Market sustainability plan update - capacity plan submission - Find a freedom of information request

Please accept this data request under the Freedom of Information Act as a Freedom of Information Request. This request seeks to collect data regarding your Local Authorities Market sustainability plan update - capacity plan submission to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on 30 June, as outlined under Condition 4 of the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund 2023 to 2024 Guidance

 

DHSC has confirmed that they will not publish local authority Capacity Plans. Care England believes the information within the capacity plans submission is key information needed by care providers to aid financial planning, forecast, and to flex, or restructure their organisations to meet current and future demand locally.

 

Care England does not intend to report individually on local authority capacity plans but will use this data in its work to inform its members and care providers and to lobby government to find solutions to ongoing market and workforce pressures.

 

This information request can also be found in the attachment:

 

FOI Request:



1) Please provide a copy of the document or documents submitted to the DHSC as outlined in condition 4 of the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund 2023 to 2024 Guidance as per the below:

'Condition 4 1.17. In addition to the initial and final 2023 to 2024 reports, local authorities must also submit a new annex to the market sustainability plans (published in March 2023). This annex will provide insight into local adult social care market capacity, and assurance that plans are in place to meet local need for different types of care. Local authorities will need to report quantitative and qualitative data on capacity by way of a capacity plan and must submit this update to DHSC by 11:59pm on 30 June 2023. The capacity plans will support local authorities in identifying capacity gaps and provide government with valuable insight into local challenges. As such, these will not be published. A provisional template

is provided at Annex A.'

DHSC have confirmed they will not publish the capacity plans this is due to the reasons set out below, The capacity plan template for Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund 2023 to 2024 requires data to be captured in a way that is not sufficient for care providers to plan.

We are asked to submit data based on a primary support reason , rather than looking at a person as a whole.

The report mirrors the SALT return which is based on primary support reason which does not fit in with the Local Authority structure and so averages have had to be applied and it summarises only at a very high level.