Domiciliary Care in Warwickshire
Domiciliary care, commonly known as home care, holds a pivotal role in enabling individuals to maintain their independence within the familiar surroundings of their home. In Warwickshire, there is a large and diverse provider market, including many experienced providers. However, the sector is not without its challenges, including the need to ensure the timely and consistent delivery of care services, tailor care to individual needs, recruit and retain a skilled workforce, and operate within financial constraints.
Ensuring the affordability of care while upholding high quality remains central to Warwickshire’s commitment to fulfilling its Care Act responsibilities, while also promoting inclusivity, equal access, and positive outcomes for residents. This includes recognising the variability in the cost of delivering care, particularly in more rural areas where travel time and distances are greater. This approach acknowledges these cost pressures and seeks to balance them with the need to demonstrate value for money and deliver sustainable services.
The current contract operates on a geographical zonal basis, with fixed pricing arrangements calculated according to whether the area is urban or rural, the volume of customers within each zone, and associated travel requirements. Providers who applied to join the contract were invited to bid for specific amounts of business within particular geographical zones, with defined volumes of work guaranteed.
There are eight zones across the county, each comprising a mix of urban and rural coverage. This model is designed to maximise the time that carers spend with customers, as they travel only within a single zone. In doing so, it supports more targeted and efficient delivery of care, helping to address some of the operational and cost challenges faced by the sector, while maintaining a focus on quality, accessibility, sustainability, and value for money.
Alongside the council’s commitment to quality, our Commissioning and Quality Assurance teams continue to collaborate closely with Domiciliary Care providers through ongoing communication, visits and access to training to support providers to improve quality of their services.
We will continue to work closely with commissioned providers to drive quality improvement through our ‘See, Hear and Act’ approach through which we gather and triangulate intelligence from multiple sources to identify any quality themes or concerns. Where concerns are identified we undertake quality assurance activity to understand these in more detail and where necessary support improvements through Service Improvement Plans (SIP).
Significant concerns are escalated to Service Escalation Panel (SEP) where remedial actions are discussed, agreed and monitored. Remedial actions could include restrictions on admissions to the service until sufficient improvements have been evidenced and sustained. The council believes that ongoing collaboration with providers is indispensable. Such partnerships facilitate the formulation of strategies that enhance affordability, address the increasing demand for care, and align with the finite resources available for adult social care within the council’s purview. This collaborative approach not only benefits the service delivery but also fosters a strong, sustainable partnership between the council and the market.
The core for success lies in a robust Domiciliary Care market that excels in delivering services with three primary goals: providing coordinated support to address diverse customer needs, facilitating quicker hospital discharges, and empowering customers to maintain their independence in their own homes.