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Market Position Statement 2025-2040 Introduction Purpose of this document

This document is for providers of adult social care and support. It signals Walsall Council’s intentions in relation to care and support into the future. We hope this gives useful information for care providers to help with your planning as well as more general information for people interested in the services we commission and market shape.

What is a Market Position Statement? 

A Market Position Statement also known as ‘MPS’ is information produced by Local Authorities to comply with our market shaping duties under the Care Act 2014. 

This information is for: 

  • Existing providers working with Walsall
  • New providers who are looking for opportunities within Walsall
  • Other businesses or organisations such as the Walsall Together Partnership, NHS, ICB, voluntary and community organisations working with Walsall
  • People and families of adults that are using or want to know more about our service offers
  • Commissioners across the region to see and understand Walsall’s local picture

Care Act Duties in Relation to Commissioning and the Market

A key piece of legislation that underpins and drives this Market Position Statement is The Care Act 2014. This places duties on local authorities for various responsibilities, including market development of care and support services. The list below shows a summary of key Local Authority duties under the Care Act 2014:

  • Providing preventative services and information and advice to reduce, prevent or delaying the need for care and support
  • Adult Social care has a duty to promote individual wellbeing – known as the well being principle- to put wellbeing at the heart of care and support
  • Assessment of people’s needs, the creation of care and support plans; financial assessments; and a duty to meet eligible needs
  • To safeguard adults at risk of abuse, harm or neglect and establish a Safeguarding Adults Board to ensure the safety of those with additional needs
  • To promote integration between health and social care services including integrated commissioning of care and support
  • To engage in ‘market shaping’ to promote quality, choice, ensure sufficiency of provision; and establish contingencies for provider failure

Our suite of MPSs set out information on the different types of care and support services commissioned by Walsall Council Adult Social Care for people in Walsall and information on non-commissioned services that citizens of Walsall can access with direct payments or as self-funders. 

The MPSs reflect a summary of Walsall Council’s current social care market in late 2024/early 2025 and projects forward to 2040. The MPSs provide an overview of Adult Social Care’s current commissioning intentions, market pressures and ambitions and opportunities that support strategic objectives for Adult Social Care. 

There are several different markets that deliver different services or support to Adults in Walsall within the community or within an accommodation based setting. It is acknowledged that each market has varying levels of complexities, including local pressures, market demand, capacity, quality, and overall stability. 

The MPS’s also describe how we see demand for care and support changing in the next 15 years and what sort of service provision we believe we will need to meet it. It sets our direction for key overarching priorities such as quality improvement across the market and the commitment required from ourselves and providers working in Walsall to make this happen.

In summary, the MPSs contain information on: 

  • Context within which Walsall Adult Social Care operates
  • Our Walsall demography, population, trends, Adult Social Care financial context, market spend, current market pressures and workforce
  • The needs of adults 18+ that require services both now and by 2040 using forecasts of demand and predicted supply, primarily for Council commissioned care and support but also self-funders
  • Current market supply, quality and workforce analyses and financial forecasts
  • Community-based services markets; short term and long-term services
  • Residential and nursing care markets; short term, long-term and specialist
  • Services for working age adults with long-term needs, for example, services such as Supported Living and Shared Lives
  • Enabling mechanisms such as direct payments, digital and TEC offers that give people choice and control in their services
  • High-level information on accommodation and housing requirements for people with adult social care needs. 

The content of the Market Position Statements will be updated periodically and the data for each market will be updated annually.