New Social Care Plans Focus on Neighbourhood-Based Care

Thousands of people receiving care at home will see more familiar faces and care workers will spend less time travelling between visits under new plans to organise social care around local neighbourhoods. Councils will be encouraged to commission home care across smaller geographical areas, with one or two main providers serving each neighbourhood.

New guidance and toolkits will be published in the spring to support local councils in moving to neighbourhood-based models of home care commissioning. The government will work with local councils over the coming months to track and support their progress.

For care workers, this means they can spend their working day in a much smaller area, rather than travelling long distances between visits. For people receiving care, it means a better chance of seeing the same carers regularly and building relationships with people who know them, their needs and their families. Familiarity can also help care workers notice changes in someone’s health or wellbeing sooner, helping people get the right support before problems escalate.

Currently, councils can commission individual visits from multiple providers spread across large areas. People may see different carers across multiple days, while workers can spend significant parts of their day travelling between appointments. Research by the Health Innovation Network South West into care rounds across six providers in Bristol found that reorganising existing visits into geographical zones could potentially deliver the same care with 35% less staff time and 65% less driving.

Minister of State for Social Care and Mental Health, Alison McGovern, said the plans will help people stay well, independent and at home for longer. She also stated that the initiative will help reduce unnecessary trips to hospital by working in lockstep with the NHS.

The government is shifting more care into the community as part of its 10 Year Health Plan. Neighbourhood commissioning of social care parallels the ongoing work to build neighbourhood health across the country, which will bring together GPs, local councils, social care providers and voluntary, community and social enterprise to deliver more health and care services in the community.

Dr Jane Townson OBE, Chief Executive of the Homecare Association, welcomed the move to neighbourhood commissioning, stating that it must come with fees that cover the cost of care, predictable work and payment for whole rounds rather than contact minutes. Caroline Abrahams CBE, Emily Holzhausen CBE and Jackie O’Sullivan, co-chairs of the Care and Support Alliance, said the initiative should lead to care professionals being able to spend more time on the job and fewer hours travelling, thereby supporting greater continuity in their relationships with people in receipt of care and their families. Phil Holmes, President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the starting point must always be people’s experiences and the outcomes that matter most to them.