Last week, we asked if now was the time to start up a care agency and – assuming the answer was, yes! – how to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). If you haven’t read this yet, I’d recommend going back to read it as this week’s blog will follow on from that to cover local authority commissioning processes, dealing with suppliers, and making sure you’re paid.
Thinking of setting up a care agency?
Local authority commissioning in 160+ different flavours
The local authority (LA) in the area in which you are going to sell your services is responsible for all children’s and adult social care. Just like the CQC, the LA offers providers a system of frameworks to join to become an ‘approved provider’.
And this is were is can start to get really complicated!
Although every LA – and there are over 160 in England – follows the Care Act 2014 guidance, the specific commissioning process is left at the discretion of the LA. Which effectively means there are 160+ different commissioning processes covering social care in England.
Information on any given LA commissioning process can be found on the authority’s website and it is worth spending the time to understand the specific requirements of each LA’s system in order to gain access to provide services. This will include finding the relevant contact at the LA to talk to (be warned: job titles for this contact are not standardised and contact details can be difficult to track down).
This can be a complicated process even when operating in just one area: when you cross geographical boundaries between more than one LA, the complications begin to add up.
Your suppliers
It should be a given that the provision of a quality care service, whether it is for children, adult or learning disabilities, is your benchmark. It therefore makes sense to choose suppliers that also care about quality – be that for your policies and procedures, PPE, IT or telephony, print cartridges, webpage designers and hosts etc. As an example: an IT system is no good if your customers find it unreliable or if there are difficulties in understanding what it produces (e.g., an invoice or a payslip). Do your homework. Free trials are a good way of working out whether a product or service does what is says it does.
Setting up a Care Agency: Getting paid
Small business start-ups often fail as a result of late payments, which can be a disaster for cash flow. If small businesses were paid on time, this would boost the economy by an estimated £2.5 billion annually. But:
- A third of payments to small businesses are late.
- 20% of small businesses have run into cash flow problems due to late payments.
To tackle late and unfavourable payment practices in private sector, a little-known independent body, known as the Small Business Commissioner (SBC), was set up by the government under the Enterprise Act 2016. SBC jurisdiction covers all of the UK and its aim is to empower small businesses to resolve payment disputes. It provides advice, a contract-checking service, and a complaint investigation service. It will also take action on supply-chain bullying. It is impartial, free to use on a non-risk basis, and independent (although it is appointed by government).
#The commissioner is also the guardian of the Prompt Payment Code, which from 1 July 2021 will require signatories to pay 95% of invoices within 30 days, instead of the current 60 days. Some LAs are listed as signatories to the code, which, although voluntary, is attracting more businesses to sign up and is one of a range of changes to help small businesses, post-Brexit and to aid recovery after COVID-19. Current signatories are listed on the SBC website.
Finally, in setting up as a social care provider, you too will have contracts with your service users or residents. There is specific guidance available from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which will keep you on the right side of consumer rights and law.
Conclusion: get the foundations right
As a new care agency, the business foundations you build need to be robust: these then provide the basis for meeting the regulations as you progress and as an integral part of a quality service. Indeed, Regulation 17 covers good governance – so start as you mean to go on. Regard time spent here as an investment for your future sustainability and growth.
As part of W&P’s offering to aspiring social care providers, our policies and procedures packages, with associated forms, provide an accessible template for good governance. We also offer a Care Agency Business Start-up Package that provides support, necessary guidance and direction to help you get started as a business with CQC compliance.
Next week, we will start to look at the five key domains that form an inherent part of social care regulation.
Margaret Ross Sands
Business Support Director
Margaret has over 30 years of experience in Health & Social care having worked in various local authorities in England holding senior positions in Contracting, Commissioning, and Operationally for the LA’s own in house Care Service. She has a deep knowledge of Adult Social Care and is our main policy lead in terms of keeping up to date with the latest government legislation, case law and good practice guidance. On leaving the statutory sector Margaret… Read Margaret’s Full Bio
