ISSUE 37
In print and online interactive publication | www.iese.org.uk
CareCubed: What are the benefits? Find out more about the National Care Costing tool Upcoming CareCubed developments Work with us to develop a SEND module
Also inside: • How CareCubed can support the children’s market • The extensive range of CareCubed support • CareCubed implementation help for new customers
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Page 2 Introduction from Dr Andrew Larner, Chief Executive at iESE. CareCubed’s new website and upcoming exhibitions. Page 3 What is CareCubed? Page 4 Recent CareCubed updates and planned developments. Page 5 SEND, Alternative Provision and supported accommodation and CareCubed. Page 6 Get ahead of the children’s care sector reform. Page 7 CareCubed support update. Page 8 Implementation support from Peopletoo.
CareCubed creates a fair and sustainable market
EDITORIAL CONTACTS TRANSFORM IS PRODUCED BY: iESE www.iese.org.uk Email: enquiries@iese.org.uk @iESELtd CREDITS: Designed by SMK Design (Aldershot) Editorial by Vicki Arnstein Views expressed within are those of the iESE editorial team. iESE Transform is distributed to companies and individuals with an interest in reviewing, remodelling and reinventing public services.
he pressure on both adult and children’s social care T commissioners and providers has never been greater. Ensuring every penny is spent on delivering positive outcomes for residents is paramount, with councils needing to strike a balance between getting value for money and creating a sustainable market by supporting current care providers and encouraging new entrants into the market.
Dr Andrew Larner,
Chief Executive CareCubed plays an ever more important role, with both providers and commissioners relying on its robust evidence base to support day-to@LaverdaJota day commissioning and brokerage processes, but also increasingly using the tool for procurement processes, financial analysis and market shaping activities too. We continue to work with key partners and our advisory board, which is made up of a mix of representatives from councils, care providers and associations, as we move towards achieving our goal of a single national approach that delivers value and outstanding outcomes to everyone involved. With 60 per cent of councils now using the tool for children and young people or adults, or both, and several hundred care providers also onboard, we are getting closer to that goal of a single ‘currency’ for pricing care packages. If you are not already using CareCubed, you are missing a vital tool in the armoury to support you through these challenging times. We hope you enjoy this issue, please get in touch if you need any further information or have any questions.
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New CareCubed website A NEW, DEDICATED CARECUBED WEBSITE IS BEING LAUNCHED WHICH WILL BRING ALL THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NATIONAL CARE COSTING TOOL TOGETHER ONTO ONE PLATFORM. The user-friendly site, which will be live in November, will act as a one-stop shop to allow existing customers to access the tool and easily find answers to common questions. It will also allow interested parties to find out more about CareCubed, read case study examples highlighting how other organisations are using the tool, and provide useful news, research, and sector information for anyone working in Health and Social Care. Craig White, Head of Business Development at iESE, said: “CareCubed is iESE’s flagship product and nationally recognised brand in its own right. The time is right to create a new, dedicated website for the product whilst maintaining the important link to our parent company iESE and its values as a not-for-profit for the good of the sector.” The rich twenty-year history of the tool and our credentials as the experts in care costing and benchmarking will also be prominent. “Looking back at the milestones in our history, it really does act as a reminder of the unrivalled combination of tools, skills and experience we offer commissioning authorities and providers. We have done this for longer than anyone else, are the only national care costing and benchmarking solution on the market and continue to invest significantly to improve the tools to meet future challenges,” he added.
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CareCubed on tour! CARECUBED AIMS TO BE PRESENT AT RELEVANT IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL CONFERENCES THROUGHOUT THE CALENDAR YEAR. WE ATTEND EVENTS AS EXHIBITORS TO ALLOW THOSE WORKING IN THE ADULT OR CHILDREN’S CARE SECTOR TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE TOOL. See below for a list of events that we are hosting or attending over the coming months: 11th-12th October 2023 | National Social Care Conference 2023 This event, taking place in Wales in Llandudno, is a showcase and networking opportunity for the Welsh social care sector for both the adults and children’s markets. CareCubed will be there with an exhibition stand. Find out more: https://nscc.cymru/ 29th November-1st December 2023 | NCASC Conference 2023 The National Children and Adult Services Conference, taking place in Bournemouth, is aimed at all those from local and central government, voluntary organisations, and the private sector with an interest in the provision of effective services for children, young people, their families, and vulnerable adults. CareCubed will be hosting an exhibition stand. Find out more: https://ncasc.info/ 7th-8th December 2023 | National Commissioning and Contracting Training Conference CareCubed is exhibiting and holding a workshop in partnership with Surrey County Council at this conference in Derbyshire where officers will present around how it uses CareCubed for its adult services. Find out more: https://www.ncctc.co.uk/event-dates 14th March 2024 | Care England Conference The CareCubed team will be attending the Care England Conference in London as delegates. Find out more: https://www.careengland.org.uk/events/careengland2024conference/ 24th-26th April 2024 | ADASS Spring Seminar The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services conference, taking place in Bedford, allows members to share knowledge and understanding of critical issues, challenges, and effective practice in adult social care. CareCubed will be there with an exhibition stand. Find out more: https://www.adass.org.uk In addition to these in-person events, CareCubed is also hosting two upcoming online customer Spotlight Presentations for Local Authorities. To book or find out more please contact annabelle.atkin@iese.org.uk 14th and 17th November 2023 | Balancing the Books and Creating a Sustainable Market This session will be led by Diana Sherwood, iESE Associate Consultant. 16th and 21st November 2023 | Integrating Cost Monitoring into the Commissioning Process This session will be led by Max Chester from Lancashire County Council
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What is CareCubed? CareCubed is a secure online platform which is rapidly becoming recognised as the National Care Costing tool by both care commissioners and providers. With an ever-increasing customer base of local authorities and providers, CareCubed is a low-cost product that delivers immediate benefits and helps create a fair and sustainable market. areCubed is the only nationally recognised C digital care costing solution built on robust evidence and data. Used tactically on a dayto-day basis to support negotiations between commissioners and providers by providing a consistent, single ‘language’ for open, transparent discussions around care packages and costs, the tool offers immediate feedback on costs and a benchmark price based on the unique service or based on the needs of the individual. Figuring out the cost to deliver a wide spectrum of care packages is complex, but CareCubed has been built to handle all the variations in different cohorts, care settings, age groups, geographies and staffing to name a few. It is used daily for new placements and brokerage, reviews, and uplift processes to provide an independent benchmark which is used by providers and commissioners in a consistent manner. There are four modules currently offered as an annual subscription for care commissioners and providers: CareCubed for Working Age Adults, CareCubed for Older Persons, CareCubed for Children & Young People and CareCubed for Health. There are two licence types. A core licence, which allows unlimited users to work on the cohorts of cases within a local authority, and the place-based licence. The place-based version of the tool has the same functionality but also allows the local authority to give controlled access to care providers and health service colleagues within a single licence fee. Care providers can also purchase a licence directly, which has multiple benefits, including removing the need to keep duplicating cost of care information requests for different local authorities, talking the same language as care commissioners and reducing the business risks.
Who is using CareCubed? CareCubed is now used by 60% of all councils in England and more than 50 care providers.
CareCubed has a user group and advisory board made up of sector experts from both health and social care commissioners and providers.
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CareCubed’s clear and visually appealing outputs have helped take the heat out of negotiation. CareCubed reduces uncertainty for us as a provider, and promotes greater collaborative working with commissioners and shared accountability for changes.
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Lynsey Robertson, Director of Business Development and Programme Management, The Disabilities Trust
Maria Zazovskaya, Resource Manager for the Children & Families Placement Management Unit at The London Borough of Hackney
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Time to sign? Underpinning CareCubed is an ethos of collaborative working to provide better outcomes for clients. When new customers join CareCubed – care providers or local authorities – they are encouraged to sign up to the CareCubed Fair Price Fair Care Charter. This is an online register of organisations which are committed to working positively together for greater good. Signing the online document, which was co-designed by both local authorities and providers, demonstrates the commitment of an organisation to adhere to the principles and guidelines to engage in an open, transparent, fair, and collaborative commissioning process.
CareCubed Place-Based has been a god-send for us in Bristol! It has provided us with an intuitive solution that can be accessed by providers to submit the costings of each of their services. This has made the process quick and easy and reduce the resource required for both the council and care providers. CareCubed and our new approach has been very well received by providers.
Jonathan Wright, Strategic Commissioning Manager, Bristol City Council
• Sign up to the Charter or find out more here: www.iese.org.uk/carecubed-charter
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We want to improve the relationships with our providers which is why it is quite helpful having a robust model based on data for us to talk through and collaborate. This changes the conversation and leads to a more open, transparent, constructive discussion
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The CareCubed Community is used by more than 550 commissioners and brokers to share ideas, intelligence and collaborate across multiple councils.
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CareCubed updates and developments
As CareCubed version 17 gets ready to launch, work behind the scenes continues on the development and improvement of what is rapidly becoming recognised as the industry-standard National Care Costing Tool. iESE reinvests in CareCubed continually to improve its usefulness and impact. We count on customer feedback and all developments are carried out in partnership with our customers. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any ideas for future developments or enhancements to existing modules that could make the product even better. Here are some of the exciting new developments available to our users:
Platform update
Version 17 launches
CareCubed began life as an offline spreadsheet called the Care Funding Calculator designed to bring transparency to negotiations between care providers and commissioners when agreeing a care package. The online application version of CareCubed was launched in 2019 with separate versions for the children’s and adult’s care market. It is now fast becoming the industrystandard National Care Costing Tool and is being widely used by commissioners and providers alike to navigate day-to-day commissioning and brokerage challenges and for strategic planning. CareCubed clients will soon notice a new interface when they log into the CareCubed platform. Over the past six months iESE has been migrating customers and their data seamlessly from its old database and server to a more modern technology stack. While this work has happened in the background and has not affected clients, they may have noticed some benefits such as speed improvements. Sherif Attia, Head of Design at iESE, said: “While customers won’t have yet noticed any major changes, the next stage is reskinning the tool and giving customers a new and improved interface. The recent changes, while seamless for clients, will allow us to keep delivering on our future roadmap at a pace, and has given us access to a wider pool of developers to help ensure the tool’s future success. We have engaged with a range of different customers as part of the design and testing process. This update demonstrates the continued investment made by iESE into CareCubed.”
An updated version of CareCubed (version 17) will be released in November as part of the twice-yearly data update carried out on the system. iESE is investing more in development than ever before, which means the tool continues to be enhanced based on legislative changes and customer feedback, with larger developments to create new products running in parallel. The place-based approach means the same tool can be accessed and used by all stakeholders to support collaborative relationships. Robust data is at the heart of CareCubed and the three data models for children and young people, working age adults and older people, set CareCubed apart. The data update will see key datasets underpinning CareCubed amended to support customers and continue to provide an independent, nationally recognised benchmark cost for care placements. This will reflect real world changes and allow CareCubed customers to make decisions based on the most accurate, up to date data. “We will be providing further enhancements in version 17, including making use of some exciting new data sources,” explained Sherif Attia, Head of Design at iESE, “We supported the Fair Cost of Care exercise for 65+ last year and now have access to a sample of that data which we could consider using to improve elements of the model. In addition, we are exploring new data sources for labour market analytics and recruitment data. We are hoping this will make the model even more attuned as we constantly look for ways to give more nuance to the data and add another level of transparency and robustness,” he added.
Upcoming modules After the success of iESE’s contribution to the 65+ Cost of Care Exercise commissioned by the Department of Health & Social Care, which resulted in data being submitted by more than 2,500 care providers to 95 per cent of all councils, we are now planning to enable local authorities and care providers to gather and exchange data more widely across any part of the market or age group. For example, cost of care exercises for the learning disability sector, as part of procurement processes and to gather and analyse important information about local markets. “This will be a major upgrade and will open up lots of exciting opportunities for our customers,” explained Sherif Attia, Head of Design at iESE, “This will allow councils to segment the market and request information they need from providers in a fast, efficient, and intuitive tool.” For example, a council might be going out to tender for a new supported living
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framework and costs can be submitted directly into CareCubed where they can be analysed and importantly benchmarked as part of the scoring process. The benefit for commissioners is it will give them a consistent way of capturing that information. The benefit for providers is that it will replace the need to complete spreadsheets and allow them to use the same tools as the council and build strategic partnerships. “There is a lot of variability in the market and unique services, so having the ability to understand how a provider costs and delivers care and positive outcomes for individuals is important,” he added. iESE is also considering how CareCubed can support brokerage processes to enable local authorities to benchmark quotes received and ensure they are funding at the correct level. Work is also underway with a group of ‘trailblazer’ councils to develop modules for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision placements (see page 5 for further information).
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iESE is looking for forward-thinking councils to join us in creating new CareCubed modules to cost Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) placements
he Special Educational Needs and Disabilities T (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) markets have been under renewed scrutiny since 2022 with the launch of the SEND and AP green paper. Further recognition was given in The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan published in March 2023 by the Department for Education that the SEND system and AP are achieving poor outcomes and navigating the system is not a positive experience for children and families. And despite continued investment, local authority spending on these placements is not financially sustainable. In addition, from the start of this year a new regime of SEND inspections came into force which has made changes to the way Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission jointly inspect local partnership areas. Inspections now look at compliance with legal duties but also at the impact local area partnerships are having on the lives of young people and children with SEND. The new inspections also look at how local authorities commission and oversee alternative provision. With this increased attention on SEND and AP, iESE has received several enquiries from councils looking for support. The time is right to start working with forward-thinking local authorities and providers to start to map out the costings of placements to build a new module within CareCubed to allow commissioners and providers to start working together to gain transparency over costings, help shape sufficiency in the market and have a better handle on costs. This will mirror the way CareCubed currently allows local authorities and providers to cost
and negotiate other care placements and give a single view of the wraparound support across health, social care and education. “SEND and AP placements are some of the most complex and therefore expensive packages. Over recent years they have not been regulated in same way as other placements,” said Sherif Attia, Head of Design at iESE, “What we are trying to do is develop a benchmark tool for providers and councils to provide transparency, help shape positive outcomes and to point towards value for money in these placements.” To achieve its goal, iESE has set out a programme with four aims, starting with building internal capacity and knowledge within local authorities. To help achieve this, iESE will deliver a package of four SEND training and consultancy support sessions: 1) Overview of the SEND review 2023 and the expectations on Local Authorities (aimed at SEND Commissioners, staff responsible for Education Health and Care Plans and Social Care staff) 2) Internal Policy and Procedure (aimed at senior managers, commissioners, and team leaders) 3) Communication with families and providers (aimed at team leaders and staff responsible for Education Health and Care Plans) 4) Education Reviews – what to look for (aimed at SEND team leaders and staff responsible for Education Health and Care Plans). After this initial training, there are a further three planned phases. The first is Data Capture and Benchmarking, which will use a digital tool to ensure
data about providers is captured in a consistent way to enable reporting, benchmarking, and sharing of information across local authorities signed up to the programme. Next is the Review phase, during which Councils will be supported to review placements for suitability and value for money. During the third phase we will develop a network of specialists who can continue to bring improved market understanding to the newly developed module. iESE has already lined up two councils to work with in this area but is looking to engage a maximum of ten councils to share vital intelligence and best practice. “We want to get interested local authorities onboard for training as soon as possible. We need bold forward-thinking councils that are looking to make a change in this area which appreciate there are some challenges in this space and want to work with us to build a solution. Unfortunately, we cannot offer a space to all councils and expect a lot of interest so please do get in touch if you would like to be involved,” Attia added. • Find out more about The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan: SEND and alternative provision improvement plan GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) • Find out more about SEND inspections: Area SEND inspections: framework and handbook - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) • Contact carecubed@iese.org.uk if this programme of work is of interest and you would like to find out more about joining the programme.
New regulation for supported accommodation Supported accommodation providers which accommodate children aged 16 or 17 placed by a local authority are now required to register with Ofsted. This change came into effect from 28th April 2023 and if a complete application has not been submitted and accepted by 28th October 2023 it will then be illegal for the provider to operate. CareCubed will be updating its costings to include Ofsted fees so local authorities and providers will be able to see this change reflected in pricing. Sherif Attia, Head of Design at iESE, said iESE would
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continue to keep watch on developments in the supported accommodation market and how this update in requirements impacts the sector. The CareCubed tool is ideally placed for councils and providers to use to model the impact of this change on existing and new schemes. • Find out more about the new supported accommodation requirements: Introduction to supported accommodation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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Get ahead of the children’s care sector reform Children’s care sector reform is in progress, but you can get ahead of the curve by starting to tackle placement shortages and high costs in your area now using the CareCubed tool. he recommendations made by the Competition T and Markets Authority (CMA) to tackle lack of availability of placements in the children’s social care market and high prices were fully accepted by the Department of Education earlier this year. While this work is ongoing and in progress, changes on the ground are not yet visible, with local authorities still feeling pressured in many cases to accept high-cost placements for children in their care. Looking back to the start of the millennium, those who were working in adult social care will recall that the adult care market faced similar challenges to the children’s care market now – that of undersupply and high pricing. One of the factors that helped move the market to a healthier position was the introduction of the Care Funding Calculator (CFC) – a tool introduced by iESE which allowed local authorities to benchmark the costs of placements and start to have more transparent conversations with providers. Now, iESE has introduced the CFC’s cloud-based big brother CareCubed for both the adult and children’s markets, a tool which allows commissioners to see the variance between ‘price’ and ‘cost’ and start to have conversations with providers about packages, outcomes, and future placements.
While the chronic supply issues faced by the children’s care market might mean local authorities feel they have no choice but to pay what is asked, CareCubed is allowing pioneering councils to begin to start taking strategic action. While there is no silver bullet, some forward-thinking local authorities are using the CareCubed tool to plan for the medium to long-term whilst seeing some immediate benefits too. CareCubed will give a benchmark to help councils understand the variance between the ‘price’ charged and the ‘cost’ of delivering care, using the extensive datasets fuelling the CareCubed model. The variance between the benchmarks in CareCubed and what you are currently paying providers is your current ‘market position’, giving you a starting point for change. Change, that the system makes achievable by understanding your market better and modelling, developing, and commissioning both in-house services and external services, all the while working alongside strategic provider partners in local co-production. Nik Jones, CareCubed Account Manager at iESE, said: “Unfortunately in some parts of the children’s care market there is a cartel mentality – there is no regulation on what providers can charge and until you shine a light on what you should be paying there is a
Case study: Surrey County Council
• Increasing semi-independent living provision for young adults (age 16-plus). • Engaging with providers and having transparent negotiations. • Understanding the pricing of cost outliers (providers charging more or less than average). • Deciding whether to agree to children’s social care uplift requests.
When Surrey County Council created a new Corporate Parenting Commissioning Team in January 2021 it also implemented CareCubed for Children as an important tool in the armoury. The council realised it needed to rectify some of its sufficiency in the county and was also aware that it wasn’t clear on what it should be paying for some aspects of care locally. James Atkins, Commissioning Manager (Corporate Parenting) at Surrey County Council, who was charged with heading up the new team, said: “We weren’t really certain around what we should be paying for certain aspects of care and what that looked like in terms of a regional, local market.”
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likelihood that these price increases are just going to continue with no end in sight, against a backdrop of ever decreasing budgets. Of course, profit is not a dirty word, and everyone expects and realises providers need to make a profit. However, this is about building sustainability and sufficiency. It is a saturated, over heated market, where a lack of supply is driving up cost often with diminishing outcomes for children. First you can understand what the ‘real’ cost of placements should be and then you go out to market and try and identify some of those providers which are closer to that real cost and start to work with them to increase sufficiency.” While the sector awaits changes to trickle down from the CMA review, there is action that can and should be taken now to help start tackling the problem from within. “Change needs to happen and it needs to start somewhere. Children's social care is one of, if not the biggest cost to Local Authorities with significant levels of overspend. Doing nothing is not an option, and CareCubed provides an important tool to help improve services and control costs. As a community we all need to make a change. This tool, from a not-for-profit, local authority-run enterprise is available to deliver short, medium and long term benefit,” Jones added.
THE CHALLENGE
THE SOLUTION • Using CareCubed Children’s as part of a package of tools to aid negotiations and understand costs. • Rolling out iESE’s negotiation training to all commissioners to increase commercial awareness and confidence. • Using CareCubed to help new suppliers of semi-independent accommodation put together a pricing package. • Undertaking CareCubed assessments on cost outliers to understand how costs are created and ensure fairness and transparency.
THE RESULT • Greater confidence that the council is paying a fair rate and helping deliver a sustainable and sufficient environment for providers and children. • An increase in over-16s in supported accommodation being placed in county – up from 35 per cent to 65 per cent in one year. • An increase in block bed commissioning from 229 beds up to 350, whilst saving £1.1m. • £750K saved on market spot purchasing. • Improved relationships with providers due to open, transparent and consistency of approach.
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• This text is an extract of a longer case study which can be downloaded here: https://iese.org.uk/downloads/ sustainable-care-fair-cost
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Get the best from CareCubed
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WHAT CLIENTS OUR SAY
You get a lot of companies saying we can do this and that, but once you’ve paid your licence fee you don’t hear from them. We have been working closely with iESE over the past three years and it is reassuring that they come from a local government background and continue to rapidly develop the tool. We know we are working with a company focused on not just the challenges we face now but in the future too. Jonathan Wright, Strategic Commissioning Manager at Bristol City Council
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We don’t disappear once you’ve purchased CareCubed – we continue to support you every step of the way to maximise the tool’s usefulness to your organisation. Here, we run through a range of ways we can help you succeed. a not-for-profit and software supplier owned by local government our As motivation goes beyond getting clients to purchase our products. We want
Implementation support
all provider and local authority customers to get full value and benefit from the tool and we offer a wide suite of after-sales support to ensure customer expectations are exceeded every time. We are continually adding to the ways we support our clients. Currently our range of support includes:
We are focussed on delivering immediate benefits to our customers and ensuring the tool is embedded into processes. To support with this, we offer a range of training and services focused on understanding where CareCubed can help on a day-to-day basis and on a wider strategic level through our implementation partner organisation Peopletoo (see page 8 for more information). This includes a combination of CareCubed system training and, importantly, negotiation skills training to ensure users maximise the benefits of the tool and are able to successfully negotiate. In addition, flexible coaching sessions are also available based on the customer requirement. For example, this might be to support a market engagement event, work through some placements together with a mentor or help prepare for a meeting. A comprehensive package of the services above are delivered to new customers, and indeed some existing customers wanting to reimplement/reinvigorate the use of the tool.
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Extra online support
A new self-service training tool is being added to the CareCubed platform to give users access to additional training support. Already available is the WalkMe tool, which provides step-by-step run-through’s to help demonstrate CareCubed processes to customers. Soon, users will also be able to access a support tool called TeachMe, an additional training support tool which will take users through the process of carrying out actions inside the tool and then test them on their knowledge.
Case studies
CareCubed online community The exclusive CareCubed online community for Health and Social Care commissioners has around 550 registered users. It is a space where clients can ask the CareCubed team questions, network with peers from across the UK, and interact with each other on common issues and share best practice. 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. At this time, the community is not available for provider subscribers, but we are considering creating a similar space for these users.
Helpdesk support Users can access helpdesk support by completing a support webform at www.iese.org.uk/carecubed-support. This support form can also be accessed from the CareCubed Community. Our helpdesk is available 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday (excluding bank holidays).
Referral scheme Our customer base is growing rapidly and often referrals come from an existing customer. iESE is developing a referral scheme to reward existing customers who introduce us to other organisations who take a CareCubed licence. Please do speak to others about the tool, present to relevant groups and introduce us to interested colleagues so that we can reward you for these referrals!
New support staff for CareCubed
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 focus on the biggest challenges facing the sector. iESE will also provide updates on functional upgrades and data model updates.
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We regularly publish case studies from our client base to help demonstrate how they are implementing and benefiting from CareCubed. You can read our case studies here: https://iese.org.uk/carecubed/ We are always on the lookout for new best practice examples. Please email carecubed@iese.org.uk if you would like us to develop a case study based on your innovative approach or successful use of the tool.
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Caroline Merchant joined iESE in June this year as Customer Success Manager. She previously worked in the apprenticeship sector and has also worked in the private healthcare sector. She is working alongside CareCubed account managers Craig White and Nik Jones to build relationships with all customers and provide additional support to help maximise the benefits of CareCubed. “I love working with people and I am dedicated to providing outstanding support and delivering good outcomes. I will be capturing feedback from the customers about where they need support, letting them know about new functions and helping make sure everything is working smoothly for them,” she explained.
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Tailored CareCubed support for new clients Fourteen local authorities are currently receiving tailored implementation support from iESE partner Peopletoo as part of an offer to help new customers implement and embed CareCubed into their organisations.
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pressures local authorities face. Thomas-Easton he fourteen councils are taking advantage of a said that while most of the fourteen local authorities comprehensive package made up of system were ’in flight’, some quick wins had already been training, negotiation skills training and a mix of made: “One recent example was highlighting to coaching, process workshops and support based on one commissioning team that they were top local priorities. After buying the product, commissioning 27 hours of 1:1 support for an Peopletoo work with new clients to understand the individual in a day – now that may sound tiny but current challenges and opportunities and work to over time that builds up and accelerate the delivery of benefits WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY carries considerable for our customers. unnecessary cost. There is a lot Rosie Thomas-Easton, Service Working with Peopletoo on of low-hanging fruit, and Director at Peopletoo, said: “We the implementation of organisations are achieving the create a bespoke package of CareCubed is not only getting goals set out in the business support specific to that council us up and running but also helping us understand gaps case for CareCubed. It is and specific to the pressures in our information and wonderful to see the immediate they find themselves under inefficiencies in our placement impact that the tool and our most, such as increasing costs process for children and services can make.” for specialist commissioning young people in residential The authorities are also making placements and significant cost accommodation. Peopletoo progress on longer-term issues, ranges across residential care have kept us focused to such as sustainability. For provision. We tailor the ensure we get the most out of example, one organisation carried implementation of CareCubed to our purchase of CareCubed out a mini cost of care exercise on help them tackle their biggest and have been very flexible their Support Living market: “The challenges, but always with one to our changeable needs and perception of the local authority pressures from management. eye on the future. It is not just was that they were managing tackling current financial costs well and within budget, pressures and sufficiency gaps, Charlotte Humble, Head of Children’s but from a market perspective it is about working to ensure that Commissioning, Southend-on-Sea Council. it was difficult. There had to the approach we are supporting be some challenging but councils to build and embed enables them to mature conversations about how to build and manage costs and sufficiency in the future, too.” sustain the market moving forward which we she explained. were very happy to support,” she added. The aim is that the implementation support Peopletoo aims to involve all parties involved in package is delivered within the first three months, care provision to ensure a collaborative approach. but Peopletoo allow flexibility, recognising the
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WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
Peopletoo have been a great support for us in beginning our implementation of CareCubed. They have shown flexibility and understanding of our competing priorities and been able to move to support us in just the way we need. I hope that over the coming months our efforts to embed processes designed to suit to our particular setup will improve our effectiveness as commissioners, by providing evidence-based rigour to our negotiations and support us to manage costs in partnership with our providers in a sustainable way.
Vicky Critchley-Roper, Specialist Commissioning, Bath and North East Somerset Council.
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Another key benefit is that they have been able to link up organisations facing similar challenges to enable them to share learning. “This is invaluable because often historically they may have felt unable to talk about their commissioning problems with anyone else, but now they can lean on iESE, Peopletoo, and more than 550 other Local Authority users of the tool in the CareCubed Community,” Thomas-Easton added. • To find out more about Peopletoo visit: www.peopletoo.co.uk • To find out more about the consultancy support offer contact: rosie.thomas-easton@peopletoo.co.uk
EVENT FOCUS: CYBER SECURITY www.iese.org.uk/conference-2023
In print and online interactive publication
22/11/23 | Eastbourne Free for senior officers and members to attend
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