CareCubed: Past, Present, and Future

CareCubed is a market-leading sustainable social care benchmarking tool that is currently used by commissioners and providers across the UK. The tool is helping to transform the way in which we understand commissioning, reinforcing transparency in discussions around care packages to build sustainable best-practice care across the nation.

It has been built on 20 years of experience, with its predecessor ‘The Care Funding Calculator’ being launched in 2006. CareCubed uses an evidence-based approach to give clear benchmarks and ensure the cost of care and support packages deliver positive outcomes for residents and are fairly costed for providers and commissioners. The tool is used by more than 600 organisations to bring clarity to the cost of care – providing a single, well-understood, consistent approach for the UK. Commissioners (Local Authorities and Integrated Commissioning Boards) and providers utilise the tool to navigate the complexities in fair costing of care. The tool is now used by more than 70% of councils in England and Wales.

Its growing user base relies on it every day, and it plays a critical role in ensuring the public purse delivers best value.  Properly recompensing care providers to ‘keep doors open’ and improve services, whilst allowing commissioning bodies to continue to provide vital services for residents.

But how did CareCubed become the benchmarking tool trusted across social care?

Well, it began in 2006.

The History of CareCubed

2006

The origins of CareCubed can be found in the story of IESE CIC.
IESE is a not-for-profit organisation created by local authorities as a shared resource to transform public services and retain experience within the sector. We have a successful track record of delivering transformation and service improvement programmes across the UK.

IESE investigated the biggest areas of spend for local authorities and sought to find solutions that could optimise systems and budgets. Social Care was found through thorough research to be the area that needed innovation for optimisation the most. Today, with facts such as shrinking budgets and increased demand, without access to quality data, calculating the fair price for a complex care package is very difficult. The use of accurate and robust national information with easy access holds huge possibilities and reaps many benefits. Not only does it provide fairness and sustainability for providers and commissioners, but more importantly, the person-centred nature means that it improves the lives of those requiring care and support.

This analysis clearly showed the issue that existed and the ‘size of the prize’ that a tool like this could deliver to the sector in a positive way for those commissioning, providing and receiving care. The business case was written, and IESE got to work to create the Care Funding Calculator. This unique methodology and data were originally to be housed in an Excel spreadsheet which could be easily accessed and used across the country to support transparent fee negotiations.

2007-2015

Less than 2 years later, the CFC (Care Funding Calculator) was built to address the issues of unexplained variation, and it was launched in 2009, providing a reliable evidence base that could be used as a baseline. The model was built in co-development with both local authority representatives and care providers. In 2009, the Excel-based CFC tool was launched, offering a guide price for specialist care packages with an evidence-based approach for negotiation information and discussion baselines.

By 2010, UK councils had saved £63 million using the Care Funding Calculator in both supported living and residential care for adults. This was done by a combination of ensuring support hours matched the needs of individuals and what was being delivered on the ground, and then benchmarking the package against robust benchmark costs using the best data available from a range of sources. According to a review, the tool saved up to “2.1 million and increased productivity by 49%”.

2015 saw the Care Funding Calculator go online as a first version, with further investment occurring due to the expanding customer base and to address the needs of the sector. IESE embarked on the process of moving forward the Excel-based CFC with richer data and an online Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. Thus, ensuring its viability as a tool that is considered critical to commissioners and providers now but also in the future as requirements change and reform happens across health and social care.

2019

In February 2019, IESE redesigned and updated CFC with a new name – CareCubed. The redesign brought enhancements and included modelling costs for different settings as well as specific costs for locations and changing provision patterns. Later in the year, IESE released the children’s module of CareCubed for all-ages coverage. The tool also brought the ease of use for mobile devices and a more user-friendly interface, as well as support for ‘what if’ options and cross-organisational collaboration and analysis potential

2020 Onwards

The new CareCubed solution was developed to allow providers and commissioners to collaborate in an online platform, working together in a transparent way to quickly get to the point of a shared understanding around need, outcomes, and cost. The first provider customers started adopting the tool in 2020, and the uptake from 2020 to 2026 has been impressive, with over 500 providers accessing the tool in 2026.
The same year, the CareCubed charter came into being, acting as a protocol for users, setting the expected behaviour for both parties and therefore building trust and relationships between providers and commissioners to aid in streamlining negotiations.

In 2022, CareCubed unpinned the fair cost-of-care exercise as a free data collection tool that was commissioned by CHIP and developed by IESE. This tool was used by more than 95% of councils and 60% of over 65’s care providers. At the same time as delivering the fair cost of care data collection tool, IESE also launched the CareCubed Older Persons model, which was built in partnership with multiple organisations, including Christie & Co. This meant that although councils were asked to capture a view of costs from providers, they also had a benchmarking tool to use based on independent data sources.
The same year, CareCubed enabled licensing through the G-Cloud Framework and enhanced collaboration by enabling place-based licenses to enable commissioners to provide CareCubed access to their providers.

Since 2022, more councils have been using the tool as CareCubed moved through the adoption curve, with only a few councils not yet using CareCubed. This means that there is a consistent approach that is well understood nationally by those sourcing and providing support.

2023 saw the first CareCubed Children’s customer. IESE were requested to provide a tool that would support children’s social care. Although adult and children’s care is different, many of the challenges were the same – especially in the pressures surrounding funding, sufficiency and sustainability. Working alongside Lancashire County Council as a first children’s customer, IESE delivered the CareCubed Children’s module. This achieved immediate benefits, and the trailblazing work with Lancashire has led to multiple awards, significant benefits for the authority and a rapid adoption of the tool across the country. Since the inception of the children’s module in 2023, the two distinct modules and underpinning data, coupled with the older persons model, mean that CareCubed can provide an all-age solution with three discrete data models: children and young people, working-age adults, and older persons.

2023 also saw the first Welsh adoption of CareCubed. Cyngor Gwynedd was the first Welsh Council to adopt the tool. Three years after this, around 70% of commissioning authorities in Wales are using the tool.

Two years later, in 2025, CareCubed also saw the first Scottish customer adoption. Edinburgh Health & Social Care Partnership adopted the tool, and now there is a single, common currency and approach being adopted across England, Scotland and Wales.

Insight into CareCubed – Product Owner Vision

Lydia Wootton, currently the Product Owner at CareCubed Cost of Care, joined the team in 2021. She started her journey in the team working on the customer mailbox. She helped people log in and ensured any issues were resolved promptly. Over time, this helped her understand the inner workings of CareCubed.

Lydia’s role on the CareCubed mailbox allowed her to learn the functionality, typical issues, and inner workings of the tool as she learned the resolutions for many regular issues and relayed fixes back to the customers.

Later, she assisted with the data model and version updates, working with a workbook of data that needed to be updated. Taking this on board, Lydia made some adjustments to the process and how the data could be streamlined.

From here, she went on to business support, starting as a support analyst working to help the development team. Working in development, Lydia spent time writing up support materials as she became more involved with the tool and enhanced her understanding of it.

From business support, she went on to take on product ownership, a position she has been in for a couple of years and really enjoys. However, she states that the majority of her time since she joined the team, she has been enhancing her learning and understanding of the tool, obtaining well-rounded knowledge she now uses as the Product Owner.

She has been part of the journey the tool has made as its online presence has grown and as it has advanced to become impactful and widespread across the UK. With her experience with the tool, having watched it adapt and grow, Lydia has some fantastic insight into its past and future.

Lydia discussed how updates and small changes are applied to the tool constantly.
“Week-by-week, we make a series of small changes. And then every version will have a few alterations that go into development, and when you look back, it is starkly different. The development team are always updating things and making changes based on feedback, data updates and small alterations for smoother operation.”

“The team works at making sure every part of the tool functions well. While it was a challenge at the first stages of development, we find that now it is so seamless, although there are plans to optimise it even further in the future.”
The use of CareCubed in practice for customers is also an important factor for Lydia. “Once it gets implemented into organisations’ processes, it can become second nature. The more data you put in, the more you get out, and it becomes more valuable with each use”

Due to how long Lydia has been working directly with the tool and experiencing customer interactions with it, she has some nostalgia over the first versions of CareCubed and is proud of its growth and progress.

“I see screenshots of how it used to look, and I don’t even recognise it. It is quite easy to downplay just how much it has changed and adapted when it changes incrementally”.
“The biggest change over the lifetime of CareCubed would be the interface and changes to how information is entered. We were concerned that it would take some getting used to, but whenever we have made changes, we get feedback that this is great, and some people say they couldn’t even imagine how it looked before. It shows that we are making the right changes”.

The Future of CareCubed

Lydia has a lot of ideas around how CareCubed can look in the future, what changes are up and coming and what will be the next big steps for the tool.
“The next big thing for us is Data Version 23, which is due for release in late 2026. We regularly release data updates, but 23 is a big one. On top of that, we have a few ideas, looking at saving local authorities and providers more time when it comes to filling out templates. We want to make the process easier for people; the less that has to be manually filled out, and the fewer times templates need to be filled out, the better.”

Progress is always on the move, and a vision of CareCubed in 10 years is something that Lydia discussed when asked where she saw CareCubed in the future.

“Everything is heading towards automation in a lot of industries. I don’t know if we will be able to fully automate processes in CareCubed, but the use of AI could support decision-making and encourage curiosity by prompting the right questions, especially when decisions need to be made quickly. It isn’t something we are working on yet, but I can see it being a part of the CareCubed process in the future.”

The possible use of AI is not surprising; with automated and artificial intelligence technologies rising across the social care sector, it’s an inevitability for most. However, Lydia expressed the critical nature of security when looking into advancements of the tool in years to come.

“Every change we make is made with the whole sector in mind, from commissioners to those in care. All our updates, upgrades and new models must be secure, safe and advocate for compliance with industry legislation.”

CareCubed is always in a state of development, with the team constantly seeking out ways to optimise the tool to streamline for customers. Lydia is eager to see how the tool can further develop in the future and if new technologies will become a part of implementing new modes for process streamlining.

Craig White, Commercial Director at IESE, added, “Our goal of becoming the de facto tool, ‘common currency’ and single methodology used across the UK is becoming a reality, and the data and insight that can be drawn from the vast amounts of knowledge, experience and data we have at our fingertips is genuinely exciting. Regional working is becoming more common, and our reporting layer is providing intelligence to support decision-making locally and regionally – and we are uniquely placed to provide vital national insight and intelligence to central government departments.

As a Community Interest Company, we reinvest licence fees in the ongoing development of our CareCubed tools. This has allowed us to expand our portfolio to now include the national care costing tool CareCubed Cost of Care, CareCubed Brokerage to provide an intelligent care-funding solution, and we are about to release a new Assessment of Needs tool for children and young people which will ensure children are well matched to the right home and that placements deliver positive outcomes that have meaningful positive impact on the lives of children and young people.

The future is bright, and we are excited to continue to develop CareCubed and implement our innovative new solutions which will further improve public services across the UK.”

Find out more about how CareCubed can support your organisation and tackle the challenges facing the sector by contacting us today.