Planning4care helps local councils, primary care trusts and care providers understand their future health and social care needs and service requirements under various planning scenarios. This enables them, working with other local partners, to make informed decisions about future commissioning plans and resource allocation.
Planning4care builds on national models for long term care projection for Older People, Learning Disability and Mental Health groups and adapts them to provide local estimates and projections. It:
- Provides an understanding of the care needs of the whole population;
- Identifies areas of high and unmet need;
- Links evidence of need to service requirements and costs; and,
- Explores the impact of different future scenarios.
Planning4care (Older People) for a local authority and PCT starts from £5,000 for strategic needs assessment report, scenario mapping, website access and a half-day introductory briefing.
Using the tools
Planning4care is a web based tool that provides:
- Local estimates of social care need and service requirements to 2030;
- A strategic needs assessment summary report; and,
- Information on the potential impact of different decisions and changing demographic trends. For example, it explores the impact on service requirements resulting from changes in healthy life expectancy, shifting resources to preventive and community services, and changes in informal care.
The website includes instructions for using Planning4care, and for using the analysis to develop commissioning strategies.
The tool will save the time and resources needed for data analysis and scenario forecasting. However, managers will need to set aside time to think about the implications of the analysis and to undertake planning because of this information.
An example of Planning4care being used
The Planning4care Older People tool was piloted with Brighton and Hove, and is used in more than 20 partnerships to support local commissioning teams.
Contact details
Email: info@planning4care.org.uk
Tel: 01273 201 316