Commissioning Activity Area: / Carers Support Service
Lead Commissioning Officer / Agnes Olagunju
Date / April 2016
Commissioning summary and key actions
The Adults carers support service provides community based support to carers aged 18 and over.
Specifically the service provides:
- Informal Aadvocacy and preventive services including peer support and individual case working especially for young carers of adults, and carers who have not had a carers assessment by the authority.
- Information, Advice and Guidance,
- Links and provision of referrals to other services to ensuring Adult Services focus that eligible carers will benefit from carers assessments and Carer breaks
Key commissioning actions for the coming months include:
- Working with the service to Improving identification of carers with an emphasis on hard to identify carers
- Start re-commissioning of Adult Carers Support Service, with appropriate analysis and market development work
What is the identified need/demand in this area?
There are :
-An estimated 24,555 informal carers in the borough (Source:updated 2011 census figures) of which less than 6,000 are known to health and Social Care( this figure is including carers supported by the carers support service and those who had a carers assessment and Health Check.
-An estimated 11,000 or more carers are considered unlikely to be known to Health and Social Care until they reach crisis point.
-In 2015/16, the carers support service offered a service to 1989 carers between April and December. Pro rata, this will be 2652 in a year. Approximately 1854 carers have had a formal carers assessment by Adult Social Care
Is there a LBN or jointly commissioned service currently in place? / Yes
Current contractual status and performance
Include:
-The service is currently provided by Newham Carers Network. The value of the contract is £149.967 per year. The service provides Information and Advice, support Carers with Advocacy, Hosting of Carers Forum, leading and or supporting Carers public events. Supporting the existing peer support group for carers( this is usually around interest and activities )
The Service is commissioned to support informal carers to achieve at least one of the following four outcomes:
-Carers will be respected as expert care partners and will have access to the integrated and personalised services they need to support them in their caring role.
-Carers will be able to have a life of their own alongside their caring role. This will be measured by:
-Carers will be supported so that they are not forced into financial hardship by their caring role.
-Carers will be supported to stay mentally and physically well and treated with dignity.
The delivery of the service is monitored quarterly. The Service has supported 1989 Carers from the period April 2015 to December 2015.
How well does the current provision meet the identified need
The service is delivering on the agreed outcomes and have been successfully in supporting carers with complex adjudication cases usually benefit rights cases thus helping to improve the financial resilience of these carers.
Market Status and Development
Current provider market
The community-based support market for carers is dominated by a few providers,both national and regional level. The key players are Carers UK, Carers Trust, and Age Concern. Age Concern is however moving away from this model. What this is means is that most of the services provided at local level are either London branch of Carers Trust or affiliated to Carers Trust or Carers UK.
Newham is one of the few exception in that the provider of the adult service is not a local branch of any of the national bodies and is a User-Led Organisation.
The nature of the service provided to carers themselves has also limited interest in the area as provider have to be able to advocate and champion , being a source of information and guidance, and provide well being service.
There has been some discussion at regional level on doing some market stimulation exercise across London and this may happen at some point in the future.
Locally, whenever possible commissioners have been minded towards the inclusion of carer related outcomes in specifications for services where this has been appropriate. This represents market development of providers beyond the carers service into the provision of services across the adult social care pathway.
Specifically, references tocarers support has been included in the service specification for the following services:
Stroke Support; Dementia Community Support; Home and Settle; Shared Lives; Community Equipment; and Independent Living Support Services.
Gaps in current provision/desired market
The desired market for the carers support service will be a mixture of the block contract to support the delivery of universal support and other services via personal budget so that Carers are able to buy additional services for the provider if they so choose.
As part of recommissioning, analysis will be undertaken on the option of having more than one provider to deliver this service to offer choice to carers.This may dilute the market and the value of the contracts may not make this a viable venture for providers
Opportunities/Limitations in supporting future market development
There is the potential for joint commissioning with other boroughs. However the addition cost of setting up the service in another borough may be a barrier. Camden and Islington have an informal partnership commissioning arrangement but this evolved because they both have the same provider who already had presence including premises in both boroughs.
Moreover, different authorities may commission it in different ways, which is a barrier to joint commissioning.
Larger providers may be more interested in setting up services across more than one council.(e.g. Age Concern, Royal Voluntary Society). The caveat with these organisations is that whilst they may be interested locally they required the national or regional management team to sign up to this. This was one of the hurdles commissioners encountered at the tender exercise for the current service.
Commissioner intentions for future of the service
-Re-commissioning of the adult support service, with exploration of the best model of delivery (e.g. small or large provider preference) and exploration of joint commissioning to provide added value
Short, medium and long term action plan to move towards desired market status, and meet commissioning intentions
Key actions to be taken
Short Term (6 months) / -Needs assessment
-Mapping of service requirement
-Development of service specification
-Work with other boroughs to explore joint commissioning possibility
Medium Term (1 year) / -Procurement exercise
-Implementation of new service
Long Term (1-3 years) / -Exploration of Integrated Care and impact on the commissioning of Service
Market Position Statement – Template v1.5 December 2015