Report: Lets Agree To Agree – toolkit for commissioners to agree cost of residential care (Wales)

Let’s Agree to Agree is a toolkit for commissioners and providers of residential and nursing care for older people to assist with the complex process of seeking agreement on the cost of care in their local area. The aim is to produce an approach that will assist all parties to provide a sustainable cost model for care homes in Wales.

The Welsh Government established the Care Homes Steering Group to consider key issues impacting on the care home sector in Wales. One of its sub-groups, the Cost of Care Working Group, was tasked with developing an open and transparent methodology to assist in the agreement of fee levels for both residential care and nursing care for older people in care homes. This was to make this process more effective and to ensure that the sector remained sustainable in order to provide the care older people require.

As part of this process IPC was commissioned to develop a toolkit to provide such a methodology which could be used by both commissioners of care and providers of care alike in their fee level setting process for placements of older people. The toolkit which has been produced draws on methodologies used in Wales and elsewhere in the UK. It is also based on engagement which took place with health board and local authority commissioners, providers and other stakeholder representatives at a series of events and workshops. This collaborative approach has helped in understanding the issues which can prove challenging in the fee setting process for commissioners and providers, and in addressing these in the toolkit produced.