Councils set to reshape local care market

Details of commitments and priorities agreed at the JIP’s recent summit on shaping the social care market are now available.

Held in February this year, the event, which focused on Mobilising Community Capital, was the second in the Transforming Adult Social Care (TASC) series of summits.

Over 120 people from the public, private and voluntary sector attended to discuss and hear presentations on the changing social care market, how to mobilise local resources, gathering and analysing market intelligence, the role of micro enterprise and the evolving role of commissioners.

Key messages to emerge included the need for:

• closer cooperation between public sector agencies and providers of care services
• creating an environment where providers can be rewarded for delivering innovation and improved outcomes
• a user led culture where better information is available
• commissioners to take on the role of facilitating a much broader market
• the right skills and training
• effective, enlightened leadership
• a tight focus on efficiency
• an open and collaborative approach to addressing inherent power imbalances in the market
• a wider range of good value services
• action to prevent ‘at risk’ service providers falling out of the market and thereby reducing choice
•  leveraging capacity that exists across the health and social care system to create a new, more vibrant and sustainable market; and using market forces to drive change.

The region’s 14 local authorities have committed to addressing a number of priorities identified at the event, details of which can be found online in the West Midlands Joint Improvement Partnership Market Shaping Event – Mobilising Community Capital.

Contact: Paul Johnston, telephone: 07847 318 672, email: paul.johnston@impactchange.co.uk