Market Position Statement 2025 to 2040 for Services for Working Age Adults with Long-Term Needs

Introduction

This Services for Working Age Adults with Long-Term Needs Market Position Statement (MPS) sets out information on current and future projected demand and supply of these services in Walsall from 2025-2040.

We are ambitious for progressive, good quality, outcomes-focussed and responsive services in the Borough of Walsall and want to ensure that Walsall citizens with long-term care and support needs can remain in Walsall and receive appropriate care and support.

We seek to create the right conditions for a sustainable market that is ‘right sized’ to meet the current and future projected needs of Walsall citizens with these needs. We welcome new providers to the Borough as well as working with existing good quality providers of these services.

The development of the workforce for these services in Walsall is of pivotal importance. We seek to support the retention and recruitment of carers with more specialist care and support skills e.g. positive behaviour support through strategic workforce and skills development with partners and providers.

Definition of Services for Adults of Working Age with Long Term Needs

These services can be defined as services that support people aged 18-64 years of age who:

Have lifelong needs that mean they need health and social care services e.g. learning disabilities, autism and mental ill-health
Have assessed social care needs eligible under the Care Act 2014
Require care, treatment and support due to physical or neurological illnesses, cognitive impairments or injuries that are unlikely to improve and people with enduring mental ill-health. These conditions may have been inherited or acquired and may not necessarily be life-limiting. People using these services require the support of medical practitioners and a range of other healthcare professionals, and their care, treatment and support may involve highly technical interventions
Have spent time in a hospital in-patient setting where their needs cannot be met by standard commissioned services such as Supported Living without significant extra support
Display significant specialist conditions and/or behaviours
Pose risks to themselves or others and do not require detention under the Mental Health Act
Have a history of offending or are at significant risk of contact with the criminal justice system
Have experienced multiple placement breakdowns in the community
Have enablement potential not being met through current commissioned service(s)
May have recently transitioned from childhood to adulthood (18-25 years old).

Core Working Principles

Walsall Council’s aspirations for people with these needs are based around good practice core principles that are stated from the perspective of someone who might use these services.

Quality of life – people should be treated with dignity and respect. Care and support should be personalised, enabling the person to achieve their hopes, goals and aspirations; it should be about maximising the person’s quality of life regardless of the nature of their conditions. There should be a focus on supporting people to live in their own homes within the community, supported by local services.

Keeping people safe – people should be supported to take positive risks whilst ensuring that they are protected from harm, remembering that abuse and neglect can take place in a range of different environments and settings. There should be a culture of transparency and open reporting, ensuring lessons are learned and acted upon.

Choice and control – people should have choice and control over their own health and care services; it is they who should make decisions, wherever possible, about every aspect of their life. People should be supported to make their own decisions and, for those who lack capacity, any decision must be made in their best interests involving them as much as possible and those who know them well such as advocates.

Support and interventions – support should always be provided in the least restrictive manner. Where an individual needs to be restrained in any way, this needs to be supported by appropriate professionals and planning. Restrictive interventions should be for the shortest time possible and using the least restrictive means possible, in line with positive and proactive care.

Scope of this Market Position Statement

Supported Living - Supported Living is housing with care and support. It is based on service users having a tenancy or license agreement preferably separate from their care provider. People receiving care and support should have the right to remain in their own home and change their support provider if they wish
Shared Lives - Shared Lives Care is delivered through local regulated Shared Lives schemes who recruit and assess Shared Lives carers. The scheme matches carers with adults who need support, based on their compatibility as people, with both parties having the final choice on the match. The adult moves in with, or visits, their Shared Lives carer and together they share home, family, and community life. People with support needs associated with a learning disability continue to be the largest single group supported by Shared Lives
Enablement Services/ Pathways to Independence – this in-house Walsall Council Adult Social Care service supports younger adults to be as independent as possible in community settings and to maximise their outcomes in terms of their health, care, travel, employment and education
Small supports – Small supports are designed to support people with specialist needs. It is National Health Service England (NHSE) funded linked to Transforming Care and is focussed on learning disability and autistic needs. It is a Black Country-wide project including 3 Councils and the Integrated Care Board (ICB). Small supports provide an alternative offer and design that is bespoke and tailored to needs. Families are included in small supports and is seeking to the put the person at the centre of the decision-making process
Micro-commissioning of specialist packages of support - for the most specialist needs and packages of care, this is an approach to shaping packages of support that are very specialist and specific to clients where the standard provider market cannot meet these needs and where costs of packages are high. This is done in an integrated way with ICB commissioners and other bodies
NHS Specialist commissioned services - these are services commissioned by the NHS/ ICB to meet health and social care needs for people with learning disabilities, mental ill-health and other needs.