Market Position Statement 2024 - 2029

The Council is keen to provide robust support to the market to further strengthen and develop both our commissioned market and wider local provision, drawing upon a range of both internal and external resources to do so. We continue to take feedback to improve and expand this offer in line with the needs and demands of our local market. Our focus for development and subsequent support offer centres on the following areas:

Quality support:

Our expectations: Our significant priority is improving the quality of care experienced by all individuals in receipt of support. Whilst we have a comprehensive quality assurance and support offer, providers are ultimately responsible for the delivery of this support and we have clear standards we expect all providers to work towards. Specifically, all providers must:

• Treat people with the highest level of respect and dignity.
• Involve the person (and their carers, family, or advocates, where appropriate or required) in care planning and decision making.
• Have thorough infection prevention and control practices. 
• Work in a reablement focused, preventative manner.
• Have clear management and oversight of care delivery, including robust management of medication, care recording, safeguarding, staffing and environmental quality.
• GDPR and data protection compliant.
• Provide or enable stimulating, modern, and safe living conditions which enable people to thrive. This includes compliance with regulatory requirements and recommendations e.g. REACH standards for supporting living accommodation.
• Commit to continual learning and improvement.
• Work with the local communities, assets, and resources.
• Foster an open, honest, and transparent culture.
• Respond in a timely manner to requests for packages of care.
• Work in partnership with the Council to adapt packages of care in line with individual requirements in a timely manner.

Our expectations on quality also extend to ensuring providers actively consider, plan for and are equipped to deal with the wider environmental impact on individuals. The Council will share any information received from Public Health, the Environment Agency and the CSW Resilience Team which can support providers in these preparations.

Specifically, this means providers have the following in place:

• Robust cold and wet weather planning.
• Hot weather and heatwave protocols and planning. 
• Ensuring accommodation, infrastructure, and environments support people (and staff) to remain safe in event of inclement weather.
• Support individuals to remain safe and be aware of the impact of the weather and environment on their health and wellbeing.
• Business Continuity Plans and Emergency Contingency Plans in place to cover service delivery in event of an emergency. These should be tested and support sought from the Councils CSW-Resilience Team to ensure these are fit for purpose, if required.

The Councils contract management processes ensure compliance and swift action in event of poor quality. This includes:

• High risk quality concerns are dealt with within 24 hours; further concerns are dealt with within 72 hours.
• Notice of concern issued in event of poor quality, outlining rectification requirements needed and notification of placement stops, if required.
• Contract breach, formally notifying the provider that they are in breach of contractual obligations, the remedial actions required within specific timescales, and potential consequential enforcement action. 
• Termination of contracts. This may be utilised in the event of a severe safety/quality concerns or contractual breach, or ongoing significant concerns previously highlighted which remain unrectified as outlined in notice of concern or contract breach notifications. 

Whilst contract termination is a last resort option, we reiterate the quality of care delivery is a high priority and we will not hesitate to take action where standards fall below expectations. The safety of individuals in receipt of support is paramount and we expect all providers to mirror this ethos. 

Our support offer: Our joint quality assurance team comprises of a Quality Assurance Officer, Contracts and Commissioning Officers, Clinical Support Nurses, and Commissioning Managers. Our team works closely with Public Health, Community Resilience Team and the NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to offer wider support as needed. This support offer is entrenched in our Quality Assurance Framework outlining our overall approach to quality assurance and actions taken in event of poor quality. This offer includes:

• Provider forums, sharing best practice, updates, quality expectations and themes across the market.
• Provider bulletins, sharing information on a monthly basis on a variety of topics.
• Promotion of Skills for Care support.
• Quality assurance visits, including contract monitoring visits.
• Support with practice developments. In recent times this has included support to roll out Urgent Community Response (UCR) across community provision. 

Throughout the year our team also offer a range of live online training in line with market need. Most recently this has included training on business continuity planning, infection prevention and control, and safeguarding training. 

Recruitment and retention support

Our expectations: Whilst we note overall recruitment and retention in the social care market within the city as one of our strengths, consistent, quality staff are fundamental to the quality of care delivered. We therefore expect the following in respect of providers to maintain and or improve this position:

• Ensure positive, diverse workplaces which support staff to develop skills and careers within the sector, encouraging high rates of staff retention.
• Utilise the support available through both ourselves and Skills for Care, for example, the Registered Managers network and available training.
• Ensure all employment processes are compliant with legislative and regulatory requirements e.g. DBS checked and completion of risk assessments.
• Offer thorough and robust training to all new recruits, and ongoing training and development for existing staff.
• Ensure staff are clear on their roles and responsibilities, and the processes governing care in Coventry e.g. Coventry adult social care safeguarding processes.
• Support the wellbeing of staff; happy, healthy staff stand in the best position to deliver quality care and remain working in the sector.

Our offer: We continually offer dynamic support to the market in relation to recruitment and retention.
General recruitment: Commissioning maintains regular contact with local providers to gauge market pressures and understand best methods for offering support, taking a multi-organisational approach to enhance recruitment and retention within the care sector in Coventry. In the past twelve months, providers have fed back notable improvements in the recruitment of social care staff to the workforce. Our support offer during this time includes:

• Facilitating job fayres and recruitment events in conjunction with The Job Shop, including events to encourage individuals with no prior social care experience into employment. These have been held in different venues across the city with The Job Shop supporting providers by pre-screening candidates prior to events. This support continues in line with market need. 
• ‘All in One Place’ (AiOP) launched in March 2023 as a coalition of live vacancies (on average 10-20 per month) across the care sector as submitted by participating providers, distributed monthly to recruiters and job coaches in Coventry. AiOP was discontinued in 2024 due to the decrease in vacancies submitted reflective of the general decrease in vacancy rates locally.
• International recruitment: The Adults Commissioning Team was awarded £120,000 as part of a joint bid with Warwickshire to fund an international recruitment project. The funding has been used to identify and scope the number of international recruits employed in Coventry and Warwickshire, assess the risk to both individual recruits and the wider care market should sponsorship become unstable, and identify a cohort of ethical employers who are willing to train, mentor or reemploy displaced International Recruits, migrants and/or refugees. A wealth of support has already commenced in this area including provider forums, webinars and training workshops for both providers and potential recruits. This project is delivered in conjunction with the CCC Migration Team and Modern Slavery Team, with support from the Multi-Faith Partnership Forum.
• Alternative recruitment practices: The team has worked to support the market consider alternative recruitment options to promote inclusive hiring and broaden the pool of recruits within the sector. This has included promotion of the Gov UK Disability Confident Scheme, working in conjunction with the Apprenticeship Team to enable accessible opportunities in the sector, creating pathways to employment for individuals with a learning disability, autism or mental health through supported internships and engaging with care leavers to inform of potential career opportunities.

The team have also supported the retention of the existing workforce through promotion of the Thrive at Work programme, a scheme enhancing workforce retention through the promotion of emotional wellbeing and professional development. Our Provider Support Pack, available on the Council website to all providers also contains a wealth of initiatives and information on recruitment and retention practices.

Additional support in respect of general business development is also available via Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub who can provide tailored expertise in this area for each business. 

Digital and technology: 

Our expectations: The incorporation of technology and ensuring digital literacy is a necessity in modern social care settings and can present excellent opportunities to create efficiencies, promote individuals’ independence and ensure staff time can be spent more effectively. Our providers have made great strides to incorporate technology into daily practice, however, we must continue to develop in this area to keep up with the pace of change and meet individual needs. We therefore require all providers to:

• Be DSPT compliant. We can provide support to do so if required and all providers must achieve this by October 2024. Check your DSPT status.
• Move away from paper-based social care recording and storage to Digital Social Care Records (DSCR). Government grant funding may be available to enable this transition. 
• All providers must sign up to and comply with the Skills for Care minimum data set. This data is extremely useful in understanding the local market in comparison to regional and national comparators, however this will only be accurate if everyone is reporting appropriately.
• Update the Capacity Tracker within the mandatory monthly update window at minimum. Preferably we ask providers to update on weekly basis to give us an accurate picture of occupancy to enable effective sourcing of placements. 

Our offer - Coventry are working with the West Midlands Combined Authority and West Midlands 5G to deliver a pilot in the use of technology in care settings. To do this, we are recruiting two digital navigators on fixed term contracts to work with social work teams to identify gaps that can be met with the provision of digital technology and solutions. The contract is worth £1.8m and is shared between Birmingham City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, City of Wolverhampton Council and Coventry City Council. The aim is to evidence the impact technology can have on both care planning and outcomes for individuals. Work is planned to begin in 2024/2025. Technical support is available to all providers who require further information or support with this transitioning to DCR or in ensuring their DSPT compliance, as well as grant funding (and support to apply for this) through the Digital Transformation Fund. The Council have also utilised the WMCA Adaptive Fund to support the voluntary and third sector obtain technology to prevent isolation, 
loneliness, and digital exclusions experienced in communities. 

Market diversity 

Our expectations: The Council will always award contracts and business opportunities based on merit and the ability to meet the specific service requirements requested. We are, however, aware of the benefits of further diversifying our provider market, specifically in providing opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) and micro-enterprises who may be able to offer more localised knowledge or support relative to the community and provide added value. We will continue to scope where such organisations are best placed to provide support although initial opportunities may include provision of long term home support, including as part of consortiums.

Our offer: To better understand viable business opportunities desired by this section of the market, we invite SME’s and micro-enterprises to engage with us on what opportunities are suitable and sustainable for them to deliver. Likewise, we will be looking to support such providers in better understanding commissioning and procurement processes to encourage participation and success in tender exercises.