Market Position Statement introduction

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Foreword

I am delighted to present the updated Wandsworth Borough Council Adult Social Care Market Position Statement (MPS) for 2023. This edition has been refreshed to focus on our key commissioning intentions, the current state of the local adult social care market and the outcomes we are seeking for our service users.

We want to foster a diverse but sustainable care market, which supports our care providers to ensure our residents receive the highest quality of support and services possible, to meet their needs and aspirations.

We collectively face major challenges; increasing demand post pandemic; people with more complex need; an ageing population; care providers facing significant workforce challenges with difficulties in recruiting and retaining a high-quality workforce; continued budget pressures and more recently cost of living increases and high rates of inflation.

It is therefore even more important that the council in its commissioning role and care providers work together in partnership as a collective to embrace these challenges and provide the highest quality of care for our residents.

Since the last MPS there have been many contextual changes. At a national level, the integration of health and social care continues to be a key driver and opportunities are being explored locally between the NHS and social care to develop closer joint working arrangements, that benefit residents in our borough.

In response to the challenges facing the care sector, the government in 2022/23 made funding available nationally to councils for market sustainability and fair cost of care. This funding has been maintained in 2023/24 and in addition to continuing this funding the government has allocated additional funding for adult social care through the Market Sustainability & Improvement Fund (MSIF) grant.

The purpose of the MSIF grant is to enable local authorities to make tangible improvements to adult social care and are expected to increase social care capacity through at least one of the following three elected target areas:

• Reducing social care waiting times
• Increasing fee rates, and
• Increasing workforce capacity and retention

Wandsworth Borough Council has decided increasing fee rates as its key priority, but we also want to work with our care providers to support them to increase workforce capacity and care capacity.

This MPS, building on the strategy we are developing through the Market Sustainability & Improvement Fund provides an opportunity to set out our future commissioning intentions so that in partnership with our care providers we can sustain and develop the models of care we need to meet current and future need but also support the development of a more sustainable care market.

Our key focus will continue to be the health and well-being of our residents, supporting them through a person-centred approach to exercise choice and control over their care and support needs and to live independently in their communities for as long as possible. We will continue to achieve this by working in a preventative, enabling manner and by adopting a strength based approach to maximise community assets, delaying the need for long term intensive health and social care. Most importantly we will continue to work with residents, providers and other stakeholders, listening to their views when shaping and commissioning services.

Finally, I would like to thank the many care providers the Council works with for ensuring that they offer the best possible care to our residents and our partners for their continuing efforts to ensure that services offered are best suited to our community and hope you find this document informative.

Ged Taylor
Interim Assistant Director of Adult Social Services
Commissioning and Quality Standards

What is a Market Position Statement?

The Market Position Statement (MPS) summarises our commissioning intentions for Wandsworth. It provides an overview of the needs and anticipated future demands of service users with different presenting needs across various market sectors. The statement is aimed at providers of care and support and has been designed in conjunction with providers and partners. It will allow providers to understand potential business opportunities and support the development of services in line with local need.

This has been developed in response to our statutory duties to stimulate a diverse and sustainable market for care that offers people choice and high-quality services to support them to remain as independent as possible and enjoy a good quality of life within their local communities. The market position statement will form part of our approach to market shaping and development for care and support in Richmond and Wandsworth.

Since the last MPS was published in 2018, we have seen the impact from Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic which has intensified the challenges facing the adult social care market and the introduction of new proposals for transforming adult social care. In a climate of continuous change and uncertainty, we hope providers utilise this market position statement as a starting point to review current delivery models ensure that they are sustainable and adaptable to meet the needs of our residents.

The MPS will take account of the market sustainability plan, which details how we plan to support market sustainability across the older people’s care home and 18 plus domiciliary care markets and move towards a fair cost of care over the next three years. It will be informed by the Wandsworth Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), and Health and Care Plan 2022-24, which highlight local need and priorities to support planning of health and social care services, as well as key strategies and plans such as the Wandsworth Housing and Homelessness Strategy.

In 2016 a shared staffing arrangement (SSA) was formed between Wandsworth Borough Council and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to effect efficiency and protect frontline services. Whilst both authorities remain sovereign, there have been significant benefits in terms of culture and maximising resources to deliver the best outcomes, at the best value for residents.

The MPS is fully online and is supported by a dashboard which enables more detailed analysis of demand across different services. We are keen to engage and listen to the market and hope the MPS provides a platform to do this.

Contact us

Your views are important to us in developing the MPS. If you have any feedback or queries, please email richmondandwandsworthmps@wandsworth.gov.uk.