to provide at least £500 million to support and develop the care workforce, including the funding of hundreds of thousands of training places and initiatives intended to “improve wellbeing across the adult social care workforce”. Investment in workforce skills, wellbeing, and career development will, the government claims, help to address what it sees as the barriers to people taking roles in adult social care.


Of course, the glaring issue of low staff


pay still needs to be addressed directly – something Mr Javid notably declined to do when he sidestepped a question about it at the Care England conference. While the government’s continued focus on the funding of social care is to be welcomed, nobody would deny that enormous hurdles – staff pay, rising costs, increasing demand, the shift to digital – remain. I hope you enjoy the issue.


Matt Seex Editor mattseex@stepcomms.com


Care providers to receive “fairer costs” for providing care


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