Commissioning and procurement of adult social care

Commissioning is the process where we identify, buy in and monitor services to meet the needs of residents. We spend over £300 million every year on a wide range of goods, works and services to help us provide services to the people in Hackney.

What do we commission?

We commission a range of services to meet the needs of vulnerable adults living in Hackney. These include supported housing, mental health services, Telecare, supported employment and meals on wheels. There is a focus on preventative services in order to reduce the number of people requiring support.

• view our current contracts which are out to tender
• supported housing commissioning strategy (PDF 1mb)

Working with providers to provide quality services

We aim to improve the outcomes for residents through the use of local services. We work with providers either through commissioning activity or market development facilitation to ensure that a diverse range of services are available to promote positive outcomes for local people. Outcomes can be defined as goals which a person wants to achieve. For example, to travel independently on public transport could be an outcome for a person receiving services from us. The procurement activity ensures these services are supplied effectively and efficiently.

• commissioning and procurement stakeholders and projects (PDF 34kb)
• Uplifts (google doc)

Market position statement

Our market position statement is developed for current and potential providers to share local knowledge and inform their service development.

• market position statement (PDF 5.2mb)

Reviewing user needs

We consistently review the needs of local people with the involvement of a wide range of partners, including service users and carers to identify any change in needs or the market.

• commissioning for personalisation user and carer involvement framework (PDF 61kb)
• user forum contact details (PDF 16kb)

Fair cost of care and market sustainability

The government has required us to complete a fair cost of care exercise. This was part of the government’s adult social care reform agenda.

The purpose of the exercise was for us to arrive at a shared understanding with providers of the local cost of providing care.

We are also required to publish a Market Sustainability Plan. The Market Sustainability Plan details how we plan to move towards a fair cost of care (where this is not already paid) over the next few years.

See GOV.UK – People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform white paper

See GOV.UK – Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund 2022 to 2023: guidance

We looked to identify the lower, median and upper quartile costs in the local area for the following care categories:

• 65+ care homes
• standard residential care
• residential care for enhanced needs
• standard nursing care
• nursing care for enhanced needs
• 18+ domiciliary care

It’s intended that this exercise, and any funds made available to us, are to support:

• preparation by local authorities of their markets for reform, including the further commencement of Section 18(3) of the Care Act 2014 in October 2023
• moving towards paying providers a fair cost of care

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) considers ‘fair’ to mean the median actual operating costs for providing care in the local area (following completion of the exercise and in agreement with the local host authority). ‘Fair’ also means what is sustainable for the local market. We expect to move towards paying this to providers as funding becomes available.

In line with the guidance, we submitted our draft returns on 14 October to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) the following:

• cost of care exercises for 65+ care homes and 18+ homecare
• a provisional market sustainability plan
• a spend report detailing how funding allocated for 2022 to 2023 is being spent in line with the fund’s purpose

Updated guidance provided by the DHSC requires us to publish our Annex B for 65+ care homes and 18+ homecare by 1 February 2023. We’ll publish more details of our response to this exercise in the Market Sustainability Plan and Annex B in line with government requirements. However, any increases to current rates will be completely dependent on central government funding allocations and associated grant conditions.

Our returns are here: