ARC England members are calling for a minimum 12% uplift in 2024-25 to cover the additional costs associated with the autumn 2023 budget, following the publication of their 2023-24 Fee Rate Maps. The learning disability and autism services membership association is also calling for Government to act quickly to stabilise the sector and for learning disability and autism services funding to be properly and robustly ring fenced thereafter.
Following the success of the Fee Rate Maps 2022-23, the ARC England Learning Disability Research Unit’s Fee Rate Maps visualise 2023-24 fee rates for external learning disability and autism services, provided in response to freedom of information requests sent to every local authority in England and Wales.
The message is clear: A minimum uplift of 12% is the amount required by providers to meet the National Living Wage increase that will be implemented from 2nd April 2024, although even if councils do increase fee rates by 12%. We are clear that this does not begin to address the cumulative funding shortfall that year upon year of below-inflation fee rate uplifts has created.
Our members are telling us that for 2024/25 councils are offering providers fee rate uplifts in single figures. We have even heard that some councils are suggesting to providers that they should use their reserves to continue to operate. Maintaining sensible operating reserves is necessary, not just to ensure compliance with the guidance published by the Charity Commission but because to not do so would be a dereliction of the duties of trustees and board members.
We strongly believe social care staff should be paid at least the equivalent of an NHS Band 3 rate. The Unfair to Care report 2024 by our member Community Integrated Care has found a 36% pay gap between social care staff when compared to NHS staff.
The Fee Rate Map data is viewable for each council that responded by local authority area or by MP constituency.
The maps show the average weekly and/or hourly rates being paid to providers plus the percentage fee rate uplift for the last six years for residential care, supported living, day services and domiciliary care.
The latest Fee Rate Maps show that day services fared worst for rate uplifts compared to other learning disability service types. If learning disability and autism services are among the lowest in the social care ‘hierarchy of visibility’ then day services are the least visible service type overall. This is despite that day services save local authorities huge amounts of money every year by, for example, enabling supported people to be looked after within their family home
What do you think of ARC England Fee Rate Maps 2023-24? How are you using them? Let us know! [email protected]
Footnotes
- We are grateful to Steve Cox, ex-CEO of ARC England member Perthyn, who suggested the freedom of information request idea to us and we’re grateful to our friends at Polimapper for all their support in creating the visualisations.
- We are also working with colleagues working with the DHSC Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund to ensure that the data we collect matches with the data submitted by councils to the department.
- Finally, we want to thank the members of the ARC England Learning Disability and Autism Research Unit – Marr Procurement, Real Life Options, Linkage, Wilf Ward Family Trust, Windward Day Services, National Care Forum and Learning Disability England for their continued support and for funding this research.
You must be logged in to post a comment.