Agenda item

Report of the Director of Adult Services and Housing

The Cabinet Member for Adult Services considered a report of the Director of Adult Services and Housing which indicated that a key component of Central Government’s Adult Social Care reform agenda, introduced in the White Paper “People at the Heart of Care”, is sustainability of the care market. Part of the requirement of Government was for Councils with responsibility for adult social care to undertake a Fair Cost of Care (FCoC) exercise to establish the median cost of care for two distinct elements of the care market, namely care homes for people aged 65 and over and home support for those aged 18 or over, and to move towards payment of median fee rates. A further mandate was for the delivery of a provisional Market Sustainability Plan (MSP).

The production of the MSP was required to ensure that the Council received Central Government financial support in relation to Fair Cost of Care in 2022/2023 and is a condition of receiving the Sustainability and Improvement Fund in 2023/2024.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) required submission of a provisional MSP in October 2022 and the Council submitted this to DHSC by the prescribed deadline following approval at Cabinet on 11 October 2022.

Whilst many of the Adult Social Care reforms have been delayed until 2025 as part of the Autumn Statement 2022, there is still a requirement for publication of a “final” MSP by 27 March 2023, including the following three sections:-

·  Section 1: This requires an assessment of the 65+ care home market and the 18+ home support market which should draw on a range of information to give a comprehensive and representative picture of the current situation.

·  Section 2: This is an assessment of the expected market changes over the next 3 years.

·  Section 3: This contains plans for each submarket to address the sustainability issues identified, including how funds will be used to move towards a fair cost of care over the next three years; any further actions the local authority plans to take to support market sustainability; how the plan complements other strategic documents such as the Market Position Statement and how the authority has engaged providers in the development of these plans. 

The MSP contains both financial and non-financial aspects and has been shaped through targeted provider engagement initially informed via the use of a provider survey to understand the key concerns of our contracted provision. The feedback from this survey has informed our support offer as outlined below. Such support will be undertaken alongside our standard quality work and provider engagement.

The key features of the MSP are both financial and non-financial support through measures including skills development, use of technology and recruitment support.

On 6 February 2023, Central Government announced a further requirement that Market Sustainability plans would need to be refreshed for Winter 2023. Further guidance is to follow in due course.

The Cabinet Member noted that the MSP will be considered by the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5) at their meeting on 22 March, 2023 prior to itsd publication.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Adult Services:-

1)  Approves Coventry’s Market Sustainability Plan as appended to the report, and:

2)  Noting that the Plan will be considered by the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5)  on 22 March 2023, delegates authority to the Director of Adults Services and Housing to consider and take on board comments received by the Scrutiny Board, following consultation with the Cabinet Member, prior to the publication of the Plan and use with the Adult Social care market.