CareCubed Updates

At iESE we listen to user feedback from providers and local authorities on the CareCubed tool to continually develop its functionality and usability. We update the data behind the tool annually to reflect market changes and sometimes carry out an extraordinary release such as in November 2022 which took account of the cost-of-living crisis.

As a not-for-profit organisation with a desire to improve local government and its services at its heart we see CareCubed as a key tool for councils, Integrated Care Boards and providers to help them gain visibility and transparency around care costs, ensure sufficiency in the market and assist them in strategically shaping their care markets going forward. We regularly work collaboratively with clients to incorporate updates they feel would improve the tool’s useability. We also regularly make our own improvements and updates to the tool.

Recent CareCubed developments and upcoming changes include:

• November 2022 update

This extra release was issued to allow local authorities to consider provider increases in their cost base due to the cost-of-living crisis and staff shortages. The main changes were to allow inputting of agency costs, occupancy rates and running costs related to food, utilities and fuel (see the news story on page 2 for more information). This has proved critical for councils considering uplift requests.

• Steering group

We are in the process of appointing an advisory group of members across providers and commissioners to help give a strategic steer on development priorities and develop best practice on how to make best use of CareCubed in a constructive, collaborative discussion between provider and commissioner. The group will meet around three times a year, with the first meeting set to take place early in 2023 where a key agenda item will be agreement of terms of reference for the group.

• Future release

Our standard updated release at the end of March 2023 will incorporate changes to the National Living Wage (NLW) increase. The majority of care staff are paid around the NLW so there will be a significant cost impact for providers. Local authorities should expect some corresponding price impact and uplift requests which CareCubed can help evidence and model in advance.

• Platform update

We are currently undertaking major development of the CareCubed platform to make it more powerful and allow us to develop new functionality at pace. When this takes place, the data will migrate across seamlessly. Users won’t see any obvious changes to the way the system looks but there should be a noticeable change in platform processing speed. Further information will be provided in due course.

How we support you

Our team of experts are on hand to help with any questions you may have relating to the product and demonstrations, onboarding and embedding the tool, implementation training, ongoing consultancy, and queries around usage.

A CareCubed subscription includes a range of support which we encourage customers to fully utilise. These value-adds include:

• Helpdesk

Users can access helpdesk support by emailing carecubed@iese.org.uk or by completing a support webform at www.iese.org.uk/carecubed-support.

Our helpdesk is available 09:00-17:00 MondayFriday (excluding bank holidays). Customers are also allocated an Account Manager who will manage the business relationship and contract.

• Online support

Online support is available within the CareCubed application to guide users through processes in the tool. The help menu contains several walk-through tutorials, instructional videos and resources, such as our User Guide and Costs & Assumptions guide.

• CareCubed Community

The exclusive CareCubed online community has around 350 registered users. It is a space where clients can ask iESE questions and interact with each other on common issues and share best practice and provider insights. It is necessary to be part of the community to get invites to our monthly User Forums and access recordings of previous forums – please make sure you are registered.

• User Forums

Our monthly User Forums take place on Teams. They are free to attend and help bring users together to share their experiences of using the tool and share ideas for its functionality. We have recently changed the format so that these are now chaired by a customer and driven by whatever their current challenges or CareCubed learnings are. Our most recent session, for example, was hosted by Bristol City Council on negotiating with providers.

• Implementation support

We offer a range of training and services focused on understanding where CareCubed can help on a dayto-day basis and on a wider strategic level through our partner organisation Peopletoo (see page 10 for more information). Other support, such as system training and negotiating skills, and tactical delivery sessions are also available to focus on specific cases, negotiations or challenges faced by our customers.

• CareCubed Charter

Our fair care fair price charter developed in conjunction with councils and providers aims to act as a protocol for users and sets the expected behaviour and principles for both parties when using CareCubed, but also more broadly through the commissioning process. It is hoped that by actively applying the principles within the charter, commissioners and providers are more likely to build trust and mutual respect, achieve a better balance of risk and streamline the negotiation process. We invite all local authorities and care providers to sign up to the principles outlined in the charter. You can sign up to the charter here: www.iese.org.uk/carecubed-charter

• Directors’ Briefing sessions

We offer existing and prospective customers access to our informative Directors’ Briefing sessions which cover a range of important topics that CareCubed can support with. In these sessions we share case study examples of the benefits (including big savings) being delivered both for commissioners and providers and provide a reminder of the package that is available to help ensure you are getting the maximum return on investment. These sessions are aimed at relevant directors and assistant directors. Our next round of Director’s Briefings are in February 2023, to book onto an upcoming Directors’ Briefing please contact: annabelle.atkin@iese.org.uk