In the ever-evolving landscape of health and social care funding, the conversation often revolves around cost rather than outcomes. Funders and commissioners meticulously track transactions – what was spent, where, and with whom – while the fundamental element in the process, the care itself, is missing.
This transactional approach to monitoring funding is not just outdated; it is misaligned with the principles of quality care. The 2015 Care Act emphasises proportionality in monitoring Personal Budgets:
“The Local Authority is required to satisfy itself that the Direct Payment is being used to meet the Care and Support/Support needs in the Care and Support/Support Plan. This monitoring should be proportionate to the needs being met and the risks of mismanagement”.
So why is it that commissioners monitoring a £3,000 Personal Budget apply the same transaction-based scrutiny as they would to a £100,000 budget, without monitoring the care that is delivered? It makes no sense at all.
Indeed, reviewing bank statements and transactions does little to reveal whether the allocated funds have led to improved health outcomes, or more importantly whether the care delivered actually lines up with the care and support plan in the first place.
Think about that.
Without a direct link between care plan, spending and care delivery, how can you measure the effectiveness or value of a care package, both in terms of the health outcomes for the individual or the financial management of the package? Surely, being able to look at this information is the cornerstone of measuring care outcomes.
And yet here we are, 20 years into the very laudable personalisation agenda, with funders still having very little knowledge of what personal care budgets are actually spent on.
But there is a solution. At Alocura we have addressed these growing concerns around oversight and transparency in budget management – while maintaining the choice and control that is so important in these settings – through our end-to-end cloud-based platform Rostrata.
Rostrata ensures that care planning, rostering, payroll, and budget management are all seamlessly integrated, providing real-time visibility into the quality and impact of care being delivered. By leveraging our technology, funders and providers can move from reactive, transaction-based oversight to proactive, outcome-driven decision-making.
Don’t think Rostrata is simply just another generic care rostering tool… it isn’t. Rostrata has been designed around the provision of information, for both commissioner and provider, to help them to work together in a more informed and open book manner.
How? Starting with the individual’s NHS number, Rostrata administers care plans through rostering, timesheets, payroll, budget checks and management reports. It provides commissioners and care providers with the desktop oversight they need not just to drive efficiencies and audit budgets, but to improve care quality outcomes and spot potential safeguarding issues.
If you plan a package of care effectively in our system to the agreed budget, you know at any point if staff with the correct competency levels are on site. You can see through the reporting the impact this care is having. And commissioners can then collaborate with their framework providers, through a common system, to ensure that the quality of care can be maintained within a responsible and affordable financial framework.
Saving money while increasing quality of care and providing great outcomes for people seems like some sort of utopia – but through our work with one provider who uses Rostrata in an open-book manner, it is genuinely possible. The amount of people they work with who have had to resort to long term hospital care has reduced dramatically. The testimonials they receive are remarkable.
And because they’ve got a transparent relationship with a funder who understands the benefits of full oversight, it means they can commit to improving the quality results for people that come with sustainable care.
Now that’s some outcome.