Kent County Council

Kent's Adult Social Care service was rated Requires Improvement by CQC, with an overall score of 56%. CQC recognised committed leadership, partnership activity, prevention and integrated working, but found significant variation in people's experiences across the county — including waiting lists, delayed care starts, inconsistent communication, workforce pressures, safeguarding delays and gaps in specialist provision.

Kent's provider market operates at significant scale. The council purchases more than 55,000 adult homecare hours each week for over 4,500 adults, alongside more than 2,000 hours for over 200 children. The planned combined homecare spend for 2025/26 was £87 million. Kent has approved a new Open Framework All Age Homecare Service and adopted a Prevention Framework for 2025–2035 — signalling a shift from counting providers towards understanding deployable provider capability.

Across Kent's CQC assessment, commissioning intentions and All Age Homecare programme, a recurring theme is the growing importance of provider resilience rather than simply provider capacity.

• •Kent's market does not simply need more providers — it needs providers that can demonstrate deployable capability, not general availability.
• •Scale can conceal fragility. A county may have hundreds of providers but still face significant local gaps where workforce, geography, complexity and mobilisation make services difficult to source.
• •A provider saying that it 'covers Kent' is unlikely to be enough. Commissioners need to understand where staff are based, which localities can be served reliably and whether capacity can be sustained.
• •Kent's challenge is not simply increasing provider numbers. It is building a resilient provider market that can deliver consistently, at scale and with confidence.

Providers seeking opportunities within Kent should consider how they can demonstrate:

• Credible locality coverage — where staff are based and which localities can be served reliably.
• Workforce resilience — vacancy, turnover and sustainable recruitment and retention plans.
• Reliable mobilisation and realistic package-start dates.
• Continuity of staffing and missed-visit performance.
• Home First, discharge and reablement capability.
• Complex and specialist competence, with specialist evidence where relevant.
• All-age safeguarding where applicable, including children's and transition pathways.
• Prevention and independence outcomes.
• Financial sustainability across the stated coverage area.
• Accurate capacity information, effective partnership working and quality and outcome reporting.

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 Kent County Council or as procurement advice.