“I am really upset and horrified. Clearly something has gone wrong here.”
The leader of Dudley Council was talking to ITV last week about the mismanagement of one care package under their funding. He was right to order an investigation into the provider being paid £66,000 a year to support the needs of a young man. After all, the secret footage showing that he was not receiving the care being paid for was pretty damning.
But “something has gone wrong here” could just as easily have been a comment on the funding and delivery of adult social care generally. We see it all the time; there is just no visibility whatsoever on what care the councils are actually funding.
The report says they’re spending more than a third of their budgets on adult social care. Harley calls the sums “astronomical”.
In Dudley’s case, add in a vague sense that they’re being ripped off by a provider, and it’s no wonder adult social care feels like it’s in crisis.
Yet while these headlines focus on numbers, behind each figure is a vulnerable individual who needs consistent, compassionate, and skilled support.
Why don’t they get it? It’s not just because of lack of money, increase in demand or even private providers chasing margins.
It’s because funders, commissioners, policymakers and even providers themselves frequently lack a clear picture of where money is going and the resulting outcomes. There is simply no understanding or comparison between the care plan and the care delivered, because there is no visibility.
This is where software tools like Rostrata can make a real difference.
Rostrata offers transparency, not just in the finances, but in the care itself. It enables providers to record the full spectrum of support a person receives, from clinical interventions to community engagement.
It also tracks the actual costs of delivering that care, including the hidden pressures that make support both more valuable and more expensive than many realise… and it does all of this while comparing outcomes to care plan on a daily basis. And all at the desktop.
If funders could see the quality and complexity of care, and understand the cost breakdown in real time, funding decisions could be based on evidence, not assumptions.
We could move beyond reactive budget cuts and towards strategic investment in models and frameworks with providers that truly work.
The reality is, we’re not overspending on care, we’re under-accounting for it. Until we recognise what good care looks like, what it costs to sustain and have a detailed picture of how providers are delivering it, councils like Dudley will continue to come under the spotlight.
That’s why we’re urging funders and local authorities to adopt tools like Rostrata with their approved providers to bring visibility and accountability into the system. Only then can we make informed choices that protect both people and budgets.
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