Care England says it has worked extensively to establish over 20 ways for care providers to reduce, control or mitigate recent high-level inflation allowing them to focus on delivering high-quality person-centred care, through free audits, discounts and financial incentives.
It says the energy crisis, cost of living pressure, and local authority fee uplifts that don’t match inflation leave providers unable to mitigate rising costs: without long-term funding plans for the sector, care providers must look for efficiencies in their own services to sustain the delivery of high-quality care to an ageing population.
Care England says a crucial tenant to providing care is keeping residents well-nourished and hydrated. With food and beverage costs increasing by 35% in the last three years, this looks to become progressively more challenging.
Care England is working with Creed Foodservices to create solutions to reduce catering costs in the same way they did for energy, which continues to see 100% of care providers reduce their energy costs, ‘saving millions [of pounds]’ across the sector via the Care England energy tender with Focus Energy Services.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England said: “Care England’s last tender on energy was incredibly successful, with 100% of care providers who participated saving money. We are looking to build on this and save providers crucial funds by partnering with Creed Foodservice with an initiative to help care providers cut costs and improve efficiencies. We remain acutely aware of the pressures care providers face and hope this latest initiative is one able to circumnavigate another cost pressure for the sector.”
The solutions offered by Care England via Creed Foodservice can help all care providers regain food and beverage cost control via tendering, audits, best practices, supplementing, planning, and innovative meal preparation. Residential care services are encouraged to engage in the process regardless of when their existing arrangements expire.
Care providers can register their interest to participate in the catering tender here or take advantage of the food and beverage audit here.
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash
