Market Assessment Of Services

Each of these services and provider market has been assessed on the following criteria by Adult Social Care commissioning leads:

Market Quality: The rating is defined by current local quality assurance, CQC ratings and commissioner intelligence. Walsall Council aims to use primarily Good or Outstanding providers
Market Supply: This rating is defined by current capacity/ supply of services
Market Workforce: This rating is defined by our current understanding of workforce capacity and pressures within these services in Walsall.

Supported Living

Market Rating – Supply Of Supported Living

Current supply of supported living in Walsall is rated ‘Amber’. This is because there is ample capacity on the Supported Living Framework, but it is not necessarily all of the right nature for needs presenting.

Market Rating – Quality Of Supported Living

The current quality of supported living in Walsall is judged as ‘Amber’. Four of the five providers with largest market share in Walsall are rated CQC ‘Good’. However, local Quality in Care Team reports show that there are an estimated 14 Supported Living providers with improvement plans for issues linked to policies and procedures, medication, care plans, staff supervisions, quality assurance and recruitment practices.

In addition, a review of Supported Living by commissioners in 2023 highlighted areas of practice that could be more progressive and care managers report of some poor accommodation and examples of care and support in the Borough in need of improvement.

There needs to be a new approach to driving up the quality of all supported living provision (accommodation and support) in the Borough with progressive, maximising independence models of care and support and good quality accommodation.

Please contact us if you want to work with the Council and partner agencies on continually driving up the quality of your supported living services.

Market Rating - Workforce Stability

The current stability of the supported living workforce in its entirety is unknown. However, this area is also rated as ‘Amber’ because in the care and support workforce it is difficult to recruit and retain employees and because supported living often requires skill levels to work with more challenging and specialist conditions. There has also been a recent case of provider failure due, in part, to loss of international workforce in a supported living service in Walsall.

Current Market Status

There is capacity in the market with a number of vacancies, however, not all of these vacancies are suitable for adults seeking accommodation and support. In addition, matching and compatibility will always be a key consideration. Some vacancies may also be present in services that are not contracted or are unlikely to be onboarded which presents a risk to these schemes in the immediate future. There are shortages of some categories of support, especially for specialist provision and for those who require their own individual living space. There are several providers who are currently looking to expand and develop new services, and property developers are showing interest in setting up schemes within Walsall. Processes for ensuring quality of housing stock and care provision are now implemented and embedded.

The Supported Living Framework has circa 60 providers and there is an ongoing flow of providers approaching us about development of services. Exits from the market are rare although there has been a recent case.

Market risks

Development of schemes tends to be focused in areas where land and property is cheaper which is usually in the vicinity of the Town Centre. This presents issues in terms of the potential greater level of criminal activity and anti-social behaviour which can impact upon vulnerable individuals
Staffing remains a challenge to providers and a potential blocker to development or in some cases making use of existing stock
It is likely that supported accommodation in Walsall which currently house adults and operates as supported living does not comply with the current Accommodation Standards and in some cases may not be able to in future. This poses the risk that services may become unstable if adults move out and are not replaced with new referrals, leading to closure and move-on activity
Increases to National Insurance contributions and National Living Wage rises means operating costs for providers have increased.

Distance from vision for the future for Supported Living

A new vision for supported living needs to be co-designed with service users, providers, partners, developers and commissioners. This MPS provides an over-arching vision for change, but a more specific vision will be developed as part of a separate and new MPS on supported accommodation in the Borough and as part of the strategic re-commissioning of Supported Living by 2027.

We require more provision for growing numbers of individuals with more specialist needs requiring accommodation. Key drivers of demand are through transitions from younger people services into adult settings and Transforming Care pathways
We also need to improve the rate at which individuals are enabled to independence and into general needs housing with or without support. The move-on teams within social care are now supporting this process but we need providers to continue to promote achievement of outcomes and develop independent skills for adults they support with incentives and stability of investment and incoming packages of support to enable providers to do this
Development of new services has continued at a steady pace but viable services for adults coming through Transforming Care Pathways presents an ongoing challenge and options are limited for these adults due to the specialist support they may require.

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