- We want to help people to live a good life, remaining well and independent for as long as possible.
- We want to shape local services to be more outcome-focused, enabling people to have greater choice and control and supporting them to achieve their goals.
- Co-production and engagement with service users and communities as commissioners and service providers is critical to service improvement and development, and to ensuring high quality provision. Somerset Council recognise there needs to be a significant improvement in our approach to working together as equal partners – listening, respecting and valuing all opinions.
- We expect to see demand for social care support to continue to increase against a backdrop of an increasingly aging population, driving huge additional demand for care at home services. Despite having a large and diverse market we are still reliant on a small number of providers for half of the support delivered.
- The evidence is clear that ‘home’ is the most appropriate place for resolving crises and recovery for adults and older people being discharged from hospital. This care and support must be personalised to enable people to live in dignity and stay in control. Wherever possible, people leaving hospital will be supported to recover at home through the provision of short-term reablement or rehabilitation, be assessed for any ongoing care needs from home, and be supported to avoid a hospital admission from home. We will look to extend best practice and reorientate services and funding to help more people get home when that is the most appropriate place for them – and to stay at home.
- We require providers who are able to meet the changing needs of our population, supporting more remote areas of our county where care is harder to source, and individuals for whom provision is more difficult to secure or where there are limited alternatives to residential care.
- A priority for us is to develop appropriate services in people’s homes and increase the amount of care homes with dementia provision in Somerset if we are to be able to effectively respond to the demographic changes anticipated. Rates of dementia in Somerset are significantly higher than the national average due to our demographics and there are indications that even this may significantly under-estimate the true picture.
- We wish to work with innovative developers, housing providers and providers of social care services that have experience and knowledge of the specialised housing sector to develop a range of accommodation and services.
- We want to see the development of vibrant, new Extra care schemes that meet the needs of local people and have a community presence.
- It is important for providers to identify and incorporate digital solutions alongside all service areas where possible and appropriate. This includes assistive technology services, but also wider digital innovation within provision.
- Throughout all this, a key priority will be to continue to work across health and social care with provider organisations to support and develop our workforce and drive wider care quality improvement.
- The Council will also continue to monitor the cost of care and seek to pay a fair price through transparent commissioning and contract arrangements. Somerset Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy outlines the key financial issues, the proposed response to these financial challenges, and our plans for spending. As part of the strategy, service commissioners will continue to work with stakeholders to achieve significant savings through service transformation and re-design; contract re-negotiation with existing providers; and decommissioning or reinvestment in more effective and efficient services for improved outcomes for local people.
- The sustainability of the market will only be achieved if we continue to develop and deliver our joint Health and Social care strategy. At the heart of this is working in local neighbourhoods, linked to communities and the places people live, enhancing our digital offer, housing and joint commissioning arrangements.
- Somerset Council is required to consider how the economic, social and environmental well-being of the county may be improved through the procurement of the services or goods before commencing a procurement process (as part of the Public Services Social Value Act 2012). The aim of the Act is to ensure that as part of the commissioning and procurement processes, consideration is given to the wider impact of the delivery of the services and goods. It allows a council to consider as part of the tender process how suppliers go beyond the basic contract terms and secures wider benefits for the community.
