Havering Council
From Capacity to Assurance
Publication 005 of the Odelia Local Authority Intelligence Series — evidence-led analysis of Havering's adult social care provider market, commissioning priorities and strategic direction. The full analysis is available to download as a professionally formatted PDF.
Executive Summary
Havering's Adult Social Care service has been rated Requires Improvement by CQC. The assessment identified a mixed picture, including positive practice, but also highlighted concerns around delays, support for unpaid carers, transitions from children's to adult services and safeguarding oversight.
Financial pressure is also significant. Havering estimated Adult Social Care spend of £100.499m in 2024/25, with actual spend of £104.231m, creating an overspend of £3.732m.
Havering's Adult Commissioned Placement Framework brings together residential and nursing care, homecare and supported living placements under a single structure, with a focus on standardisation, person-centred care and continuous improvement.
Alongside the CQC improvement agenda, Havering continues to face challenges including Adult Social Care financial pressure, timely access to support, safeguarding oversight, support for unpaid carers, transitions from children's to adult services, provider assurance, quality and consistency across commissioned placements, and homecare, supported living and residential/nursing placement pressures.
Key Market Themes
Homecare
Havering's key challenges centre on timely access to care, evidencing when support starts, continuity and reliability, hospital discharge and community flow, and quality assurance across commissioned care. Providers should consider recording mobilisation times clearly, evidencing low missed visits and continuity of care, demonstrating hospital discharge experience, showing how risks are escalated quickly, and providing commissioners with clear outcome and performance data.
Supported Living
Havering's challenges include supporting independence, managing complex needs, ensuring quality and safeguarding oversight, improving consistency across placements, and supporting people with long-term needs in the community. Providers should consider demonstrating independence outcomes, evidencing safeguarding and risk governance, recording tenancy sustainment and community participation, showing person-centred support planning, and providing case studies of successful complex support.
Residential and Nursing Care
Havering's challenges include placement quality and consistency, managing complex and high-risk needs, supporting safe discharge and step-down, strengthening assurance across commissioned placements, and continuous improvement. Providers should consider evidencing clinical and care governance, demonstrating safe admission and discharge pathways, recording outcomes for complex placements, showing continuous improvement activity, and providing clear safeguarding and incident reporting evidence.
Complex Care
Havering's challenges include increasing complexity of need, safeguarding oversight, multi-agency working, timely support after assessment and risk management. Providers should consider investing in specialist workforce training, evidencing multidisciplinary working, producing anonymised case studies, demonstrating robust risk assessment and escalation, and measuring stability, safety and quality of life outcomes.
Unpaid Carers & Preventative Support
Havering's challenges include support for unpaid carers, earlier identification of carer needs, preventing escalation, supporting families under pressure and improving whole-family support. Providers should consider recording how carers are involved and supported, offering respite, outreach or low-level support where appropriate, signposting carers to local support, measuring carer wellbeing where relevant, and showing how services reduce breakdown or escalation.
Transitions from Children's to Adult Services
Havering's challenges include smoother transition planning, support for young people moving into adulthood, coordination between children's and adult services, continuity of support and managing complex needs earlier. Providers should consider developing transition-focused support offers, evidencing outcomes around independence and stability, working with families, schools, health and social care, building SEND, autism and complex needs expertise, and showing how early planning reduces crisis placements.
Odelia Strategic Insights
Across Havering's CQC assessment and market shaping information, a recurring theme is the growing importance of provider assurance rather than simply provider capacity. As the council responds to improvement priorities around delays, safeguarding, transitions and support for unpaid carers, commissioners increasingly need providers who can demonstrate reliable delivery, clear evidence and strong governance.
- •Havering's challenge is not simply increasing provider numbers. It is building confidence that providers can deliver safe, timely and well-evidenced support.
- •Havering's challenge is not simply securing enough providers. It is strengthening assurance across the adult social care market so that care and support can be delivered safely, consistently and with clear evidence of outcomes.
- •Providers that can demonstrate safeguarding governance, timely mobilisation, support for carers, transition planning and continuous improvement are likely to align most closely with these priorities.
- •In an improvement environment, good care is not enough if it cannot be evidenced clearly. Providers need to demonstrate capability, responsiveness, safeguarding governance and measurable outcomes in a way that supports council assurance.
- •This suggests a shift from capacity alone towards assurance, evidence and confidence.
What This Means for Providers
Havering's current position suggests that providers will need to demonstrate more than availability. Commissioners are likely to value providers who can evidence safeguarding governance, timely mobilisation, clear care start dates, support for unpaid carers, transition planning, strong quality assurance, person-centred outcomes, continuity and reliability, responsive communication and continuous improvement.
When a council is under improvement pressure, commissioners are likely to need stronger evidence from providers. This may include how quickly support starts, how risks are escalated, how safeguarding concerns are managed, how unpaid carers are involved and how outcomes are monitored. Providers who can present this evidence clearly are likely to be better positioned to support Havering's improvement journey.
How prepared is your organisation for Havering's future commissioning priorities?
- Can we evidence how quickly support starts after referral?
- Do we have clear safeguarding governance and escalation processes?
- Can we demonstrate continuity and reliability of care?
- Do we provide commissioners with clear performance and outcome data?
- Can we evidence support for unpaid carers where relevant?
- Are we able to support smooth transitions into adult services?
- Do we have anonymised case studies showing complex care capability?
- Can we demonstrate continuous quality improvement?
- Do we record outcomes beyond care hours or tasks delivered?
- Could commissioners easily understand our assurance evidence?
Download Full Intelligence Report
For readers wishing to explore the full analysis, the complete Local Authority Intelligence publication is available to download as a professionally formatted PDF.
Download Full Intelligence Report (PDF)About This Intelligence
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 Havering Council or as procurement advice.