Purpose

It is necessary to take this urgent decision
to ensure that care providers delivering Adult Social Care services
receive notification of uplifts before the start of the new
financial year (2024/25) on the 1st April 2024.
Finance and ASC officers have recognised the flawed nature of prior
decision-making arrangements, and are looking to swiftly remedy the
situation with an OED this year. With this learning in mind, a more
robust process will be instituted for next year to authorise
release of the annual uplift following budget approval. An OED will
not be required next year to expedite the necessarily swift
turnaround.
This year, Full Council budget authorisation was delayed until 29
February 2024. In addition, officers have needed additional time to
recalculate prices in line with the new Single Framework capped
rates.

Content

To allow the Executive Director to allocate
the annual inflationary uplift allocation of £7.619m plus use
of Market Sustainability and Improvement Grant on third party
payments to Adult Social Care providers. The average uplift works
out just over 4% in line with inflation calculations, working
within the ASC contractual framework.