Our Priorities
Care England’s priority is to support its membership in addressing the systemic challenges faced by the care sector. We seek to enable care providers to consistently deliver exceptional services while ensuring value for money and empowering those in need of care.
Across our five strategic priorities we have set out ambitions we aim to deliver on for our members and the sector.
Our Priorities for Funding
- Work with local and central government to agree a long-term funding settlement beyond 31 March 2025.
- Institute a common language, standard methodologies, and benchmarking facilities for a unified approach among different Local Authorities with commercially neutral terms that serve the interest of commissioners, providers and service users.
- Uplifts should be announced within the month of April annually by all Local Authorities and ICBs, in accordance with both the Care Act 2014 and the NHSE Payment Scheme 2023-25, to ensure that care providers can better plan and prepare for the forthcoming financial period.
To view the latest funding resources and guidance, please click here.
Our Priorities for Workforce
- Work with local and national government to ensure that 2024/25 uplifts account for the 9.8% increase in the NLW, with a view to developing a sustainable pathway to higher wages in the sector.
- Lay the foundations for a fully funded long-term workforce plan, akin to that of the NHS, which addresses recruitment and retention barriers, promotes career progression with a clear skills and competencies framework, professionalises the workforce and promotes equality, diversity and inclusion.
- Work with commercial partners to deliver solutions that attract the right people into a career in care and support them to remain in the workforce in the long term.
To view the latest workforce resources and guidance, please click here.
Our Priorities for Regulation
- Work with the CQC and providers to ensure the Single Assessment Framework promotes a culture of transparency, consistency and equity that serves as the foundation for quality improvement and innovation across an integrated care system.
- Utilise wider independent bodies such as the Health and Social Care Select Committee and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to scrutinise the performance of the CQC.
- Continue to call for a greater priority to be placed on reinspecting services where improvement has been made, rather than solely focusing on services presenting risk.
To view the latest regulation resources and guidance, please click here.
Our Priorities for Digital Transformation
- Continue to develop a cyber-security and data protection package for care providers that is scalable and offers software and training without causing great pressure on organisational resources.
- Through the National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) Working Group, continue to advocate for a NMDS to provide direct benefit to care service operations, without generating further data burden or duplication.
- To work with sector partners to help prepare care providers for the digital switchover in 2025. Care providers need to be best placed to transform their services, including the allocation of resources, the maturing of digital skills and the maintenance of infrastructure.
To view the latest Digital Transformation resources and guidance, please click here.
Our Priorities for Integration
- To assist with the development of Integrated Care System digital programmes by helping connect and foster relationships between systems and local care providers.
- To develop a proposal for the Government that outlines how Integrated Care Boards should work with the adult social care sector in developing hospital discharge pathways and new models of care that effectively utilise local capacity and meet local needs.
- To advocate for more integrated data platforms between all health and social care digital systems, including Local Authorities, to better allow service user data to be accessed by the right caregiver, whether that be in health or social care, and reduce the burden of commissioning processes.
To view the latest Integration resources and guidance, please click here.
