1. Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – July 2024 – DEADLINE 2 August 2024 (information for all Birmingham and contracted care homes)
2. Updated 2024/25 Fee Summary (All contracted care providers)
3. REMINDER UPDATED Cost of Care Exercise 2024 – Action required 18 August 2024 deadline – (Younger adult (18-64 yrs) care homes and supported living services located in Birmingham and the West Midlands region, and which are contracted to Birmingham City Council and Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System
4. Message from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Interim Chief Executive (Information for all providers)
5. Message from the Capacity Tracker team regarding system down time dates (information for all providers)
6. Edgbaston Neighbourhood Network Scheme Dementia Friendly Carnival Event 20 July 2024 (information for all Birmingham providers)
7. REMINDER Digital Social Care (DiSC) and Digital Care Hub webinar 23 July 2024 (information for all providers
8. REMINDER Birmingham City Council Social Value Briefing remaining July 2024 session (information for contracted care home and supported living providers)
9. Skills for Care update for July and August 2024 (information for Birmingham and Solihull providers)

1. Care Homes Market Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) – July 2024 – DEADLINE 2 August 2024 (information for all Birmingham and contracted care homes)

Please find the link to the July 2024 quarterly MIQ below

Care Home MIQ – July 2024

The deadline for completion is Friday 2 August 2024

This questionnaire is issued quarterly. Details of the questions are included in the attached briefing. Completion of the questionnaire is part of the terms of our current contracts for contracted providers, but we ask all Birmingham providers to take part in the process to help us meet our responsibilities to all Birmingham citizens. Many thanks to staff at the care homes who completed the previous questionnaires. If this did not include your care home, please ensure that you complete the July and subsequent editions.

The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect information to assist our market shaping and development role, the production of our Market Position Statements, fulfil our Care Act duties around ensuring a quality and sustainable market, to help us direct resources, identify areas of risk, and monitor progress towards our strategic aims. It has been co-produced with health colleagues to reduce duplication in data collection, and has been streamlined so that we are only collecting information that is not available to us from elsewhere e.g. the Capacity Tracker.

Further information about our approach and how the data we are asking for will be used and a PDF version of the questionnaire have been circulated to providers. The PDF version is for review in advance of starting to complete the on-line the questionnaire. To request copies of the documents, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

2. Updated 2024/25 Fee Summary (All contracted care providers)

Please see the link to the updated 2024/25 Fee Summary on our website

Care fees | Care fees, invoicing, variations and top ups | Birmingham City Council

The previous document contained some incorrect percentages, and these have now been corrected and the document revised. There is no change to the fee rates paid from the previously issued document.

3. REMINDER UPDATED Cost of Care Exercise 2024 – Action required 18 August 2024 deadline – (Younger adult (18-64 yrs) care homes and supported living services located in Birmingham and the West Midlands region, and which are contracted to Birmingham City Council and Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System)

On 8 July we launched our 2024 cost of care exercise. This year’s exercise is being carried out jointly by Birmingham City Council (BCC) and our NHS partners Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (BSol ICS).

This year’s exercise will focus on gathering cost data in relation to supported living services and younger adult care homes located in Birmingham and the West Midlands region, and which are contracted to the BCC and BSol ICS. For care providers contracted to Birmingham City Council, completion of the exercise is a requirement of the contract and therefore mandatory.

As in previous years the exercise requires you to submit a range of data in relation to the costs of delivering care and support services. The data we gather will help the Council and NHS understand costs across the care market and inform the fees we pay. We will not share your individual data without your permission, but we will aggregate the data received and will publish the outputs of the analysis ensuring anonymity.

Please submit your cost of care templates to costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk in advance of the deadline – 11.59pm Sunday 18 August 2024.

If you need to ask a question, email costofcare@birmingham.gov.uk

Supported Living services:

You are required to complete the Supported Living Costing Tool 2024 Tab I. – Standard (Cost +) only. The tool and guidance have been circulated to providers. If you don't have copies, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

Submission deadline - 11.59pm Sunday 18 August 2024.

Younger Adult Care homes (18-64 years old):

You are required to complete the Care Home Costing Tool 2024. The tool and guidance have been circulated to providers. If you don't have copies, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk. N.B. please use the costing tool in the message and not that circulated with the launch message on 8 July 2024, as this contained a small error in the operating profit calculation function. If you have already submitted your return, it does not materially affect the data you have supplied and we will amend the calculation on your submitted form.

Submission deadline - 11:59pm Sunday 18 August 2024.

Thank you in advance for your participation and timely submissions.

4. Message from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Interim Chief Executive (Information for all providers)

A message from Kate Terroni, Interim Chief Executive, about the issues providers have experienced with the implementation of the new regulatory approach and outlining three area of immediate action they will be taking, has been circulated to providers. To request a copy, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

5. Message from the Capacity Tracker team regarding system down time dates (information for all providers)

As part of the continuous improvement programme, the Capacity Tracker team are making some changes to the system that will improve the performance of Capacity Tracker. To minimise disruption to system users, these changes will be made over two weekends in the forthcoming weeks and Capacity Tracker will be unavailable during the following periods, users will be unable to access the system;

Saturday 20 July 2024 between 10:00am and 6:00pm.

Saturday 17 August 2024 between 10am and 6pm.

If you have any questions regarding this planned maintenance or require any support in advance of the maintenance periods, please contact the Support Centre, Monday to Friday (excluding Public Holidays) 8:00am to 5:00pm by phone: 0191 691 3729 or email: necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net

6. Edgbaston Neighbourhood Network Scheme Dementia Friendly Carnival Event 20 July 2024 (information for all Birmingham providers)

Edgbaston Neighbourhood Network Scheme are proud to present their second Sounds of Sunshine Carnival. The event is family, carer and dementia friendly and is free of charge. A poster with more information has been circulated to providers. To request a copy, email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

For more information about the event, email: leafcreativearts@gmail.com or phone 07746 642 387

7. REMINDER Digital Social Care (DiSC) and Digital Care Hub webinar 23 July 2024 (information for all providers)

DiSC have commissioned Digital Care Hub to facilitate a number of webinars for the adult social care sector. The remaining event of the first series is as follows;

23 July 2024 2024 2:00pm – 3:30pm What do standards mean for me - Claire Hessey, DiSC senior programme manager will be talking through the DSCR standards and the link to the ASL

MASTERCLASS: What are data standards? Tickets, Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 2:00 PM | Eventbrite​

Digital Care Hub will be facilitating a further range of webinars over the coming months, so please do check their website regularly to share with your providers;

Events | Digital Social Care (digitalcarehub.co.uk)

8. REMINDER Birmingham City Council Social Value Briefing remaining 23 July 2024 session (information for contracted care home and supported living providers)

Commissioners are currently in the process of facilitating briefing sessions for Care Homes to discuss your responsibilities under the Flexible Contracting Arrangements 2023 (FCA) regarding Social Value. As part of the FCA 2023 all care homes are required to complete and submit a yearly action plan. Failure to comply may result in a contract breach and contractual compliance interventions by Birmingham City Council.

The briefing sessions will be facilitated by Rokneddin Shariat - Policy and Governance Manager. Also in attendance will be Osaf Ahmed, Commissioning Manager and Sharon Muxworthy Commissioning Manager.

23 July 2024 12.00 – 1.30 pm via Microsoft Teams

Meeting ID: 386 837 034 427 Passcode: ZaXHfC

Please familiarise yourselves with Schedule 17 of the FCA and the social value action plan attached below in advance of the meeting, attached for convenience. We look forward to meeting you at the briefing.

9. Skills for Care update for July and August 2024 (information for Birmingham and Solihull providers)

An update for Birmingham and Solihull from Skills for Care for July and August has been circulated to providers on the day that the National Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy is published. If you don't have a copy, please email marketintelligence@birmingham.gov.uk

You can find this strategy on the Skills for Care website.