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Guidance on choosing accommodation and additional payments Cost

  1. The care and support planning process will identify how best to meet a person’s needs. As part of that, the local authority must provide the person with a personal budget, except in cases or circumstances set out in the Care Act (Personal Budget) Regulations. The Personal Budget is an important tool that provides clear information on the cost of meeting the person’s needs. Further guidance on how to undertake care and support planning and calculate a personal budget is set out in Chapters 10 and 11.
  2.  The personal budget is defined as the cost to the local authority of meeting the person’s needs which the local authority chooses or is required to meet. However, the local authority should take into consideration cases or circumstances where this ‘cost to the local authority’ may need to be adjusted to ensure that needs are met. For example, a person may have specific dietary requirements that can only be met in specific settings. In all cases the local authority must have regard to the actual cost of good quality care in deciding the personal budget to ensure that the amount is one that reflects local market conditions. This should also reflect other factors such as the person’s circumstances and the availability of provision. In addition, the local authority should not set arbitrary amounts or ceilings for particular types of accommodation that do not reflect a fair cost of care. Guidance on market shaping and commissioning is set out in Chapter 4. Local authorities must also have regard to the guidance on personal budgets in Chapter 11, and in particular paras. 11.22-11.24 on calculating the personal budget.
  3. A person must not be asked to pay a ‘top-up’ towards the cost of their accommodation because of market inadequacies or commissioning failures and must ensure there is a genuine choice. The local authority therefore must ensure that at least one option is available that is affordable within a person’s personal budget and should ensure that there is more than one. If no preference has been expressed and no suitable accommodation is available at the amount identified in a personal budget, the local authority must arrange care in a more expensive setting and adjust the budget accordingly to ensure that needs are met. In such circumstances, the local authority must not ask for the payment of a ‘top-up’ fee. Only when a person has chosen a more expensive accommodation can a ‘top-up’ payment be sought. Paras. 20 and 21 set out guidance on additional costs.