MONEY SAVING UPDATES

Secure the lowest possible energy rates available

How do care providers know who they should and shouldn’t listen to – who can genuinely save them money on their energy renewals and who are sales-led organisations incentivised to chase hidden commissions? The latter may leave the care provider with contracts that are not always in their best interest, resulting in overcharges or penalties. Since January 2023, Focus Energy Services has saved 100% of care providers up to 300% on their energy renewals and achieved the lowest possible rates via a care sector energy tender, which has never been seen before and caused quite a stir, and has helped secure the lowest possible energy rates and recovered millions of pounds in overcharges whilst unlocking benefits previously only open to the largest providers. Care providers whose energy renews in the next three years can participate and those who have already renewed may be entitled to a free audit to see if they can recover any incorrect charges.

To access these services contact: David Woodward on T: 01904 202294 M: 07969 590083 or E: david@focusenergyservices.co.uk and quote Care England.

Find solutions to increasing catering costs

Reduce agency costs by up to 20%

Challenges with agency staffing can be a huge distraction with hours spent sourcing staff, checking credentials and ensuring compliance, which can also result in non-attendance by the worker and a huge inconvenience and risk to the care provider. Neuven offers a best-inclass solution for health and social care agency staffing, whether the provider is a single service or operates multiple locations. Neuven reduces agency costs by up to 20%, often with the provider's existing trusted and dedicated care partners, by leveraging their £250m of agency spend and offering transparency, compliance reporting and enhanced administration to deliver increased agency performance at a reduced cost. They transact over 58 million hours per annum, saving clients millions of pounds whilst enhancing the agency service to over 1,000 care services offering 99.9% fulfilment and 100% compliance.

To discuss their services, contact: Ian Roth on M: 07759 834445 or E: ian.roth@neuvan.co.uk and quote Care England.

Catering is an integral part of care service provision and with food and beverage costs increasing by 35% in the last three years according to a Creed Foodservice report this autumn, the pressure to balance food service with cost pressures has never been more challenging.

Care providers can tackle some of the recent food inflation in a variety of ways, such as a food and beverage audit and by leveraging their spend with other care providers via a care sector catering tender, as well as by making appropriate substitutions without risking quality, by reducing waste, and by moving to semi-pared items. All these solutions have been packaged together by Creed Foodservice who can assist all care providers with inflation-busting solutions designed to sustain or increase quality and reduce cost to the care provider.

To participate in any of these solutions, contact: Andy Williams on M: 07753 498980 or E: andywilliams@creedfoodservice.co.uk and quote Care England.

Controlling consumable and equipment costs can deliver huge savings

Care, cleaning, continence, medical consumables, and equipment can be incredibly costly and complex for care providers to manage. This is in terms of stock levels and keeping track of usage and expenditure. Proactively controlling the purchasing of the correct items that use dedicated software, as well as ongoing support from a helpful account manager who provides management information on expenditure, is key to reducing costs.

Care home essentials that prioritise people, planet, and pocket

A dedicated and award-winning healthcare supplier to care homes, CareHomeLife is committed to making a positive difference for care homes to take advantage of significant savings resulting from more efficient ordering, MI, and consumption, as well as more sustainable choices, such as concentrates and auto-dosing. Personal protection and infection control are critical and costly areas to manage where huge savings can be made.

People: Success comes from being an extended family to care for and provide ongoing and proactive support.

Planet: Helping care homes to do more with less, using fewer but more effective products.

Pocket: CareHomeLife can save care providers up to 20% on their overall expenditure through a mix of savings in products purchased, staff time, effort, utility savings and waste reduction.

To take advantage of the potential savings and enhanced reporting and MI to significantly reduce costs, contact: CareHomeLife on T: 01772 425310 or E: info@carehomelife.co.uk and quote Care England.

Recover £30 per week per resident in VAT*

Most people’s eyes gloss over when we mention VAT, or they simply believe that it’s not applicable to care providers, which is not true! Care providers can recover VAT via local authority and NHS-funded placements, which has no impact on self-pay clients. Currently, more than half of local authorities and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) permit VAT recovery; however, that is changing. Even if your current local authority or ICB has not yet permitted VAT recovery, now is the time to lodge a claim. Three recent and very significant changes have paved the way for care providers to recover VAT.

An NHS paper in support of VAT recovery, a court hearing in favour of care providers and a legal case all support care providers to recover VAT of between £30 to £50 per week per resident. This can equate to around £30,000 per annum for an average care home of 30 beds with 60% of public-funded residents.

There may also be opportunities to recover up to four times that amount retrospectively meaning an average home could see up to £150,000 in VAT recovered and claims for groups would be commensurately larger. Care providers can lodge a claim to establish how much VAT they can recover and pay a success fee only when funds are recovered.

To lodge a claim, contact: Kieran Lynch on T: 0114 262 2127 or E: VATsupport@kieran-lynch.co.uk and quote Care England.

*Saving is based on an average care service with 30 service users and an average cost of care of £750 per week with a mix of 60% public-funded residents and their public funders agreeing to VAT recovery.

For more information on further discounts and free offers of support to all care providers, search ‘Care England Discounts’ to review multiple ways to save even more money on purchased goods and services.