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Welcome to CMM: The Finance Edit, produced exclusively for UK Care Week 2023. In this supplement, we bring you advice, tips and updates from some of the sector’s biggest names in business.

Across the nation, 37% of Britons end the month without any money left, while 24% say that they run out of cash for essentials most months. These figures are indeed bleak, especially when we consider that care staff are some of the hardest-hit financially at the moment and providers are feeling the pinch, too. The findings come from a survey set up for the Together Through This Crisis initiative, founded by Save the Children, Turn2us, Little Village, Shelter and 38 Degrees. The poll questioned people in both the 100 most deprived and the 100 least deprived constituencies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Together Through This Crisis has written an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt asking them to ‘take action to ensure the crisis illustrated by these figures does not become the UK’s new normal’.

For care providers across the UK this ‘new normal’ is affecting all areas of business delivery. The war in Ukraine and the associated energy crisis, along with broader cost of living pressures, have all had an impact in the last year – and that is on top of the acute staff shortages and rapidly rising costs that were already putting pressure on most operators.

As we continue to keep afloat and deliver sustainable care services in 2023 and beyond, there’s no denying that planning ahead and calculating costs will prove an enormous challenge, but there are some positives and, as ever, there’s support available from the sector where the positives are harder to find.

The level of demand and volume of care homes transacted during 2022 was at a 14-year high. Most encouragingly, current market participants include a number of new European organisations who are looking to either enter the UK market or increase their presence through building on existing investments. On page 4, Rob Kinsman, Regional Director – Healthcare at Christie & Co, shares key insights relating to the care markets and forecasts for 2023.

As energy costs have increased, impacting the sector’s financial stability, Care England is mindful of another volatile year ahead, as some energy suppliers remain unreasonable with prices and deals available, seek excessive upfront deposits, and charge hefty risk premiums, coupled with a low appetite to offer competitive deals. Richard Ayres, Senior Social Care Advisor at Care England, shares valuable advice on how to review options and contracts effectively on page 7.

Social care providers have experienced inflation of 10.5% in December 2022 across many areas. Marr Procurement has sourced over £400m of temporary labour agency spend and has recorded 160 lessons learnt on how to cut agency costs without compromising on care quality. On page 10, Christoph Marr, Founder and Managing Director of Marr Procurement, explains what providers need to consider in view of escalating staff and business costs.

In CMM this year, Professor Vic Rayner OBE, Chief Executive of The National Care Forum, told providers that they are likely to find themselves having to manage some complex communications as they move between navigating fee rates with authorities and understanding the implication for self-funders to ensure sustainable services for the year ahead. On page 12, Dr Jane Townson OBE, Chief Executive of the Homecare Association, delves into the detail surrounding the latest Minimum Price for Homecare and how this relates to the rising costs of inflation.

If you’re still looking for information, the resources on page 14 should point you in the direction of further help. You can also sign up for free to the CMM website, where you’ll find thought-leadership on various topics, as well as a directory of organisations that specifically support adult social care providers.

We hope this supplement proves a useful tool for you to take away and refer to, or just to read and gather ideas.

The CMM Team