Non SALT totals

This worksheet contains data on expenditure on social care activities not split by short and long term care. This includes:

• social support
• assistive equipment and technology
• social care activities
• information and early intervention
• commissioning and service delivery

Further information on each of these individual segments can be found in the respective sections in this document.

Primary support reasons

Social support (which includes):

• substance misuse support
• asylum seeker support
• support to carer (Community: direct payments, Community: other)
• support for social isolation/other

Assistive equipment and technology

Social care activities

Information and early intervention

Commissioning and service delivery

The ASC-FR requires no further analysis of costs by primary support reason.

As with the FR001 and FR002 worksheets, this is also split into the same 3 column groups of expenditure, income and capital charges/overheads.

In addition to the non SALT and Support Services (the top table), this worksheet also contains an overall summary of all data submitted for long term, short term and Non SALT (bottom table). This is calculated automatically but should be reviewed to ensure you are comfortable with all figures.

As with the previous worksheets, a validation summary is provided at the top right of the worksheet. All cells on this worksheet are mandatory, and a summary of the number of cells completed is provided. Please consult the validations worksheet to investigate if any validations have been breached.

On the bottom of the worksheet there are a series of boxes enabling the provision of feedback – please let us know any concerns or problems you had in completing this worksheet. You can also provide additional context to the data provided which may be useful in the validation and processing of the data.

This section includes those service areas for which no unit cost information will be captured. These are:

• support for substance misuse
• asylum seekers
• support to carers
• support for social isolation/other

This section also includes service areas for which no financial breakdown is required between long term and short term support, or by service setting, for example residential care or home care.

'Support for social isolation/other' includes services such as sitting and befriending and should also be used to capture any support services that do not easily sit with any other primary support reasons. It is not anticipated that many clients will be reported within this.

This section includes the cost of telecare service contracts as well as equipment and adaptations. No further financial analysis is required between Primary Support Reasons or age groups.

In the Short and Long Term Support (SALT) return, all equipment and adaptations are treated as 'Ongoing low level support'.

The Social Care Activities information provides an understanding of the overall expenditure associated with the assessment and care management process that facilitates help for people in daily living, including promoting individuals’ independence and quality of life. The balance between the costs of short term interventions, longer term care and low-level prevention solutions locally and nationally, weighed against the costs of the process will help provide an indication of the relative costs of the process of facilitation locally and nationally.

The definition of the costs of 'social care activities is any revenue expenditure associated with social work practice, regardless of its service mechanism (own provision for example), in relation to supporting individuals through a care or risk management process. In this context, 'social care practice' relates to the following items: 

Assessment

Frontline assessment of clients, including through initial allocation or intake functions.

Review

Frontline reviews of clients.

Care management

Providing other care management activities with clients, such as:

• detailed planning of their support to meet their eligible needs
• brokerage and navigation following a statutory assessment or review
• ongoing professional support

Safeguarding

Supporting all aspects of front-line safeguarding activity, from raising initial concerns to investigations and developing safeguarding plans to minimise risk.

This definition is therefore designed to exclude certain expenditure already captured within commissioning and service delivery. It excludes:

• expenditure associated with commissioning
• infrastructure expenditure associated with the resulting care, support, and daily living solutions from this care management process

The only exception is professional support, whether low-level preventative, short or longer term. This is accounted for in measures:

• 'Long term support' (FR001)
• 'Short term support' (FR002)
• 'Assistive equipment and technology'

Expenditure on social care activities will be reported at an aggregated level and not split over any other items such as reviews, assessments, safeguarding.

‘Assessment’ and therefore the social care activities measure more generally should exclude the costs associated with general screening and signposting functions as part of the more general provision of advice and information. This should be included in 'Information and early intervention'.

Expenditure on both assessments and reviews should include any activities associated with frameworks for understanding individuals’ needs. This includes (but is not solely restricted to) council-funded expenditure on:

• assessments or reviews associated with individuals’ needs for short term support
• statutory assessments and review framework associated with on-going long term support of individuals through a community care assessment
• statutory assessments and review framework associated with other processes such as those associated with an appropriate mental health practitioner or the National Assistance Act
• carers’ assessments or reviews.

Expenditure associated with functions of CASSR-funded professionals such as occupational therapists that undertake social care activities should be included in social care activities measure.

Expenditure associated with individuals who are either paying for their own care but nonetheless the CASSR expends revenue relating to social care practice on these individuals should be included in social care activities. For example, an individual who is assessed but found not to be eligible for care, or a care plan is developed for an individual who then funds it privately.

Guidance from the SALT collection states that in most cases it is expected that professional support would be time-limited and fit under the sequel classification ‘Short term support (other)’. If for some reason it is expected to continue for more than a few weeks, ‘On-going low level support’ could be chosen instead. In most cases anyone going on to receive a community care assessment and receive services on the basis of eligibility criteria will be receiving more than just professional support. But if this was the ONLY service in the care or support plan then ‘Long term support (eligible services)’ could be selected.

Where none of the above can be determined, expenditure associated with on-going professional support (that is the support provided by professionals to individual clients outside of a formal assessment or review process) should be included in social care activities and excluded from short or long term support. It should be noted that the definition of professional support includes advice, information, guidance, signposting and informal (non-independent) advocacy offered in social work practice as part of an on-going engagement with clients and carers.

Expenditure associated with frontline safeguarding activities, including activities associated with guardianship and deprivation of liberty, should be included in the social care activities measure. It includes expenditure associated with support provided to other agencies in the safeguarding process, but excludes expenditure incurred by other agencies in this process. Expenditure on adult social care safeguarding, administrative, and front-line management, including guardianship and deprivation of liberty, should be included in social care activities and excluded from 'Commissioning and service delivery'.

Knowledge about information and early intervention provides an understanding of the overall expenditure associated with prevention outside of a formal care management and assessment system. Many people choose and control their own solutions outside of formal statutory intervention and might value information, advice and help in doing so. The provision of early low level preventative, and in particular community based, solutions, or accessing early intervention services, can delay or reduce the need for more complex and costly interventions later.

The definition of information and early intervention is any expenditure on any service or support for which there is no test of eligibility and no requirement for review. The expenditure for this measure relates to the following items:

Information and advice

Spend on advice and publication teams, leaflets and advertising, websites, and other information channels.

Screening and signposting

Investment in, for example, contact centres, one stop shops and advice services.

Prevention and low level support

Non-attributable costs for drop in centres, supported luncheon clubs, falls prevention and low level brokerage services. For example, supporting access to full costed services such as gardening or shopping.

Independent advocacy

Costs of supporting advocacy and associated functions.

The definition excludes:

• expenditure associated with front-line access of clients to assessment or care management processes, including safeguarding (captured in 'Social Care Activities')
• expenditure associated with the resulting care, support and daily living solutions themselves, whether short or longer-term which are accounted in measures FR001-FR002
• expenditure associated with assistive equipment and technology (captured in 'Assistive Equipment and and Technology')
• 'Commissioning and Service Delivery' as part of expenditure associated with commissioning or infrastructure.

It should be noted that it is possible for a client to access information and early intervention and short or long term support.

For example, an existing (on-going) long term support client may also be accessing low-level support outside of their formally assessed needs that the CASSR pays for. This could include a drop-in centre or on-going support from a preventative, low-level third sector scheme.

In such cases, the directly attributable costs of the clients’ long term support (meaning the costs associated with the on-going care package) should be fully allocated to the long term support measure, as the costs associated with information and early intervention represents spend which is non-attributable to individual clients as it includes, for example, grant-funding to third sector organisations which potentially benefits both long term clients and CASSR residents more generally.

The information and early intervention measure excludes costs of CASSR-funded assistive equipment and technology. Many of the respondents to the ZBR Finance Consultation felt the most pragmatic way of accounting for equipment/technology (which might support an individual as part of one or more of information and early intervention, short term support or long term support), was to introduce additional finance reporting on assistive equipment and technology. We have recognised this, and costs associated with assistive equipment and technology will be collected separately.

CASSRs should only include those elements of actual or estimated spend in relation to information and early intervention within the items described above, as they relate to the delivery of adult social care solutions.

For example, if screening and signposting is provided through a CASSR’s contact centre which takes requests for all CASSR functions, only the (actual or estimated) component part of the spend that relates to adult social care screening or signposting should be included in the finance collection.

Similarly, take the example of preventative support, such as multi-functional advice services. Only the (actual or estimated) component part that relates to those who need social care support information, advice or solutions should be included in the ASC-FR. This is instead of simply all adult residents benefiting from such services. The specific mechanism for apportioning expenditure in such instances is in the way that individual CASSRs feel is most appropriate for them, within SeRCOP principles.

This provides an understanding of the overall expenditure associated with commissioning and infrastructure costs across councils with adult social services responsibilities (CASSRs). This supports the government’s objective for CASSRs to more formally separate responsibility for the commissioning and delivery of services in order to improve quality and reduce administrative costs by engendering customer choice and competition.

The definition of commissioning and service delivery attempts to capture any expenditure on functions that support the delivery of the adult social care areas described in measures:

• long term support
• short term support
• social support
• assistive equipment and technology

The expenditure for this measure relates to the following.

Commissioning or commissioning-related items

1. Strategic business direction (including needs analysis, policy or strategic development).
2. Business planning (including business development, performance and budget planning and monitoring).
3. Commissioning and de-commissioning functions.
4. Commissioning, procurement and management (including market management, contract procurement and provider monitoring).
5. Communications and PPE.
6. Governance and support (including admin, finance, IT and information management, legal, non-front line quality assurance, audit and risk management).
7. Responding to complaints and complaint management.

Infrastructure

1. Building and premises management.
2. IT.

The definition excludes:

• frontline facilitation of access of clients to assessment or care management, including safeguarding (captured in 'social care activities')
• expenditure associated with the resulting care, support and daily living solutions themselves, whether low-level preventative, short or longer term (accounted for in measures 'long term support', 'short term support', 'social support', 'assistive equipment and technology' and 'information and early intervention')

The costs of supporting adult social care delivery (for example commissioning or finance staff costs) should be included in the commissioning and service delivery measure. These costs should be excluded from measures FR001 to FR006 relating to the delivery of adult social care.

Expenditure associated with frontline management of the delivery of, rather than the support for, adult social care should be included in the relevant measure; long term support, short term support, social support, assistive equipment and technology. This expenditure should therefore be excluded from commissioning and service delivery. An example of this would be expenditure on frontline operational management costs. The specific detail by which this allocation is achieved is in the way that individual CASSRs believe is most appropriate for them within the SeRCOP principles.

CASSRs should only include those elements of actual or estimated spend in relation to commissioning and service delivery within the items described in administration and public information costs below. These relate to support for the delivery of long term support, short term support, social support, assistive equipment and technology, social care activities, and information and early intervention. For example, if strategic business management functions in a CASSR cover all the CASSR’s strategic business needs. In this scenario, only the (actual or estimated) component part of the spend that relates to support for adult social care delivery (within the definition of long term support, short term support, social support, assistive equipment and technology, social care activities, information and early intervention) should be included in the ASC-FR.

With the following exceptions, expenditure on all aspects of administration of measures long term support, short term support, social support, assistive equipment and technology, social care activities, information and early intervention (that is, non-frontline activities with residents) should be excluded from these measures and included in commissioning and service delivery. The two exceptions are:

1. Expenditure on public information about adult social care - This includes expenditure on leaflets and websites. It also includes the (actual or estimated) expenditure on related communications or publication teams, as part of information and advice. All of this expenditure should therefore be excluded from 'Commissioning and service delivery' and included in ‘Information and early intervention’.
2. Expenditure on adult social care safeguarding administrative and frontline management - This includes guardianship and deprivation of liberty. This should be excluded from 'Commissioning and service delivery' and included in ‘Social care activities’.

Delayed transfers of care (bed blocking) fines should be included in one of the expenditure columns in the 'Commissioning and service delivery' measure.

CASSR-funded registration and inspection fees paid to the Care Quality Commission that relate to the delivery of adult social care should be included in the 'Commissioning and service delivery' measure.

Expenditure on commissioning and service delivery in the ASC-FR collects expenditure on supporting the delivery of adult social care such as business strategy and commissioning and finance functions. SeRCOP (which covers all CASSR services) does not prescribe how to allocate overheads - meaning, where they relate directly to the primary support groups, as it is believed CASSRs are best placed to understand the local issues affecting them which may influence allocations and apportionments. However, SeRCOP does list general principles which CASSRs should refer to whenever there is a need to apportion costs.

These allocations and apportionments need to be applied in two ways in the collection:

The costs of supporting adult social care delivery (such as commissioning or finance staff costs) needs to be included in the commissioning and service delivery measure.

However, there will be a need to ensure additional expenditure incurred through the delivery of, rather than the support for, adult social care (such as on front-line operational management costs) is treated in the way that individual CASSRs believe is most appropriate for them within SeRCOP principles.

The costs of services and support that are used jointly across different functions, including adult social care, should be apportioned to adult social care in the way that individual CASSRs believe is most appropriate for them within SeRCOP principles. For example, costs of information and early intervention include the costs of 'screening and signposting' which can be provided through a council contact centre. Such centres may be taking requests for more council functions than simply for adult social care. In such circumstances, CASSRs should include only the component part of the (actual or estimated) costs of this centre that relate to the delivery of adult social care. CASSRs should therefore apportion to adult social care those costs of the centre – and hence include this in information and early intervention - in a way that CASSRs believe is appropriate for them within the SeRCOP framework.

To allow councils to record the amount of income which is part of the Better Care Fund the cell at the bottom of the Non SALT worksheet has been made mandatory. Councils should use this cell to identify how much of the 'Income from NHS' column is income from the Better Care Fund. This should be a subset of the total 'Income from NHS' – please do not subtract Better Care Fund income from the total Income from NHS fields. 

Expenditure funded by specific and special grants should be included in the relevant expenditure columns. Specific and special revenue grants should not be included as income.

The total value of specific and special grants should be entered in the cell at the bottom of the Non SALT and Totals worksheet. 

Carers and carers’ assessments

As discussed in the 'Long term support' measure, expenditure associated with carers, as opposed to clients, should be included in the measure of the return that is most relevant. 

Any costs of support associated with carers, as opposed to clients, should be included in support to carers measure of the return. But any costs associated with undertaking carers’ assessments or providing professional support to carers should be included in the 'Social care activities' measure. Any costs of social work activities described above that involve carers should be included in the 'Social care activities' measures. 

Any costs associated with the provision of advice, information, guidance and low-level support for the benefit of carers (identified as such, rather than as residents) should be included in the 'Information and early intervention' measure. 

Independent advocacy for safeguarding purposes

Expenditure on independent advocacy should be included in 'Information and early intervention', including for safeguarding purposes. It should be excluded from 'Social care activities'. However, informal (non-independent) advocacy conducted as part of social care practice is included in the definition of professional support and should therefore be included in 'Social care activities'. This should therefore excluded from 'Information and early intervention'.

Care navigation or brokerage activities

Expenditure associated with any care navigation or brokerage activity should be included within the 'Social care activities' measure if it relates to care management functions following a formal assessment or review of need. 

Low-level brokerage without the need for a formal assessment or review of need should be excluded from 'Social care activities' and included in 'Information and early intervention'. An example of such brokerage would be signposting to services such as help with gardening or handyperson repairs.

Administration and public information costs

Expenditure on all aspects of administration of ‘Information and early intervention’ (in other words non-frontline activities with residents) should be included in ‘Commissioning and service delivery’. It should be excluded from ‘Information and early intervention’. 

The one exception to this is expenditure on public information about adult social care as part of information and advice. This includes leaflets and websites, as well as the (actual or estimated) expenditure on related communications or publication teams. All of these should be included in ‘Information and early intervention’ and excluded from ‘Commissioning and service delivery’.

Social Work Admin Support Team

Social work support is coded to social care activities.

Expenditure relating to redundancy

For non-attributable social care activities you should exclude expenditure associated with commissioning or infrastructure. This will apply to redundancy which is classified as infrastructure.

Redundancy relating to social care workers should be coded to social care activities unless a central fund has been earmarked due to service restructures. This will then form part of corporate overheads recharged in the usual way and included in the SSMSS column.

Capturing social support within the ASC-FR

Social support appears in both the long term and short term tables in SALT. There is no requirement for it to be broken down in such a way for the ASC-FR. You should therefore record the sum of long term and short term expenditure on social support in the appropriate lines within the Non SALT worksheet of the ASC-FR.

Expenditure on annual subscription for web software

Expenditure on your annual subscription for web software which provides information regarding social care services should be included in Information and Early Intervention on the Non-SALT Totals worksheet.

Preventative services provided to carers and new contacts

Preventative services provided to carers and new contacts should be included in Information and Early Intervention on the Non-SALT Totals worksheet.

Equipment and adaptations

These should be included as expenditure as part of Assistive Equipment and Technology on the Non-SALT Totals worksheet.

HIV preventative costs

Low-level prevention costs should be recorded under Information and Early Intervention.

All other HIV related costs will be coded within the relevant PSR. For example, if some clients require support with daily living, then this will be assigned as ‘physical support’.

Charging overheads

If overheads are not charged directly to a front-line service they should instead be quantified on the 'Commissioning and Service Delivery' line. Per SeRCOP, an effort should be made to apportion costs over the care headings on a proportional basis.

Overheads for costs of supporting adult social care delivery

If the costs relate to supporting the delivery of adult social care, then they should be included in 'Commissioning and Service Delivery'. If the costs relate to the direct provision of services to clients, then they should be included under the relevant Long Term/Short Term/Non-SALT measure in the SSMSS column.

Expenditure charged to the Commissioning and Service Delivery section of the Non SALT Totals

Back office functions such as ICT, HR, and Finance are overheads which may be directly or indirectly assigned to PSRs and should be included in the SSMSS column, so that the actual service cost for comparison purposes can be deduced. Details of what’s included in this section are included in part Commissioning and Service Delivery above.