Market sustainability and fair cost of care (FCoC)

Local authorities had to complete a Fair Cost of Care (FCoC) exercise with providers. This was to identify the local cost of providing care. This is part of the Government’s adult social care reform agenda.

The exercise was to gather data on the costs of care from older people’s care homes (65+) and home care providers (18+). It did not cover other sectors of the market. 

The results from the exercise had to be submitted by 14 October 2022. This was also to follow the conditions of the Fair Cost of Care Grant. They were also required to submit a Draft Market Sustainability Plan.

By the end of March 2023, authorities had to publish a final Market Sustainability Plan. This would have data on the current market position, key challenges and how they plan to address these. Authorities also had to state how they plan to move towards a fair cost of care (where this is not already being paid) over the next three years.

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 (following completion of the exercise). ‘Fair’ also means what is sustainable for the local market.

FCoC exercise

We received costs from providers as needed. We submitted to the DHSC the two Cost of Care Reports for their review and approval. The reports are on our website as required.

• Annex B residential care [pdf document]
• Annex B domiciliary care [pdf document]

We are reviewing the data from our providers. We will be working with them to identify a fair cost of care.  

We  have finalised our  Market Sustainability Plan in the context of the Local Government Financial Settlement in December 2022.

Market Sustainability Plan [pdf document]

FCoC grant

The council has given the FCoC Grant it received for 2022-23 to both residential and domiciliary care providers.

We await Grant Conditions from the DHSC with allocation criteria of the 2023/2024 grant. A decision will then be made on how to share it among providers.

 Further details on the FCoC exercise can be found on the gov.uk website [external link].