In my February post I talked about what your number 1 priority needs to be in order to secure the future sustainability of your care business.
In the March post I outlined how to make this happen.
These posts focused on making your care business prepared for the huge costs rises that will hit in April. This subject is too important to leave and so I’m staying on this theme for this post.
We’re now in April so in this post I’m going to talk about what you urgently need to do if you haven’t already and how I can help you if you’re struggling.
This month you are going to be hit with further cost rises.
On top of general increases in things like food and fuel and more specific rises like insurance, this month you are going to be hit with another annual hike in the national living and minimum wages, National Insurance and of course the rise in the energy cap by 54%.
And we know that, because of Putin, costs will continue to increase and remain high for a very long time simply because the world is so reliant on Russia for gas and we are reliant on Ukraine for wheat crops and fertilisers.
These cost rises are too large to ignore and for you to let your customers – your local council and CCG – ignore.
Now, you might argue, and your customers definitely will, that they are giving you an annual uplift to address your cost rises.
I can tell you without any shadow of doubt that if your uplift is not at least 10% then it won’t be enough.
One council that has offered a 4.7% uplift agreed to a short consultation period in March after discussions with the region’s care association. Basically, they said, Get us some provider cost increases to look at and we’ll review our uplift if they show it is not enough.
The care association asked me to run an impromptu workshop for care providers who received clients from this council. The association managed to get enough providers who came with their most recent costs and hourly rates and we went from there.
The workshop went extremely well and the council is looking at all the cost rises submitted.
The reason for telling you this is to strongly recommend that you do the same.
Even if it is too late to have your local council change its mind about your uplift and even though you may not have been given the opportunity to provide feedback, you absolutely should carry out the same costing rise forecast exercise because you need to know what your cost rises are going to be and so does your council.
Know Your Costs
These cost rises are going to impact your business. In the last couple of years, you lost at least 10% of your revenue because of the pandemic. Now, with these cost rises, you are going to lose a similar amount again. (The workshop resulted in cost rises between 9% and 14%.)
This is too much for you to ignore and hope things will be ok. So, please look at your numbers and work out if you need to increase your prices – your fees.
Your Local Council Need to Know
I know that carrying out this exercise probably won’t make a difference regarding the uplift, but if enough of you do this then it will send a clear message that they will struggle to ignore.
Your council need to know that your costs increases are far greater than the uplift they are offering and that they should expect you to be increasing your fees because that is what you are going to need to do for at least some of your clients if not all.
They need to receive the clear message that you have no choice but to increase your fees – like every other business is having to do – or else you will go under.
If you are a member of a care association and they haven’t spoken with your local councils on your behalf, then I recommend you speak to them and push that they do talk about the uplift being offered and highlight that it isn’t enough.
Your council may well agree to a consultation. If they don’t then ask your care association to collate your cost forecasts and submit them to the council. If they won’t then just do it yourself – forecast your cost rises and send an email to the head of commissioning.
At the very least, if enough care providers do this then local councils will receive a very strong message that fees are too low and are going to need reviewing.
And it will strengthen the negotiating position of all care providers because, having seen the numbers, councils will know that you need to increase fees.
At the time the care association asked me to run the workshop I was finishing a new report about what care providers need to do in order to secure the financial security of their care home or home care business.
Here is that report.
5 Steps to Make Your Care Business Financially Secure.
As you’ll see if you download the new report, the steps to forecasting your costs this year is covered by the first 4 steps. But of course, that’s just the first step. The remaining two steps outline what you need to do next to make sure your care business is financially secure this year and in future years.
