This new and updated third edition of the best-selling Calculating a fair price for care estimates the potential cost to the public sector of paying fair market fees to a fully modernised care home sector. The demands resulting from an ageing population means that more care homes will be needed in the future. However, most public sector funding agencies do not currently offer fees that are sufficient to encourage care home operators to invest in new capacity for state-funded clients. Calculating a fair market price for care offers a transparent and evidence-based mechanism for working out what such fees should be, based on the costs borne by care homes in the financial year 2008/09. Updates for the third edition include a new and simplified approach to working out ‘floor’ and ‘ceiling’ fair fees; new staff input and other cost benchmarks derived from a survey of major corporate operators of care homes in 2008 and a downward revision in the target rate of return on capital from 13% to 12%. Calculating a fair market price for care is essential reading for commissioners and providers of care services throughout the UK, local councillors, advocacy groups for older people and social policy experts, as well as politicians, civil servants and other policy makers concerned with appropriate funding for long-term care.