Policies and complaints

In December 2021, the Government published a white paper entitled ‘People at the Heart of Care’. This white paper set out a series of local authority responsibilities to prepare for the then intended adult social care reforms, which included changes to the way people are charged for social care. 

The Government set up a Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund and distributed grant funding to local authorities in England totalling £162m in the financial year 2022/23. The intention of the grant funding was to support local authorities to carry out a ‘Cost of Care’ exercise with their provider market in 2022/23 and then set out how they would use the future years funding to ‘move towards’ paying a ‘fair cost of care’ – informed by the outcome of the cost of care exercise in each local authority, alongside other relevant market conditions.

On the 17th November 2022 the Government delivered their Autumn Statement and as part of that, they announced that the charging reforms set out in December 2021 were going to be ‘delayed’ until 2025. Furthermore, they announced changes to the planned funding allocations for Adult Social Care for 2023/24 and 2024/25, and a reduction to the funding allocation and conditions attached to the ‘Fair Cost of Care’ Grant. 

As part of the original Grant conditions for the funding released in 2022/23, each local authority was required to produce and publish an ‘Annex B’ report setting out the approach and outcomes of the Cost of Care exercises that they undertook and publish a Market Sustainability Plan (Annex C). 

To communicate with the care market in Croydon on the outcomes of ‘Cost of Care’ exercise, and to explain the results and relevant next steps, we held 2 webinars on Thursday 26 January 2023 for:

• residential and nursing (over 65s) providers
• domiciliary care (18+) providers 

The exercise was also discussed at the face to face provider forums for Domiciliary Care, held on 20 February 2023, and Residential Care, held on 21 February 2023.

Reports

Download the Annex B report for Residential and Nursing Care - Over 65’s (PDF, 310KB)

Download the Annex B report for Domiciliary Care 18+  (PDF, 320KB)

Download the Annex C report for Market Sustainability  (PDF, 192.39 KB)

Further information

You can find more information about the government's plans for social care reform on the following GOV.UK websites:

• People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform white paper
• Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund 2022 to 2023: guidance