Guidance

Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund 2024 to 2025

Updated 17 April 2024

Applies to England

This guidance is intended to support local authorities in administering the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund in 2024 to 2025. The guidance applies to England only.

Introduction

1.1. The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF or ‘the fund’) was announced at the autumn statement in November 2022. The primary purpose of the fund in 2024 to 2025 is to support local authorities to maintain improvements made from 2023 to 2024 within the fund target areas. This funding is also expected to support local authorities to seek further improvements to adult social care services in their area, in particular to build capacity and improve market sustainability.

1.2. Under section 5 of the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to promote the efficient and effective operation of the market for adult care and support as a whole. The ambition of the Care Act 2014 is for local authorities to influence and drive the pace of change for their whole market, leading to a sustainable and diverse range of care and support providers, continuously improving quality and choice, and delivering better, innovative and cost-effective outcomes that promote the wellbeing of people who draw on care and support.

1.3. The government considers that 3 vital target areas for improvement underpin the overarching objective of building capacity and improving market sustainability. These are:

• increasing fee rates paid to adult social care providers in local areas
• increasing adult social care workforce capacity and retention
• reducing adult social care waiting times

1.4. In 2023 to 2024, the fund was worth £562 million for adult social care, which included £162 million of continued funding from the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund 2022 to 2023. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) also announced the MSIF - Workforce Fund in July 2023, worth an additional £365 million to councils in 2023 to 2024.

1.5. In 2024 to 2025, we are combining these funds into one grant, totalling £1.05 billion allocated to local authorities for adult social care. This consists of:

• £845 million from the MSIF
• an additional £205 million from the MSIF - Workforce Fund

The table below shows how the total profile of the fund, when combined, increases by £123 million from £927 million in 2023 to 2024, to £1.05 billion to support further improvement in 2024 to 2025. The fund will be distributed using the adult social care relative needs formula. Full local authority allocations are available in the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund grant determination 2024 to 2025.

Table 1: MSIF funding in 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025

Year	MSIF use on target areas of local authority choice for improvement (£m)	Continued funding from the Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund 2022 to 2023 (£m)	MSIF - Workforce Fund (announced 28 July 2023) (£m)	Total value of MSIF for financial year (£m)
2023 to 2024	400	162	365	927
2024 to 2025	888	162	not applicable	1,050

Note on 2024 to 2025 social care resources

1.6. The 2024 to 2025 local government finance settlement consultation response sets a clear expectation that the additional funding being made available to adult social care this year must be used to maintain improvements made in 2023 to 2024. In addition, this funding is also expected to support local authorities to seek further improvements to adult social care services in their area, in particular to build capacity and improve market sustainability. Therefore, the funding within this grant is provided on the condition that it is used as part of a substantial increase in planned adult social care spending.

1.7. To monitor this, DHSC will initially compare the increase in the 2024 to 2025 revenue account (RA) budget for adult social care with the 2022 to 2023 budget (RA), having assumed (unless the local authority shows otherwise) that the following will be allocated to adult social care:

• an appropriate share of the local authority’s additional Social Care Grant allocation for 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025, in line with aggregate use of this funding in previous years^{[footnote 1]}
• the local authority’s share of the Discharge Fund for 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025
• the resources raised in 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 from the adult social care precept

We also expect local authorities to make use of the increase in income from unhypothecated sources. We expect spending on adult social care will increase by a necessary share of this income.

1.8. When outturn spending data for 2024 to 2025 becomes available in October 2025, DHSC will compare actual expenditure that year with the baseline year (2022 to 2023) to assess how local authorities’ expenditure has changed compared to the additional funding made available by the government.

Guidance on the grant conditions

1.9. The grant conditions that local authorities must meet have been set out in the grant determination. Guidance to support local authorities in complying with the grant conditions is set out below.

1.10. For clarity:

• the ‘£162 million element’ of a local authority’s allocation means the funding that was continued to maintain fee uplifts originally made as part of the 2022 to 2023 Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund, which must be used in accordance with paragraph 1.13
• the ‘£888 million element’ of a local authority’s allocation means the funding made available to be used on target areas of a local authority’s choice, as set out below from 1.12
• the MSIF 2024 to 2025 grant determination sets out the value of these elements within each local authority’s allocation

Condition 1

1.11. This is a ringfenced grant and each local authority must allocate its full grant allocation on adult social care.

1.12. Local authorities must spend their allocation of the £162 million element of the fund, continued from the previous 2022 to 2023 Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund, on maintaining these previously increased fee rates paid to adult social care providers. This should be achieved through sustained fee rate increases as opposed to non-recurrent fee uplifts.

Condition 2

1.13. The second condition is that the £888 million element of the fund must be used to maintain improvements made from 2023 to 2024. In addition to this condition, the government’s expectation is that local authorities should use this funding to seek further improvements in at least one of the target areas in 2024 to 2025.

1.14. The government has selected target areas for improvement that will help contribute to increasing adult social care capacity overall, while providing some flexibility to local authorities to best address local sustainability and improvement needs. Local authorities can choose which of the target areas they want to focus on. These target areas are:

• increasing fee rates paid to adult social care providers in local areas
• increasing adult social care workforce capacity and retention
• reducing adult social care waiting times

1.15. Each target area is linked to specific metrics that DHSC will use to monitor performance. These are set out in the ‘Activities and metrics’ section below. Though local authorities are only expected to seek improvement in one of these target areas, or more if they wish, they may use the funding across more than one area. Local authorities should ensure that, to the best of their ability, other target areas do not worsen. As such, local authorities must report on all of the metrics to provide assurance of that. Local authorities should decide how they choose to focus the funding on the target areas, in line with local circumstances and priorities.

Condition 3 (local authority returns)

1.16. Local authorities must provide DHSC with an initial and final 2024 to 2025 report to demonstrate that conditions and expectations of the grant have been met. Local authorities should use templates that are provided by DHSC.

1.17. As set out in the grant determination, the initial 2024 to 2025 report must be submitted by 11:59pm on 22 May 2024 and must include:

• confirmation that the local authority has allocated its share of the grant in full to adult social care, in line with condition 1
• confirmation that the local authority has used its share of the £162 million Fair Cost of Care component of the fund to maintain fee uplifts originally made as part of the 2022 to 2023 Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund
• confirmation of which of the 3 target areas the local authority will seek further improvements in (local authorities must select at least one), alongside planned spend on each
• reporting against all the required metrics set out in the ‘Activities and metrics’ section of this guidance

1.18. The final report (2024 to 2025) must be submitted by 11:59pm on 21 May 2025 and must include:

• confirmation that the local authority has spent its share of the grant in full on adult social care, in line with condition 1
• confirmation that the local authority has used its share of the £162 million Fair Cost of Care component of the fund to maintain fee uplifts originally made as part of the 2022 to 2023 Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund
• a completed ‘spend return’ section of the final report template
• a record of all the required performance metrics specified in this guidance (see the ‘Activities and metrics’ section)

Condition 4 (local authority returns)

1.19. In addition to the initial and final 2024 to 2025 reports, as in 2023 to 2024, local authorities must also submit an MSIF capacity plan, reporting on expected activity and capacity in long-term care services. This 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 and must submit this update to DHSC by 11:59pm on 10 June 2024. DHSC intends to publish a report, including the data provided by local authorities, following submission and analysis of returns. Local authorities will not be required to publish their own MSIF capacity plan return for 2024 to 2025. Provisional reporting templates and guidance on completing them is provided at Annex A.

1.20. Further information can be found from paragraph 1.48.

Activities and metrics

Introduction

1.21. This section provides further detail on the activities and metrics attached to the target areas:

• increasing fee rates
• increasing workforce capacity and retention
• reducing waiting times

These 3 areas of improvement are closely linked and interdependent. For example, to increase adult social care capacity and reduce waiting times, it may be necessary to recruit additional staff and retain the existing social care workforce. The primary mechanism by which local authorities can support their providers to retain staff and recruit new staff is often by increasing fee rates paid to them, and managing their contracts with providers well, to ensure fee uplifts are being used to improve workforce pay and conditions.

1.22. Local authorities can choose how they focus their allocation of the grant, including distributing it across the 3 target areas. However, as set out in the grant conditions, they must maintain improvements from 2023 to 2024, and are expected to seek further improvements in at least one of the target areas, measured by the performance metrics set out below.

Increasing fee rates

1.23. As set out in section 5 of the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to promote the efficient and effective operation of a market in services for meeting care and support needs, with a view to ensuring services are diverse, sustainable and high quality for the local population, including those who pay for their own care. Section 4.31 of the Care and support statutory guidance states the following:

When commissioning services, local authorities should assure themselves and have evidence that contract terms, conditions and fee levels for care and support services are appropriate to provide the delivery of the agreed care packages with agreed quality of care. This should support and promote the wellbeing of people who receive care and support, and allow for the service provider’s ability to meet statutory obligations to pay at least the minimum wage and provide effective training and development of staff.

It should also allow retention of staff commensurate with delivering services to the agreed quality, and encourage innovation and improvement. Local authorities should have regard to guidance on minimum fee levels necessary to provide this assurance, taking account of the local economic environment. This assurance should understand that reasonable fee levels allow for a reasonable rate of return by independent providers that is sufficient to allow the overall pool of efficient providers to remain sustainable in the long term.

1.24. As per the grant conditions, local authorities are required to maintain improvements that were made to fee rates in 2023 to 2024 when conducting fee-setting activity for the 2024 to 2025 financial year. Given the overall funding made available to local authorities in 2024 to 2025 for adult social care, we expect local authorities to consider the National Living Wage and inflationary pressures on providers in 2024 to 2025 when looking to maintain improvements in fee rates from 2023 to 2024.

1.25. If choosing fee rates as one of the target areas for 2024 to 2025, the government expects local authorities to seek fee rate increases beyond planned National Living Wage and inflationary fee uplifts, in addition to maintaining improvement from 2023 to 2024 as set out above. As with the MSIF guidance for 2023 to 2024, this may also include increasing fee rates in a wider range of adult social care service providers that were not originally in scope of the 2022 to 2023 Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund.

1.26. When setting fee rates for 2024 to 2025, local authorities should work with providers to ensure increased fee rates lead to improvements to providers’ operations, such as:

• staff pay, benefits and retention
• payment of travel time in domiciliary care
• improvements to service quality, such as eliminating call-cramming, and the ability to invest in estates and technology

Metrics

1.27. To assess whether improvement has been made on increasing fee rates beyond planned rises, local authorities must include their local average fee rates in the initial and final 2024 to 2025 reports to be shared with DHSC in May 2024 and May 2025. As with previous years, fee rate data will be published.

1.28. The proposed fee rate metrics are in line with those reported in 2023 to 2024 and are an expanded continuation of the improved Better Care Fund (iBCF) local authority fee rate collection which started in 2017 to 2018 via the Better Care team and was included as part of the Fair Cost of Care collection in 2022 to 2023.​ The service types will continue to include ‘18 to 64 residential care home’, ‘18 to 64 nursing care home’ and ‘18 and over supported living’, which were collected for the first time in 2023 to 2024. For each of the service types, we will ask local authorities to include the metrics set out below in their initial and final reports.

1.29. The initial 2024 to 2025 report (May 2024) must include the following metrics:

• final average external provider local authority fee rate in 2023 to 2024 (in-year data was already provided as part of the 2023 to 2024 MSIF collection - this is an opportunity to provide final or corrected data for 2023 to 2024 given that the financial year will have finished)
• average provisional^{[footnote 2]} external provider local authority fee rate in 2024 to 2025, from which we will calculate a percentage uplift from 2023 to 2024
• free text to provide additional context on the report if required

1.30. The final 2024 to 2025 report (May 2025) must include the following metrics:

• final average external provider local authority fee rate in 2024 to 2025 (this is an opportunity to provide final or corrected data for 2024 to 2025 given that the financial year will have finished)
• free text to provide additional context on the report if required

1.31. May 2024 and May 2025 fee rate data collections will cover the following service types:

• 65 and over residential care home
• 65 and over nursing care home
• 18 and over home care
• 18 to 64 residential care home
• 18 to 64 nursing care home
• 18 and over supported living

Workforce capacity and retention

1.32. Increasing fee rates for providers can support local authorities in working closely with providers to maintain previous improvements and seek further improvements in staff pay and benefits. However, local authorities could choose to use their allocation of the £888 million element of the fund to deliver other measures that address local workforce capacity pressures in adult social care through retention activity. This includes, but is not limited to investment in measures to support staff and boost retention of staff within social care - for example:

• using measures other than increased fees to improve workforce terms and conditions
• bringing forward planned uplifts relating to pay in advance of the new financial year
• occupational health and wellbeing measures
• incentive and retention payments
• investing in workforce training and qualifications

1.33. If focusing on this target area, the government expects local authorities to work closely with adult social care providers to determine how to best use the funding to maintain existing improvements from 2023 to 2024 and to seek further improvements. Local authorities should consider supporting the full range of adult social care providers on workforce capacity and retention, regardless of whether the local authority already commissions care from them.

Metrics

1.34. To assess improvements in workforce capacity at local authority level, DHSC will estimate a metric of workforce growth based on Capacity Tracker data:^{[footnote 3]}

• Care Quality Commission (CQC)-registered providers report their directly employed headcount in Capacity Tracker every month
• DHSC calculates a workforce growth measure at local authority level, based on the proportional increase in headcount in CQC-registered providers that are registered within the local authority. The raw data is cleaned to remove outliers
• the workforce growth measure is calculated separately for the domiciliary and residential sectors, for each local authority. We will estimate workforce growth between April 2024 and April 2025

1.35. This workforce metric replaces the previous workforce information that was collected as part of the MSIF returns in 2023. As it is produced by DHSC based on data that providers are already reporting through Capacity Tracker, there is no need for local authorities to collect their own workforce data from providers in 2024 to 2025. Local authorities must still collect and provide this data as part of the final 2023 to 2024 report due on 22 May 2024, to meet grant conditions from that year, as set out in the MSIF guidance 2023 to 2024.

1.36. The reporting template includes a free-text box that gives local authorities the opportunity to provide additional context to their return, such as activities undertaken to boost workforce capacity and retention. Further information can be found in the ‘Reporting’ section.

Waiting times

1.37. As set out previously, reducing waiting times for adult social care is another target area in which local authorities must maintain improvements from 2023 to 2024 and could choose to seek further improvements.

Metrics

1.38. DHSC previously asked local authorities to submit waiting time metrics as part of their 2023 to 2024 reports. To reduce reporting burdens, the department is not asking local authorities to submit this again for 2024 to 2025, but local authorities will still need to do this for their final 2023 to 2024 reports, as set out in the MSIF guidance for 2023 to 2024, to meet the grant conditions for that year. For 2024 to 2025, the department will monitor waiting times using the client level data (CLD) submitted for the year 2024 to 2025.

1.39. The department has been working alongside sector representatives to explore ways in which CLD can be used to monitor waiting times for local authority care.

1.40. To monitor waiting times, the department will look at metrics calculated using local authority submitted CLD data:

• DHSC will calculate waiting time metrics based on the average wait for new clients from request or referral to the service starting. The metrics have been designed to calculate waiting times retrospectively for those who receive services. We find a client’s first service, find the assessment for the same service type that occurred before the service and then find the request that happened before that
• separate waiting time metrics will be calculated for community care, residential care, nursing care and short-term care
• we are continuing to work with sector representatives on the development of waiting time metrics

1.41. DHSC plans to publish average times between request and assessment and request and service, broken down by service type, at local authority level as part of the monthly adult social care statistics publication, as part of future CLD publications.

Reporting

1.42. The following section provides details on the reporting requirements that local authorities must meet as part of the conditions of the fund. The reporting requirements aim to be proportionate to the fund and other reporting requirements that local authorities will need to meet in 2024 to 2025. However, the government recognises the added burden that completing returns in relation to the fund creates. As set out in the grant determination, to assist with the additional cost of completing the reporting requirements, local authorities may use up to £5,000 of their overall grant allocation, which cannot be exceeded.

1.43. Local authorities will be required to declare the amount spent on administrative costs in the spend report section of the final 2024 to 2025 report.

1.44. Local authorities must submit the following documents to: msifcorrespondence@dhsc.gov.uk:

• initial report by 11:59pm on 22 May 2024
• final report by 11:59pm on 21 May 2025
• MSIF capacity plan by 11:59pm on 10 June 2024

1.45. Paragraphs 1.17 and 1.18 specify what local authorities must submit in both their initial and final 2024 to 2025 reports. Provisional reporting templates and guidance on completing them are available in Annex A.

1.46. The report templates will also include free-text boxes where local authorities can provide additional data and context to their returns. Local authorities may choose to use this as an opportunity to explain the trends in each of the target areas.

1.47. DHSC reserves the right to amend the relevant dates for submission, update the means by which returns are submitted, and may provide alternatives in future, including a web-based system for greater efficiency.

MSIF capacity plan 2024 to 2025

1.48. In addition to the initial and final 2024 to 2025 reports, local authorities must submit a capacity plan (see provisional templates at Annex A) to the department. Local authorities must share this capacity plan with the department by 11:59pm on 10 June 2024. The capacity plan is designed to support local authorities in identifying potential capacity gaps and challenges they may face as a result, as well as establishing where increased activity may be necessary to meet population needs.

1.49. The capacity plan will report on activity and capacity in long-term services only. Data on short term services will be collected via the Better Care Fund (BCF) capacity and demand plans. Local authorities are encouraged to co-ordinate with the relevant integrated care boards through their local health and wellbeing board to ensure the information provided across both plans is consistent.

1.50. The service types included as part of the capacity plan are designed to match with those that the local authority reports as part of the existing annual Short and Long Term (SALT) data collection and through CLD. To enable a more detailed understanding of capacity reporting, in addition to reporting on overall ‘community’ service type, local authorities will also be asked to report on the ‘home support’ and ‘community supported living’ service components.

1.51. Local authorities will need to input the following into the capacity plan for each of the service types and their applicable unit of measurement:

• annualised commissioned total for 2023 to 2024. For each service type we will ask local authorities to report a) the number of clients accessing long term care during 2023 to 2024 and b) the number of ‘units’ of each service type commissioned during 2023 to 2024. The former matches closely with what local authorities already report as part of the existing SALT data collection and provides information in a ‘common currency’ across service types. The latter provides information on the commissioned units specific to each service type. For accommodation-based services, this will ask for the number of bed weeks commissioned during the year; for ‘home support’ this will be the number of contact hours commissioned; for ‘community supported living’ this will be the number of placements commissioned
• best estimate of 2024 to 2025 annual commissioned total. Local authorities will be asked to report their best estimate of how much of each service type they expect to commission across the 2024 to 2025 financial year. For each service type, local authorities are again asked to report their best estimate of both the number of clients accessing long term care during the year and the number of ‘units’ of each type of care commissioned as set out above. We will also provide space for comments and explanatory notes around any assessments of potential capacity gaps and/or contingency planning for how these might be addressed
• how the local authority expects to commission this care. Local authorities will be asked to report their best estimate of how they expect to commission care across 2024 to 2025. For each service type, local authorities will be asked to select a banded estimate that best approximates the percentage of total care they expect to commission according to structured contractual arrangements, block contracts or purchasing, spot purchasing, in-house provision and other methods
• best estimate of 2024 to 2025 commissioned total by quarter. In order to better monitor the information provided by each local authority during the year, we have taken steps to better align the data provided in the capacity plans with what will be reported via CLD. Since CLD is reported quarterly, the department will be able to compare how the activity actually commissioned during the year compares to what they expected to happen at the start of year, as reported in their capacity plan. To aid with these ‘in year’ comparisons, local authorities will be asked to report their best estimate of the care they expect to commission across 2024 to 2025 broken down by quarter
• best estimate of available capacity across 2024 to 2025. For each service type, we will ask local authorities to report the maximum capacity in their market that is available to the local authority in line with current commissioning practices. This will include reporting both the total number of clients they could support during 2024 to 2025 and the total units available. The units for each service type will be unchanged from the question on expected commissioned activity above
• estimated percentage of available capacity that local authorities expect to use. Local authorities will be asked to select the option that best describes their expected capacity situation in 2024 to 2025 for each service type
• best estimate capacity situation in each quarter of 2024 to 2025. Local authorities will be asked to select the option that best describes their expected capacity situation in each quarter of 2024 to 2025 for each service type. This will give local authorities the opportunity to indicate whether they expect their capacity situation to change during the year

1.52. Local authorities will need to report on the following qualitative information through the capacity plan:

• detail of what measures the local authority put in place during winter 2023 to 2024 to ensure sufficient capacity across its social care markets, and an assessment of how successful these measures were
• an assessment of any current capacity gaps within the local authority’s markets for a) long term nursing care, b) long term residential care and c) long term community care (in particular ‘home support’ and ‘community supported living’). This will include details on what the required capacity is, the available capacity in the market, the level of capacity that is currently affordable, and any intelligence on the ‘type’ of capacity available (for example, whether capacity has been commissioned in advance)
• an assessment of any future capacity gaps within the local authority’s markets for a) long term nursing care, b) long term residential care and c) long term community care with a focus on winter 2024 to 2025, including a detailed plan on how these capacity gaps will be addressed (that is, detail of any contingencies planned or in place)

Monitoring

1.53. Once the fund is implemented, the government will continue to work closely with local authorities to ensure the appropriate support is in place for meeting the grant conditions. To assess whether all conditions have been met, the department will formally review local authority returns. The list below contains examples of a breach of the grant conditions:

• inappropriate use of funding, or no evidence of the funding having been spent on the specified purpose
• failure to submit one or more of the documents specified at paragraph 1.44 and/or submission of incomplete documents, and/or documents that are not submitted by the deadline
• no evidence of maintenance of improvements from 2023 to 2024 in any of the target areas using the metrics outlined in the ‘Activities and metrics’ section of this guidance. DHSC will also consider information provided by local authorities through free-text boxes

1.54. If local authorities do not meet the grant conditions, the department will take steps to engage with them to better understand why, and to request further context about the activities undertaken in relation to the fund. Recognising that the fund runs over 2 years, the department will consider the performance of local authorities across this period when assessing final submissions. To assist local authorities with explaining their activities, the reporting templates will include free-text boxes that local authorities could choose to use to provide additional context to their returns.

Annex A: provisional reporting templates and guidance

Paragraphs 1.17 and 1.18 of this guidance set out what local authorities must submit as part of the initial and final 2024 to 2025 reports. Paragraphs 1.51 to 1.52 set out what must be submitted as part of the 2024 to 2025 capacity plan.

This section provides further detail on the reporting templates local authorities must complete for the above requirements. Each of these templates will be Excel based and local authorities must complete and return them to DHSC by the relevant date.

A final Excel version of the initial report template will be shared with local authorities in advance of the submission deadline of 22 May 2024.

A final Excel version of the capacity template will be shared with local authorities in advance of the submission deadline of 10 June 2024.

Templates should be submitted to the department by sending an email to msifcorrespondence@dhsc.gov.uk with the completed template attached.

Initial 2024 to 2025 report template

Local authorities must complete and return the initial reporting template to DHSC by 11:59pm on 22 May 2024.

As part of the template, local authorities must provide information regarding the spend return and the reporting metrics for each of the target areas. The information submitted as part of this initial report will provide the baseline against which local authority performance will be measured in the final report in May 2025.

Please note that in order to minimise the reporting burden on local authorities, the initial 2024 to 2025 report will be submitted in the same Excel template as the final 2023 to 2024 report.

Tables 2 to 7 below provisionally set out what the template will ask local authorities to complete. The tables are not final.

Blank cells are included in the tables to indicate where a local authority should provide an answer.   

Spend return

1. Select your local authority from the drop-down list. The funding allocation for the local authority chosen will then auto-populate.

Table 2

Description	Data item
Local authority name
Total MSIF funding allocation	Financial amount [Automatically populated]
- Of which continued Fair Cost of Care funding	Financial amount [Automatically populated]
Name of individual completing this return
Email address

2. Confirm whether the 2024 to 2025 MSIF funding has been allocated in full to adult social care.

Table 3

Description	Data item
Select response	Yes or no

3. Confirm whether the Fair Cost of Care portion of the funding has been used to maintain fee uplifts originally made as part of the 2022 to 2023 Fair Cost of Care Fund.

Table 4

Description	Data item
Select response	Yes or no

4. Confirm which of the target areas the local authority has decided to seek further improvement in for 2024 to 2025 (more than one target area can be selected).

Table 5

Description	Data item
Increasing fee rates to support market sustainability	Yes or no
Increasing workforce capacity and retention	Yes or no
Reducing waiting times	Yes or no

5. Confirm your planned spend on each of the target areas and administration costs as part of the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund.

Table 6

Description	Data item (£)
Total spending on increasing fee rates to support market sustainability (including Fair Cost of Care portion)
Increasing workforce capacity and retention
Reducing waiting times
Administrative costs of the fund
Total planned spend	[Automatically calculated]

6. (Optional) If you have chosen different target areas in 2024 to 2025 than 2023 to 2024, explain your decision. (Maximum 500 characters)

[Template will include a text box for comments.]

Fee rates

1. Report your average external provider fee rate for the following service types.

Table 7

Service type	Final average fee rate for 2023 to 2024 (£)	Provisional average fee rate for 2024 to 2025 (£)	Implied percentage uplift between 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 (%)
18 and over home care (£ per contact hour)			[Automatically calculated]
65 and over care homes without nursing (£ per client per week)			[Automatically calculated]
65 and over care homes with nursing (£ per client per week)			[Automatically calculated]
18 to 64 care homes without nursing (£ per client per week)			[Automatically calculated]
18 to 64 care homes with nursing (£ per client per week)			[Automatically calculated]
18 and over supported living (£ per blended hour, reflecting core and additional hours)			[Automatically calculated]

2. Detail any other fee uplifts not described by the categories above. If possible, provide the same information for these other fee uplifts as asked for in the table above. Alternatively, local authorities may wish to provide a link to their published ‘rate card’. (Maximum 1,000 characters)

[Template will include a text box for comments.]

Workforce capacity and retention

As detailed above, for 2024 to 2025, the data for the workforce capacity and retention target area will be reported using Capacity Tracker. There is therefore no requirement for local authorities to report workforce data using this template, since it will be collected directly from providers.

In order to ensure good data coverage and quality, local authorities are asked to encourage their providers to complete their Capacity Tracker returns.

Should the local authority wish to provide additional context on their return, such as planned activities to boost workforce capacity and retention, they should use the text box below to do so. (Maximum 1,000 characters)

[Template will include a text box for comments.]

Waiting times

As detailed above, for 2024 to 2025, the waiting times metric will be derived using data submitted by local authorities to client level data (CLD). Local authorities are therefore reminded of the importance of completing their CLD returns in an accurate and timely manner.

Should the local authority wish to provide additional context on their return, such as planned activities to reduce waiting times, they should use the text box below to do so. (Maximum 1,000 characters)

[Template will include a text box for comments.]

Final 2024 to 2025 report template

Local authorities must complete and return the final 2024 to 2025 reporting template to DHSC by 11:59pm on 21 May 2025.

The final report template will ask local authorities to provide updated information on each of the metrics collected in the initial report in May 2024. The department will use this information to measure performance against the relevant target area. The final 2024 to 2025 report is intended to follow the same general format and structure as the initial report set out above.

Updated MSIF capacity plan template

In addition to the initial and final 2024 to 2025 reports, local authorities must also submit capacity plans for 2024 to 2025. These provide insight into local adult social care market capacity, and assurance that plans are in place to meet local demand for different types of care.

Local authorities will be asked to report quantitative and qualitative data on the aforementioned capacity data by way of a template. This template will be Excel-based and must be submitted to msifcorrespondence@dhsc.gov.uk by 11:59pm on 10 June 2024.

The template will ask local authorities to report information on available capacity and the care they expect to commission for 2024 to 2025 across long term service types. The service types and units of measurement included as part of the capacity plan are designed to match with those that the local authority reports as part of the existing annual SALT data collection and CLD.

Tables 8 to 14 below provisionally set out what local authorities will need to complete for the capacity plan. The tables are not final.

Blank cells are included in the tables to indicate where a local authority should provide an answer.  

1. Select the name of your local authority and provide your contact details.

Table 8

Description	Data item
Name of local authority
Contact name
Email

2. Report annual commissioned totals by the local authority for the following long term support service types for 2023 to 2024.

Table 9

Service type	Unit	2023 to 2024 annual commissioned total	Comments
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (total); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Number of contact hours commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Number of placements commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (total); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Number of contact hours commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Number of placements commissioned during the year

3. Report your best estimate of the activity you expect to commission in 2024 to 2025 for each of the service types.

Table 10

Service type	Unit	2024 to 2025 annual commissioned total	Comments
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (total); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Number of contact hours commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Number of placements commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (total); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home Support); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Number of contact hours commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Number of placements commissioned during the year

4. For each service type, use the bandings provided (for example, 0% to 10%, 11% to 20%, 21% to 30% and so on) to indicate the proportion of the overall care and support provision you expect to commission through:

• a structured contractual arrangement (for example, lead care home provider for each zone)
• block contracts or purchasing
• spot purchasing (for example, through a framework or dynamic purchasing system)
• in-house provision
• other methods

Table 11

Service type	Unit	Proportion of overall care and support commissioned via structured contractual arrangement	Proportion of overall care and support commissioned via block purchasing	Proportion of overall care and support commissioned via spot purchasing	Proportion of overall care and support commissioned in-house	Proportion of overall care and support commissioned via other means
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (total); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home Support); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Number of contact hours commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Number of placements commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (total); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Number of contact hours commissioned during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the year
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Number of placements commissioned during the year

5. Report your best estimate of the activity you expect to commission in each quarter of 2024 to 2025 for each service type.

Table 12

Service type	Unit	Best estimate of quarter 1 commissioned total	Best estimate of quarter 2 commissioned total	Best estimate of quarter 3 commissioned total	Best estimate of quarter 4 commissioned total
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the quarter
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the quarter
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the quarter
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Number of bed weeks commissioned during the quarter
Long term support - community (total); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Number of contact hours commissioned during the quarter
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Number of placements commissioned during the quarter
Long term support - community (total); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Number of contact hours commissioned during the quarter
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Number of clients accessing long term support during the quarter
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Number of placements commissioned during the quarter

6. Provide your best estimate of the capacity that is available to the local authority across 2024 to 2025 in line with current commissioning practices for each service type. For the ‘percentage of capacity expected to be used’ column, select the response that best describes your capacity situation.

Table 13

Service type	Unit	Best estimate of maximum available capacity in 2024 to 2025	% of capacity expected to be used: select the option that best describes your situation
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over	Maximum total available bed weeks in 2024 to 2025
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64	Maximum total available bed weeks in 2024 to 2025
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - residential; 65 and over	Maximum total available bed weeks in 2024 to 2025
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64	Maximum total available bed weeks in 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (total); 65 and over	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over	Maximum total available contact hours in 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over	Maximum total available placements in 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (total); 18 to 64	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64	Maximum total available contact hours in 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Maximum number of potential supported clients for 2024 to 2025
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64	Maximum total available placements in 2024 to 2025

7. From the drop-down menu, select the option that best describes your expected capacity situation for each service type in each quarter of 2024 to 2025.

Table 14

Service type	Select the option that best describes your expected capacity situation in quarter 1 2024 to 2025	Select the option that best describes your expected capacity situation in quarter 2 2024 to 2025	Select the option that best describes your expected capacity situation in quarter 3 2024 to 2025	Select the option that best describes your expected capacity situation in quarter 4 2024 to 2025
Long term support - nursing; 65 and over
Long term support - nursing; 18 to 64
Long term support - residential; 65 and over
Long term support - residential; 18 to 64
Long term support - community (total); 65 and over
Long term support - community (home support); 65 and over
Long term support - community (supported living); 65 and over
Long term support - community (total); 18 to 64
Long term support - community (home support); 18 to 64
Long term support - community (supported living); 18 to 64

In addition to the data above local authorities must also provide the following qualitative information:

8. Provide details of what measures were put in place during winter 2023 to 2024 to ensure sufficient capacity across your social care markets, and an assessment of how successful these measures were.

[Template will include a text box for comments.]

9. Provide an assessment of any current capacity gaps within your markets for a) long term nursing care, b) long term residential and c) long term community care (with a particular focus on home support and supported living). Include details on what the required capacity is, the available capacity in the market, and the level of capacity that is currently affordable.

[Template will include a text box for comments.]

10. Provide an assessment of any future capacity gaps within your markets for a) long term nursing care, b) long term residential and c) long term community care with a focus on winter 2024 to 2025, as well as a detailed plan on how these capacity gaps will be addressed.

[Template will include a text box for comments.]

11. (Optional) Provide any additional information or context regarding the proportion of care commissioned using different methods that you provided banding for in question 4 of the quantitative return [set out above in this guidance].

[Template will include a text box for comments.]

1. Revenue outturn (RO) data for 2022 to 2023 shows that out of all local authority expenditure on social care, 62% was on adult social care and 38% on children’s social care. The government will use this data as an assumption when modelling expected spend on social care by local authorities. Source: Local authority revenue expenditure and financing England: 2022 to 2023 individual local authority data - outturn. ↩

2. We define ‘provisional’ as follows: at the time of data collection in May 2024, external provider fee uplifts should have been decided by each council but may not yet have flowed through into actual care packages commissioned, or actual payments made to care providers. Councils should report a fee rate that best reflects the actual average fee rate (including uplifts) that they expect for the 2024 to 2025 financial year. ↩

3. See Adult social care in England statistics: background quality and methodology. ↩