Review of 3rd sector trading performance

Last Updated on July 29, 2016

Specialist chartered surveying practice, Carterwood has published new research in conjunction with members of the National Care Forum (NCF).

Adult social care is facing a period of unprecedented change. The provisions of the new Care Act, combined with the forthcoming National Living Wage, will all potentially impact on providers' future revenues and costs. As such, there has never been a better time to understand the impact of costs in the care sector.

Carterwood and the NCF Finance Forum have been working together to develop a financial benchmarking survey which includes key information on fees, funding and occupancy data across the NCF members.

The research has produced some interesting key findings which compare favourably with the independent sector averages:

NCF average fee rates across the sample are between 6.2% and 10.7% higher, compared to LaingBuisson average fee rates.
As expected, the South East and London are the strongest performers in terms of fee rates and occupancy levels.
Primary quality assets are achieving the highest occupancy levels at 92.6%, compared with 89.2% for tertiary quality assets.
The proportion of NCF wholly self-funded service users is 44.8%, which compares favourably to LaingBuisson’s estimate of 41%.
NCF occupancy is in accordance with LaingBuisson’s independent sector average rates of 91% of registered capacity.
Provision of en-suite wetrooms within the sample size is 29% against the UK average of 14%.

Des Kelly, Executive Director of the NCF, commented, ‘The Carterwood research has provided valuable benchmarking data for NCF members showing how they perform against the UK national figures. NCF is working in partnership with Carterwood to build on these survey results and develop it into an annual benchmarking report. We will be working with members to fully consider the implications of the findings of this research alongside the comprehensive data we collect on workforce trends.’

Ben Hartley, Director at Carterwood said, ‘We were delighted to work with the NCF on producing this research; it has formed some interesting results and supports our long held view that homes offering a high proportion of en-suite wetrooms are better placed to charge higher fee rates.’

The report can be downloaded via the Carterwood website here.