Commissioning intentions
While the data in table ‘Forecasted Demand for Disabilities Care Homes’ indicates that the overall demand for care home placements is increasing within these figures, variations emerge across different areas of need. Specifically, commissioned placements for individuals with Learning Disabilities are experiencing a decline, contrasting with an increase in care home placements for people with mental health and physical disability needs.
There are, therefore, significant opportunities for us to work with providers, customers and families to co-design and deliver new provision which meets needs and is affordable. We would want to discuss with providers how to plan for a local care home market that is able to meet the changing needs of individuals over time.
The rise in the number of physically disabled people and people with mental health needs, requiring a care home placement has increased significantly since 2020 and population and service user data suggests this will continue to rise at least as far as 2027. As well as new developments, we would want to explore opportunities for existing age 65+ provision to create opportunities for older working age adults to access those residential services through changes in age registration.
In Priority 3 of our Coventry and Warwickshire Joint Strategy for Autistic people 2021-2026 we aim to develop the market for community and accommodation-based support for autistic people (including short breaks, respite, supported living and residential services) ensuring a personalised approached which promotes independence, autonomy and self-care.
We will continue developing targeted policies for Warwickshire's 18 to 64 age group, focusing on healthcare, social care, along with care home and housing provision. Our aim is to ensure their ongoing fulfilment, addressing diverse needs like learning disabilities, autism, mental health, physical disabilities, and sensory needs.
We will continue to work in collaborative manner with stakeholders, including service providers and the community with regular reviews, active user feedback solicitation, and strategic planning to optimise Warwickshire's adult social care’s efficiency and responsiveness.
We are committed to prioritising the development of diverse housing and care models tailored to meet the needs of individuals with learning disabilities and autism. This commitment involves supporting providers in creating accommodation that aligns with both national and local environmental standards, while adhering to Care Quality Commission current best practice (Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture) for housing provision. By fostering innovation in housing with care schemes and emphasising supported living arrangements, we aim to enhance the quality and accessibility of services while addressing local demand. Additionally, we prioritise promoting community-based accommodation options, aiming to empower individuals with personalised care and expanded choices for independent or shared living arrangements. This commitment to diversity and inclusivity is further reinforced by our focus on developing commissioning and contracting mechanisms that ensure the delivery of high-quality services across various housing and residential care models.
We remain committed to understanding why we place people outside Warwickshire. Our objective is to understand whether this is a result of complex needs or increasing needs beyond Warwickshire's capacity. Collaborating with providers and our operational teams, we aim to gain deeper insights into service gaps and promptly communicate these observations to the market. Through ongoing collaboration with key stakeholders, our focus is on ensuring we effectively address the diverse needs of Warwickshire’s citizens, enabling them to reside within their local environment.
We will commission based on evidence of escalating demand or a lack of supply. We are committed to collaborating with providers to understand gaps in provision while developing appropriate solutions by assessing the total available provision and its distribution across the county.
We will be commissioning services that support the council to manage its budgets within available resources while ensuring that the accommodation can enable all of our residents to live in a secure and safe environment that will cater for their present and future needs by creating an environment that is accessible and sensory-friendly. We would also like to explore opportunities for joint Warwickshire capital projects with providers, which would create capacity for services that are more affordable for social care funded customers.
We are committed to supporting the care market in adopting appropriate digital solutions to improve the quality and safety of care for their residents. When supporting people or giving advice, we will ensure assistive technology is always considered, especially where it can aid mobility to communication devices, navigation assistance, hearing aids, and smart home technology, to empower individuals with disabilities for active community participation and inclusion to support the quality of care and safety for customers.
We are committed to acting decisively to tackle climate change and the biodiversity crisis. Taking action now, so that we are a county with a sustainable future, is one of the key strategic priorities in the Council Plan. We have already started work towards our goals of reducing carbon emissions to net zero across the council by 2030 and to support us as a county to do the same by 2050 or earlier. We will be working with care home providers to assess and reduce the environmental impact of care homes, with a view to agreeing a protocol/ambition which would then form part of our contracts from September 2026.
We are committed to working in partnership with colleagues in the ICB to promote and develop Enhanced Health in Care Homes (EHCH) schemes and initiatives that benefit care homes. To date initiatives have included: NHS Data Security and nhs.net emails; Digital Transformation Fund; NECSU Capacity Tracker; Remote Monitoring; and Assistive Technology. Outcomes of these initiatives for younger adult providers includes greater data security, more effective communication with health and social care partners, and supporting the provision of effective data to manage the market and access capacity. This supports providers in having more time and resource to provide effective care for their residents and helps ensure that residents are placed in the right place to meet their needs. Digitisation work has included promoting and supporting the rollout of digital monitoring tools, adopting digital social care records (DSCR), sensor-based falls prevention and detection technologies, and other technologies based on local need and what works for providers. Where possible Warwickshire will also support providers with access to relevant funding and training and support to make the best use of these technologies.
We will continue to work with providers to improve health and wellbeing and prevent ill health, including mental health, taking into consideration the recommendations of appropriate JSNA.
Respite
For our respite commissioning intentions please refer to the Working Age Adults Market Position Statement.