Staffordshire's Day Care services

 Day Care Services 2023-2025

• As of August 2023, we currently block contract with three organisations for the provision of specialist day care for older people and people with complex needs, as follows:

• Havenly Care in Cannock
• Age UK South Staffordshire across South Staffordshire,Cannock, Tamworth, and Lichfield
• Age UK Stafford in Stafford

• Our contracting model is to purchase a specified number of block booked places with an option to purchase additional supplementary places at a day rate.

• Across the county, in addition to the block contracts above, we also purchase day care from several providers through direct payments or on a spot purchase model, although the latter is currently under review.

Key Market Messages

• We are continuously exploring systematic methods to improve information from our contracted services on performance, individual outcomes, and the customer experience.

• Whilst our information on day care centres suggests that there is a good range of providers and available capacity within the marketplace, there are still opportunities for day care centre providers to explore:

• Outreach services, providing meals and activities for clients that are hesitant about leaving their own homes.
• Day care centres which connect people with assets and resources within their local communities, or that use low or no cost venues.
• Care home and extra care providers may consider using their facilities to offer day care to the local community.

• Market position statement intelligence provides the evidence base supporting this programme of work, which we recommend that any providers looking to develop day care services use to carry out local research. Staffordshire Connects is also recommended. This is a searchable database of services and products which providers can use to find out what other day care services currently operate in the area. Consulting with local people and adult social care practitioners can also help providers explore opportunities and demand.

Principles of service provision

• Staffordshire County Council currently commissions and funds daycare for people with specialist complex needs, including dementia and other long-term conditions across the county. The services aim to provide high quality care and support to meet individualised outcomes for service users with the highest level of needs and their carer’s.

• A priority for Staffordshire’s adult social care services is to support people to live independently in their own home for as long as possible and we therefore commission all care services on an enabling model. This model is intended to prevent, reduce, or delay individual reliance on statutory services, maintain independence and improve quality of life.

• We recognise the part that day care centres play in providing carer respite and supporting people to remain in their local community and preventing or delaying the need for residential care, regardless of their funding source. We encourage models which promote the principles of enablement, independence, and rehabilitation and those which help people to help themselves by connecting them to assets and resources within their local communities.

• A consultation survey was undertaken with day centre providers to improve our understanding of this marketplace and of the demand from people who self-fund their own packages of care. This information is due to be refreshed in of 2023.

• We wrote directly to 27 providers in the county and received responses from 13 (48%) providers. We have used the feedback to inform this market position statement. In summary, the key findings were as follows:

• • There was a wide range of providers who covered low to high needs. Most services were for people with high level needs.
  • There was potential capacity available in all areas amongst the providers who responded, totalling about 750 (or 36%) of all places available across a large range of needs. This may warrant further evaluation.
  • Based on evidence gathered in this survey, most of the demand was firstly from people with dementia needs and secondly, social isolation.
  • Many providers were experiencing a fall in demand. Conversely, day care services for people with high or high-medium needs were operating waiting lists or had experienced a slight increase in demand.
  • Self-funders and people with funded care packages were entering services later, which meant they had more complex needs and stayed for a shorter period before they entered more intensive services such as residential care.
  • Service providers of all sizes and with different main client groups reported that users were progressively presenting with more complex needs, usually arising from dementia and frailty.
  • Increased numbers of people with more complex needs put greater demands on staff, staffing levels, staff training and cost.
  • Availability of service information was poor and service users and carers didn’t know what services were available or where to find information about them.
  • The self-funder marketplace was challenged by the cost of services.
  • Demand from people who paid for their own care in full averaged 41%.
  • Demand from people who used a direct payment to pay for their care in full averaged 9%.

Further information of day care services in Staffordshire is available in a printable PDF document (1.0 MB).

Commissioning intentions as of August 2023

• The council will be reviewing its current contract and funding arrangements in the North and East of the county (Newcastle Borough, Staffordshire Moorlands and East Staffordshire) to secure provision from autumn 2023. In East Staffordshire in particular, consideration will be given to reviewing whether any specific needs relating to diversity of services.

• Current arrangements include a mixture of spot contracts, direct payments, and managed accounts to meet current demand.

• A review of current demand and the shape of the day care market post-pandemic is currently under way. This will inform our commissioning intentions from 2023.