Under the Care Act 2014 local areas have a duty to consider how they can promote diversity, sufficiency, and quality in the provision of services to meet the needs of their population. We also need to ensure that the market is sustainable and able to adapt and respond to the changing and growing needs of the population.
To deliver the above the council and partners need to work co-operatively together with clarity on the strategic approach to achieve outcomes.
The Market Position Statement aims to:
- Set out the current market position and market composition
- Outline the current landscape, context challenges and opportunities
- Articulate current demand and supply
- Outline the key priorities for health and social care
- Communicate the strategic commissioning intentions and commissioning plans for the next 5 years
- Provide useful information that will support organisations in their business planning in relation to opportunities and expectations within Dudley borough
Much of the need for care and support is met by people themselves, by their families, friends or other carers and by their community networks. Market shaping and commissioning aims to broaden, supplement, and support all these wider sources of care and support and ensure sufficient sustainable provision tailored to meet the needs of those with additional support requirements.
While the statement sets out a 5-year plan, this document is the basis for strategic commissioning plans and will be reviewed at least annually.
Guiding our Approach
Our vision is to support people to live as independently and healthily as possible, with the right amount and type of care and support at the right time. Support should be focused on promoting independence and choice, enabling people to stay well and safe.
Co-production and the voice of the person is at the centre of all commissioning activity and the council's plans. This means that we seek continuously to understand services from the perspective of the person being supported, receiving feedback when we get it right and when we need to make change and improvements. This drives the outcome focused approach in commissioning, ensuring we understand what matters most and how we can evidence quality and change.
People at the Heart of Care: Adult Social Care Reform
- A 10-year vision that sets out long term aspirations for how people will experience care and support
- The strategy has a focus on three key objectives:
- Supporting people to have choice, control and independence
- Provision of outstanding quality of care
- Provision of care in a way that is fair and accessible to everyone who needs it
- The strategy identifies the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that their local care market is healthy and diverse. Support for sustainable care markets, including moving towards paying providers a fair rate for care, are key aspects in the delivery of the vision for social care reform
- As part of the levelling up agenda, the Government is committed to addressing the current geographical inequalities so that everyone, everywhere receives outstanding quality and tailored care
Market Sustainability
In 2022/23 the government launched the Fair Cost of Care Fund which set out a process of engagement between the council and providers. The Fund criteria meant the eligibility was focused on older adult’s care homes and domiciliary care. See the Fair Cost of Care Annex B reports and Market Sustainability Plan Annex C.
Local Cost of Care exercises were undertaken in 2022 with the working age adults market that mostly supports people with disabilities, previous cost of care exercises were undertaken during the pandemic in 2020 to better understand the impact upon providers and ensure that all available grants were passed on without delay. The information from these exercises has been used to inform council decisions and future planning. The market engagement regarding sustainability will continue through regular provider forums.
Market sustainability is an Adult Social Care priority as stated in the commissioning intentions, the Dudley Commissioning Strategy 2024-2029 and Dudley Adult Social Care Strategy 2024-2029. Sustainability is central to Commissioning projects, including the procurement of the new domiciliary care framework, the supported Living framework, in addition to pilot activity that tests out market plans prior to change such as the Care Home Sustainability Pilot for care homes.
Dudley Adult Social Care Vision
Supporting Dudley borough residents to lead happy, dignified, safe and independent lives through quality adult social care and community services.
Dudley's Population
In-depth demographic, health and socio-economic profiles of the communities living in Dudley Borough are available at the All About Dudley Borough website.
Dudley is committed to improve continuously data collection and analysis to better understand the needs and experiences of different groups of people, especially those with protected characteristics. Equality Impact Assessments are carried out when designing new or redesigning existing services, including where these are being reduced or decommissioned.
Page updated July 2024.