The government white paper, People at the Heart of Care set out an ambitious 10 year vision for how support and care in England will be transformed. The vision has three main objectives:
- People have choice, control and support to live independent lives.
- People can access outstanding quality and tailored care and support.
- People find adult social care fair and accessible.
Fair cost of care
As part of the reform, local authorities in England were required to complete a fair cost of care exercise to identify the local cost of providing sustainable and good quality are. This is to ensure that access to adult social care is fair and accessible.
For the purposes of the cost of care review 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 (following completion of the exercise). ‘Fair’ also means what is sustainable for the local market. The expectation is that local authorities move towards paying providers paying a sustainable cost of care.
The care services covered by the cost of care exercise were:
- 65 years+ Standard residential care;
- 65 years+ Residential care for enhanced needs;
- 65 years+ Standard nursing care;
- 65 years+ Nursing care for enhanced needs; and
- 18 years+ domiciliary care (care at home).
Warrington Borough Council’s Fair Cost of Care report is published below and follows the guidance and requirements set by the Department of Health and Social Care. In the guidance from government this report is known as “Annex B” and covers in detail the approach taken locally to engage providers and gather information on the cost of care for care homes and Domiciliary Care.