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Home Support & Extra Care

Providers are expected to complete the actuals in the portal each week by close of business on Tuesday. Delays inputting the data will impact on timely 4-weekly invoicing of customers who have to contribute towards the cost of the adult social care services they have received each week.

To support the prompt payment of variations and adjustments, providers should ensure that they submit the ‘Request for Adjustment of Current Services Form’ as per the terms of the 2023-30 Locality contract ‘Providers must submit the Request for the Adjustment Form within fourteen (14) days of the Provider increasing or decreasing the service’. 
 

Adjustment forms must be submitted within fourteen (14) days of a TEMPORARY change lasting more than seven (7) days and for PERMANENT changes to the care package. Adjustment forms submitted for increases to services later than fourteen (14) days after the start date of the increase in service, if approved by a Council Assessor will only be backdated for payment to the submission date of the adjustment form. For further information, please see ‘Schedule 2’ payment process in the terms and conditions of the Home Support Locality Contract.
 

Providers should complete a ‘Request for Adjustment to Current Service Form’ via the online link:  https://onlineforms.bradford.gov.uk/ufs/CHANGE_OF_PROVIDER.eb.

Helpful Content

                                       

                               Definitions                                                                  Do's & Don'ts

                                                           

                                 Contacts                                                                          FAQs

 

 

Functional Content

Log in                           Generate Actuals                          Variations

           Logging In                                          Generate Actuals                      Inputting Actuals (Variations)

 

 

                                                      

           Exceptions                                         Backdated Service Lines                    Confirm Actuals

 

                                                              

           Checklist                                            Communication (Actions)                        Disputes

 

     

            Reports

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Logging In

 

Logging in to the portal (and password reset)

 

If you have forgotten your password or are locked out, you will need to email provider.portal@bradford.gov.uk to request the account unlocking,

Your account will be locked if you have not accessed the Provider Portal within the last 90 days.

If you wish to reset your password and/or your six-digit security code, you can do this from the Provider Portal home page.

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Generate Actuals

 

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Inputting Actuals

(Variations)

 

Actuals can be input manually or by exporting and importing a CSV file.

To view guidance on inputting actuals using a CSV file, click here

Inputting Actuals Manually

 

See drop-down options below for examples of the different types of actual submissions

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Importing/Exporting Actuals using CSV file

Importing Actuals Using CSV File

 

The file details the following:

Service – Name of service provider

Service level – Single-handed, double-handed etc

SS Ref – This is what you will use to identify the service user you are making any amendments to. For guidance on how to use VLOOKUP to include the name of the person, click here

Date – This relates to the week the actuals are for. The format is Year/Month/Date.

Weekly Actual Quantity – This is the numbers of hours that were actually provided to the service user

Weekly Frustrated Quantity – The number of hours for calls not provided due to hospital admission.

****This should only be used for Hospital Week 1 & 2****

These will be payable but it is important that they are not included on the ‘Weekly Actual Quantity’

Weekly Missed Quantity – This is the number of hours not provided e.g. calls had been cancelled in advance or the carer was unable to attend as expected

Weekly Extra Quantity – This is the number of additional hours provided in addition to the expected planned service

Weekly Number Of Visits – Do not amend this figure regardless of whether full planned service was provided

Comments – This must be completed with the reason(s) why the full planned service was not provided or where claims for additional services are being made. Failure to complete this may result in payment being rejected.

 

 

 

 

 

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Exceptions

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Backdated Service Lines

Back-dated Service Lines

  • When a service has been backdated, you will see the amendments on the most recent week you are working on. If you have the email notification for Care Package Line Items activated, you will receive an email to advise you.
  • To view the expected payments, go to Scheduled Payments and filter by the applicable week
  • When payments have been calculated on the Local Authority’s contract management system (this is done overnight on a daily basis), amendments will show
  • On this example, we will look at the service user Sid Waddell
  • Sid was planned 1hr of single-handed service each week (£20.00)
  • The current week is week beginning 23rd January 2023
  • The service is increased to 5hrs of single-handed service each week (£100.00)
  • The service is backdated to start from 2nd January 2023
  • When payments have been calculated on the Local Authority’s contract management system, you will see negative amounts of -£20.00 for each of the backdated week

  • This is because the service line no longer exists for these weeks and the system looks to recoup the monies already paid
  • In order for the backdated line(s) to be factored into the claim, you will need to generate actuals for each of the weeks that the line was backdated
  • To do this, go to Actuals and navigate to the week that the line was backdated to. In this example, it was week beginning 2nd January 2023
  • You will see that in this week, it is showing the original actual of 1hr however it now shows that there isn’t a planned service – This is why the system is looking to recoup the £20.00 payment for the week
  • To factor in the backdated service line, you will need to press Generate Actuals

  • Once you have generated the actuals, it will now show the backdated service line of 5hrs

 

  • You will need to repeat the process of generating the actuals on each of the weeks that the service line was backdated
  • If any variations are required e.g. fewer hours were provided in any of the weeks, then you would need to amend the actual accordingly
  • To amend the actual, click on the Add/Edit button

 

  • This will open the service(s) for that particular week
  • Only amend the actuals on the backdated service line (the one which shows there are planned hours)
  • Whenever an actual is amended, you must record a comment

 

  • Once the actuals have been generated for all of the weeks and payments calculated on the Local Authority’s contact management system, you can view the adjustments in Scheduled Payments under the current week
  • On this example, we can see that there are adjustments for each of the backdated weeks (from 2nd January 2023)
  • The original service was 1hr (£20.00)
  • The backdated service is 5hrs (£100.00)
  • The system is now paying the £80.00 difference for each of the backdated weeks (as payment of the original 1hr £20.00 had already been made) and the full £100.00 for the current week (23rd January)

 

  • Confirm the payments as normal

 

  • Once payment has been made by the Local Authority, you will be able to see the adjustments on the remittance advice
  • To view the remittance, go to Scheduled Payments, select the applicable week and then Download Remittance Advice

  • The remittance advice will show the breakdown of payments

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Confirm Actuals

Confirm Actuals

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Checklist

 

Checklist

 

  • Generated Actuals
  • Amended actuals where necessary
  • Provided comment where submission is anything different to planned service
  • Reviewed exceptions and amended/corrected where necessary
  • Confirmed actuals

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Communication

Communication

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Disputes

 

Disputes

See drop-down options below for further guidance on responding

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Reports

Using Reports

 

See drop-down options below for further details on each of the reports

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Definitions

See below drop-down options for further explanation

A request for a permanent change to planned home support hours or a temporary change for more than 7 days requested by a provider. Adjustments can be for ending services (moving into care home, deceased etc), increases (including changes from single handed to double handed support) and reductions in weekly hours.

Requests for adjustments from providers need to be approved by the Independence Advice Hub (formerly called Access), BEST or a Social Work team. Providers should complete a ‘Request for Adjustment to Current Service Form’ (formerly SS243 Form) via the online link: https://onlineforms.bradford.gov.uk/ufs/CHANGE_OF_PROVIDER.eb

Even if a change is likely to be temporary and not permanent, a ‘Request for Adjustment to
Current Service Form’ must be submitted if the temporary change is provided for 8 days or
more.

A temporary change to planned home support hours requested by a provider, either an increase or decrease, for example because of short term illness, family carer being away on holiday, service user going on holiday etc. Providers should add any variations to the Provider Portal, you must add a comment to the comments box stating the reason for the
variation. Increases to planned services are monitored and processed by Support Options and are paid for up to one week. If an increase to planned service exceeds 7 days, then providers must submit a ‘Request for Adjustment of Current Service Form’ to the Support Options Team, increases to planned services exceeding 7 days will be rejected for payment in the Provider
Portal.

Providers should always note in the Provider Portal the reason they have delivered an
increased or reduced service in the comments box. Failure to do this will result in delays in
payments for increased support or potential complaints from service users where support has been reduced and they are being charged by the Council for the higher amount.


You must not submit any adjustments and variations for services that are not part of the
planned support because they will not have been identified as an assessed need as part of a service users support plan. For example, you should not start providing domestic services, social inclusion or sitting services if these services are not part of the existing planned hours.


If you identify that a service user is socially isolated or there is a concern around healthy and safety in the home you should raise these concerns with the allocated Social Worker or Home Support Reviewing Team.

To support the prompt payment of variations and adjustments, providers should ensure that they submit the ‘Request for Adjustment of Current Services Form’ as per the terms of the 2023-30 Locality contract ‘Providers must submit the Request for the Adjustment Form within fourteen (14) days of the Provider increasing or decreasing the service’.


Any Request for an Adjustment Form submitted for service increases after fourteen (14) days of the start of the increase in service will be paid from the date of submission and not backdated if it is approved by an authorised officer of the Council. The Council will respond promptly to requests for adjustments.


The provider must have processes and procedures in place that meet the business requirements of the Council, a mechanism that supports the completion of the Provider Portal so that they are completed accurately and submitted no later than the end of the Tuesday after the end of each weekly period.

An individual online form must be completed for each service user that providers are requesting an
adjustment for.


If there is an increase and a reduction for a service user, starting on the same date, the request
should be submitted on one individual online form. If there are different start dates for the increase
and reduction, then two separate individual online forms need to be completed.

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Do's & Don'ts

Do's & Don'ts

 

Do

Don’t

Ensure submissions are in by the close of business each Tuesday

 Don't use Frustrated claims for anything other than hospital retainer (Week 1 and Week 2)

Confirm actuals in Scheduled Payments

Don't submit extras when adjustment forms have been submitted and accepted

Provide detailed comment when claim is for anything other than the planned service

Don't add names on to the CSV file if exporting/importing actuals

 

Don't amend actuals whilst the week is still in progress, enter on the Monday or Tuesday of the following week

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Who to contact and when

Who to contact and when

Password Reset - Please email provider.portal@bradford.gov.uk

Access to Portal required - 

Service line incorrect - 

Service ended/client died - 

Payment query - 

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FAQs

You cannot confirm actuals for a week where the payment has already been processed. 

Where you find that you are providing home support to a service user and their payments are missing from the Provider Portal, please e-mail Support-Options@bradford.gov.uk with service users details i.e. NHS number, full name, address and post code and Support Options will look into.

You may need to generate the actuals. This could be a new and/or backdated service line.

You cannot request resolution of a dispute that has already been resolved. Check if the status is 'Resolved'.

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