As a council, we are responsible for ensuring that our local adult social care market is efficient, effective and responsive to the needs of our population.
We can do this by providing ourselves or commissioning services for our eligible residents and working with our wider market, for the benefit of everyone in Cumberland regardless of who arranges or funds services.
These activities can best be described as ‘market shaping’. This market position statement is the first step towards shaping our local market. In this statement, we will set out our understanding of key services, highlight current and potential future demand issues, and identify supply challenges. We will also provide information on Cumberland, our people, our adult social care workforce as well as what working with the council is like. We have provided key service centre level information in appendix 1.
This statement should assist providers in understanding our local market so that well-informed business and investment decisions can be taken. We hope it will ultimately be used as a tool to strengthen our care market and bolster the Cumberland economy.
What we mean by local
When we refer to "local providers", we mean organisations that:
- deliver services within Cumberland
- demonstrate strong connections to the area (for example through workforce, partnerships or supply chains), regardless of where their head office is based
We recognise the important role of both locally rooted and national providers in maintaining a diverse and sustainable market.
Further information around commissioning intentions is set out in our published Commissioning Strategy. The strategy provides providers with a clear understanding of the council’s vision for the market and commissioned services, supporting informed business planning and development.
This is our first market position statement and we hope that it will be the beginning of shaping and facilitating a strong, sustainable and person-centred market for our people in collaboration with our providers, customers and anyone with an interest in care and support services.
This statement will be of particular interest to:
- providers of regulated (Care Quality Commission-registered) services, such as homecare and residential and nursing care providers
- providers of non-regulated services, such as day opportunities
- people who use adult social care services (whether these services are self-funded or arranged by the council or NHS)
- NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)
- providers of services that support the wellbeing of local populations, such as voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations