Bexley Council

Bexley's adult social care market is operating in a context of rising demand, financial pressure and changing expectations around how care and support should be arranged. The council's Market Position Statement states that its role in directly purchasing care and support is reducing, while the use of personal budgets and direct payments is increasing. This means providers will need to offer greater diversity and flexibility and understand the needs of individuals as well as the wider community offer.

Bexley also promotes Individual Service Funds, where a person's budget can be given directly to a provider and the individual works with that provider to arrange care and support at home. Financial pressure is a significant issue: Adult Social Care overspent by £3m in 2023/24 and was forecast to overspend by £2.4m in 2024/25, while Children's Services pressures are also material, with a £13.6m overspend in 2023/24 and a forecast £5.4m overspend in 2024/25.

Bexley's Adult Social Care Vision focuses on enabling residents to live the life they want, with people with lived experience positioned as best placed to decide what is right for them. Alongside increasing demand, Bexley continues to face challenges including Adult Social Care and Children's Services financial pressure, increasing complexity of need, workforce recruitment and retention pressures, need for greater provider flexibility, growth in personalised care models, need to strengthen prevention and early intervention, direct payment and ISF market readiness, Preparing for Adulthood and SEND-related pressures, and market sustainability across homecare and care home.

Across Bexley's published strategies and market documents, a recurring theme is the growing importance of provider collaboration rather than simply provider capacity. As personal budgets, direct payments and Individual Service Funds become more significant, commissioners increasingly need providers who can work flexibly with residents, families, community partners and statutory services, enabling more personalised support and a more sustainable local care market.

• •Bexley's challenge is not simply increasing provider numbers. It is developing a collaborative provider market that can support personalisation, prevention and independence.
• •In a personalised care market, success is unlikely to depend only on delivering good care or holding a council contract. It will increasingly depend on whether providers can explain their offer clearly, evidence outcomes and work flexibly with individuals, families, commissioners and community partners.
• •Provider visibility is important in Bexley, but visibility has two audiences. Providers need to be visible to commissioners, but also understandable to people arranging support through personal budgets, direct payments or Individual Service Funds.
• •This suggests a shift from purchasing care towards shaping a more personalised and collaborative provider market.

Bexley's direction suggests that future provider success will depend on more than being listed, known or compliant. Commissioners, residents and families are likely to value providers who can evidence person-centred support, flexible service design, clear outcomes, strong governance, community connections, direct payment and ISF readiness, ability to support independence, co-production with people and families, partnership working with health, voluntary sector and council teams, and support for transitions into adulthood where relevant.

How prepared is your organisation for Bexley's future commissioning priorities?

• Can we clearly explain our offer to both commissioners and residents?
• Can we evidence outcomes that support independence and wellbeing?
• Are our services suitable for direct payment or ISF arrangements?
• Do we have clear pricing and service information for families and individuals?
• Can we demonstrate partnership working with community and voluntary organisations?
• Do we evidence co-production with people who use our services?
• Can we support people with increasingly complex needs safely?
• Do we have strong safeguarding, governance and quality assurance processes?
• Can we show how our services reduce escalation or support prevention?
• Are we able to support transitions into adulthood where relevant?

This Local Authority Intelligence publication has been produced by Odelia Group through independent analysis of publicly available evidence, including Adult Social Care strategies, Market Position Statements, commissioning information, CQC assessments, procurement publications and related sector intelligence.

Its purpose is to translate published evidence into practical market intelligence that supports providers, commissioners and sector partners in better understanding local adult social care markets.

This publication represents Odelia Group's independent analysis and should not be interpreted as representing the views of Bexley Council or as procurement advice.