Interview with Jeremy Taylor – Why CareCubed Brokerage?

The CareCubed Cost of Care tool has been a success nationwide for commissioners and providers alike. The tool supports open discussions and encourages clear evidence in negotiations to optimise care packages to be person-centred, needs-based, and fairly costed.

However, ensuring that packages are optimised for the best outcomes starts before decision-makers can analyse the packages. For many local authorities, this process starts at the brokerage stage of the commissioning cycle.

To further its mission in improving care for all, CareCubed has partnered with Surrey County Council to build a Brokerage solution that will help local authorities optimise the brokerage process. We spoke to Jeremy Taylor, Head of Contract & Commissioning Support Services and Brokerage at Surrey County Council. Jeremy has had a great deal of experience in social care commissioning and has been involved in the development of the CareCubed Brokerage tool, drawing upon his 28 years’ worth of experience.

What has been your experience of Social Care Commissioning over time?

“I have worked in Surrey County Council for 28 years, originally working in adult social care contract support. After this, I stepped into different roles, working on procurement and supporting commissioning roles. About 10 years ago, I started work as a senior manager, which included building the local authorities’ Adult Social Care brokerage team during COVID-19. With my biggest focus being on working out how to source information and get everything right first time.”

This challenge, sourcing quality information to include in the referral, was something Jeremy and his team faced, with work at the time being conducted via spreadsheets and emails, with no easy traceability or follow-up control.

Other methods were experimented with, including a system that just sent out every referral to every provider every day, which was far from ideal for the providers the commissioning team worked with.

“This is where my experience in procurement, relationship management and lean thinking came in. Having built a strong team managing fees, negotiating packages and thorough quality assurance, the only thing left was a system that would complement their work and make their lives easier.”

What are the main challenges in the Commissioning Cycle?

When considering how to streamline brokerage processes, one of the biggest challenges Jeremy has seen the sector face during the span of his career has been the mismatch in market understanding between commissioners and providers.

“One of the biggest challenges is the mismatch between commissioners’ and providers’ understanding of the market. Having market visibility has never been a major focus in social care.”

Having transparency between commissioner and provider is critical in ensuring residents receive the best care based on their individual needs, and the CareCubed Cost of Care tool provides transparency around the cost of packages, while CareCubed Brokerage adds a shared platform for collaboration, better matching and streamlining of processes.
CareCubed Cost of Care tool is already delivering visibility for both providers and commissioners and providing value for money from the public purse.  The tool provides insights through benchmarking that breaks down costings within care settings to help translate the true cost of need-specific, localised care for deeper understanding and more linear discussions.
CareCubed Brokerage adds further insight to this, using GIS technology and reliably sourced data to build a large-scale picture of the care market, so commissioners can know what they are getting from the outset and have a clear view of service availability.

What has been your experience with Brokerage systems?

When assessing the systems available for brokerage, Surrey County Council and Jeremy found that the systems were just not working as they needed them to.  “Providers were not looking at the referral emails due to an overabundance of them and a lack of specified relevance; it was lacking refinement. Post-2020 COVID lockdowns, we decided it was best for teams to meet with providers face-to-face and build up a rapport with them and build relationships. This, as a first step, was successful because people build change as a first rule of thumb.”

“Most of the systems we encountered were an add-on to case management systems. They were not designed for sourcing as we wanted and needed.”
They sought a system that fulfilled the required flexibility and specification for different activities, and something that could be configured internally without reliance on the system supplier. Surrey had a referral form that practitioners would fill in, specifying information, record details and location, and any further helpful information.

Jeremy states, “Having the ability to have a bespoke system that works properly is much better; it makes things so much easier for Brokerage teams and our providers.”

He continued to state that “It can be challenging in brokerage teams to have to chase providers to complete the information needed to be able to send out referrals – for example, availability of beds. But now, it is only necessary if the information has not been updated in the last seven days to ensure information accuracy. Providers can easily update information about services they offer, capacity and respond to referral requests. This has removed a lot of strain on brokerage and provider relationships and allows information access to be easier with a smoother referral process. Providers now have the comfort of knowing they only get the appropriate referrals, while the commissioning team has a smoother process.”

What challenges do you see the sector facing in the future, and how might this impact brokerage?

Jeremy highlighted another stark challenge many within brokerage teams across the country are considering right now: how local government reorganisation will impact the way in which social care brokerage will work.

“Brokerage teams in the future may be split into two teams, should current local authorities be split into two authorities. This may mean more people across areas working in brokerage teams, which may put strain on roles that require specialisation and a depth of knowledge.”

As brokerage teams go through the restructuring process of LGR, there will be challenges, but having the right support and leaders can make a significant difference. Having top-quality, cloud-based software will also make a significant difference to strain on teams already dealing with stark changes – and provide the flexibility to support any change associated with LGR, or regional working, such as the new RCCs in children’s services.

What do you think the opportunities are in commissioning going forward?

“With LGR on the horizon and the landscape of social care having a higher demand and a supply that is struggling to meet the demand, there is dialogue around what the requirements are going forward.”

Jeremy has worked in the sector for many years and believes that the sector could benefit from “a bit more commercialisation, especially around managing contracts and providers. The focus is on building relationships and understanding the market. Managing KPIs and driving the right behaviours is also key to bolstering the sector.”

It is possible that a stronger diversity of experience within teams could bolster the sector and help build commissioning and brokerage teams’ skillsets through shared learning.
Jeremy also believes that courses in commissioning could benefit teams, as at first glance, it sounds challenging, but in truth, commissioning is something we all do every day.

“Have you got a mobile phone? Yes, then you have commissioned, because commissioning is looking at the need, looking at what is available on the market, deciding what is the best fit, and what is a reasonable fee.”

This analogy highlights how anyone who browses before they buy is commissioning, and that if there were courses available, the sector may be more attractive and draw in more skillsets to help bolster teams.

CareCubed Brokerage

The CareCubed Brokerage tool supports the Cost of Care model by providing a first-step brokerage software that helps to streamline the process and help teams see the available options on a need-based, person-centred, best-fit basis. Alleviating strain from commissioning teams and making the process smoother end-to-end.

It enables providers and Local Authorities or ICBs to build stronger relationships from day one and focus on the core objective at hand of ensuring the right home is found at the right price, with the right care in the right places to ensure care supports improvement in the places that need it most.

Jeremy and the team at Surrey brought essential insight into the solution, with awareness that the brokerage space needed a tool that was the right fit for what teams needed in the current and projected market state.  With collaboration between Surrey and IESE, this developed into a tool that would take the internal learning to the next level, adding the costing link via the CareCubed Cost of Care tool, providing end-to-end optimisation in social care commissioning.

CareCubed Brokerage has been an innovation of Jeremy and the team at Surrey and IESE to bring a tailored interface to referral teams, commissioners, brokers, providers and managers. It has full reporting and dashboard ability for both the Adults and Children’s markets. The system is person-centred with referral processes for care package providers, enabling data to be anonymised with full customisation that incorporates the whole brokerage process across all service types.

The learning done by Surrey County Council and IESE has resulted in a best-of-breed product that has been designed by those commissioning and delivering packages of care and support. Other councils can now take advantage of this to streamline processes, provide efficiencies and ultimately deliver the right care to their residents. You can find out more about the CareCubed Brokerage tool by contacting us for a demo to learn how this innovative platform can help your organisation.