In 2015 Torbay Council and Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust created an integrated care organisation (ICO) to provide adult social care for people living in Torbay. Services are planned and paid for by the council and provided by the NHS.
In 2023/24 the council income contribution, including grants, amounted to £62.3million. This was made up as follows.
| Source | £M |
|---|---|
| Core contract | £55.40 |
| Market sustainability | £1.94 |
| Social care grant | £2.50 |
| Delay discharges grant | £1.24 |
| Market sustainability improvement workforce fund | £1.26 |
| Total contribution | £62.34 |
The ICO provides a diverse range of adult social care services including care management and social care support, as well as the cost of social workers, community care workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, finance and benefit assessors and support service staff.
Torbay Council’s contribution towards running costs aims to cover staff costs in addition to the costs of people’s care (outlined in more detail below).
The majority of money is spent on buying social care including residential, nursing, supported living and domiciliary care from independent providers. The majority of providers are based in Torbay, but some specialist residential care could be provided out of area if it cannot be provided locally. provided out of area if it cannot be. At budget setting for 2023/24. We were supporting 2,396 with adult social care; by March 2024 this number has increased to 2,619 - an increase of 223.
Net expenditure on the cost of care totalled £74.7million in 2023/24. This is the net figure after taking in to account people’s financial contributions towards the cost of their care.
Under national legislation people assessed as having a social care need are also given an individual financial assessment. This assessment can result in someone being asked to contribute towards the cost of any care that is put in place. The income collected from these contributions amounted to £18.6miliion in 2023/24.
The total (gross) expenditure on services was £93.3million and the allocation of this gross expenditure across different types of services is illustrated in the following chart.
View the Gross expenditure Breakdown in an accessible format
These services are provided to people aged 18 to 100, who have a range of needs such as learning disabilities, mental health issues, dementia, as well as sensory or physical disabilities, vulnerable people, and the frail and elderly.
We continue to face a number of challenges linked with sustained pressure from the health system and a marked increase in volume of people as mentioned above.
There has also been a continued increase in complexity which has seen the average cost of packages of care rising throughout the year (over and above any inflationary uplift).
Underpinning this is the dynamic between care work and hospitality work and the latter have increased renumeration to attract workers into their sector. To acknowledge this Torbay Council, through national adult social care market sustainability and improvement grant funding, has increased some rates of pay to residential, nursing and domiciliary providers. This rise in cost has continued despite the volume of clients tailing back, highlighting the impact of the net movement of people coming into the system at higher rates.
Financial outlook for 2024/25 and beyond
The 2024/25 fee setting process is now complete and a new structure has been shared with providers. The non-pay inflation/growth allocation for 2024/25 for adult social care is £4.3million and is based on an assumption of 1% growth and an average of 4% inflation (different percentages linked to different services).
We are all committed to ensuring resources are managed to ensure we can provide the best level of care, for the highest number of people.
Torbay Council and NHS Devon Integrated Care Board have acknowledged the pressures facing social care and to continue to believe that our integrated care organisation (ICO) is still best placed to manage these services The current agreement runs until 31 March 2025, and has been extended to 2029/30 by the recent signing of the new Section 75 agreement.
We have a long-standing partnership and history of delivering high quality care for the people of Torbay that is recognised nationally and internationally. This provides us with a robust foundation on which to build, taking the learning from our experiences, to support us to deliver the best outcomes while responding to the sustainability challenges we all face, both now and in the future. We strongly believe that supporting people to live independently within their communities can only be enabled by working together. These are the fundamental and founding principles of our integrated care organisation.
we do know, however, that we must be more ambitious to deliver a successful, sustainable future and fully support local people to live independent, healthy lives. We will do this by working with people from a strength-based position, making best use of the latest technology and digital innovation to improve people’s outcomes and experiences, learning from national and international best practice, further developing and empowering our excellent VCSE partners to support our communities and working with the people of Torbay to shape their future together.
Working closely together, we know that we can make many more improvements to local people’s outcomes and experiences which is a really positive place to be in. We fully recognise that change is never easy, and it will take a lot of hard work and determination to achieve our vision for Torbay. We are committed to supporting our staff, people and communities as we continue to evolve the way we provide care and support.
This new deal is a big step forward as we work together to improve how we live here in Torbay.
