Market Position Statement for North East Lincolnshire

Welcome to the third Market Position Statement (MPS) for North East Lincolnshire, covering the period 2022-2025. 

Local areas need to consider how they are meeting their requirements under the Care Act 2014 to ‘promote diversity and quality in the provision of services’. Good practice in market facilitation suggests that commissioners develop a common and shared perspective of supply and demand for care services. We also need to ensure sufficiency of provision, that the local care market is sustainable and fostering continuous improvement. These outcomes cannot be delivered without the active cooperation of providers and without clarity over their strategic approach. These functions are likely to be helped by the development of a market position statement (MPS).

The MPS aims to:

• Present a picture of demand and supply now, what that might look like in the future and how strategic commissioners will support and intervene in a local or regional market to deliver support for adults.
• Be a brief, analytical document that is clear about the distinction between description and analysis. It will allow providers to come to their own judgements about where, and in what amount to invest in a market. Providers not only need to understand the direction the local area is taking, but also why it is going in that direction and based on what evidence.
• Support its analysis by bringing together material from a range of sources such as JSNAs, surveys, contract monitoring, market reviews and statistics into a single document which presents the data that the market needs to know and use, if providers are to develop effective business plans.
• Cover all potential and actual users of services in the local area, not just those that receive funding from commissioners.
• Offer a start to, not the end point of a process of market facilitation.

Consequently, the MPS is the basis for strategic commissioning and is a document which we will review and update regularly. With the newly announced government reforms of social care, we will be developing our approach to ensure sustainability in the NEL care market.

We increasingly recognise that the local health and care workforce needs to be grown from within the local community as there are shortages of skilled workers in every area of health and care support. Workforce shortages have become more acute during the pandemic response and continue to undermine our efforts as a system to deliver quality care and support. We aim to work closely with our care providers and partners in the borough to identify ways of increasing the supply of workers in the care sector, as well as looking to initiatives to sustain and enhance careers in care.

Moving forward, as we transform local care and support services there are requirements for a different mix of skills, and we have described how we see the workforce of the future. We are keen to have a dialogue with our providers to ensure that we work collaboratively in developing the workforce that is needed for the new environment.

The government has now placed integrated care systems (ICS) on a statutory footing. Through our Humber Coast and Vale system a workforce strategy has been developed.

(https://humbercoastandvale.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/hcv-workforce-report.pdf)   

Download the MPS here (internal link)