Department Of Health
The following is the final grant determination and conditions for the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund, as circulated to all local authorities by the Department for Levelling Up Communities in April 2022. This includes allocations to local authorities for 2022 to 2023, which were issued alongside the Final local government finance settlement for 2022 to 2023.
Following an announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 29 July 2024, the planned adult social care charging reforms, which were inherited from the previous government, will not be taken forward in October 2025.
This guidance is intended to support local authorities in administering the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund. It sets out best practice and provides templates.
The intended audience of this guidance is local authority directors of adult social services, commissioners and any other staff who are involved in the commissioning and managing of adult social care services and budgets. Adult social care providers are also encouraged to read this guidance as provider engagement is critical to the activities described.
The guidance sets out that:
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the primary purpose of the fund is to support local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care and to prepare their markets for adult social care reform a fair and sustainable care market is fundamental to the governments reforms to adult social care
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as a condition of receiving future funding, local authorities will need to evidence the work they are doing to prepare their markets by submitting cost of care exercise reports, market sustainability plans and a spend report to the Department of Health and Social Care by 14 October 2022, and provides templates for each of these