Our Social Care Market – The Specifics
The East Riding of Yorkshire Council covers an area of 930 square miles and serves a population of 342,200 in 2021. The Office of National Statistics classifies East Riding as being 93% rural by area and 44% rural by population, resulting in a low population density compared to other areas.
There is a larger percentage of the population aged over 65 than the regional and national average in the East Riding, making up 26% of the total. The proportion of people aged over 65 is projected to increase to 34% by 2041.
This is a serious challenge to our public services and dwindling resources. There will be significant change in how all local authorities fund care and support and we will be working alongside providers to ensure the local market can respond and reflect the desired care and support outcomes of the people of the East Riding
Our demographic profile means that there is high demand for social care services across all areas. Our Joint Strategic Needs Assessment indicates an increasing demand for adult social care and health services and underpins our commitment to maintaining a sustainable, vibrant and diverse social care market.
To meet the rising demand East Riding of Yorkshire Council is committed to developing, stimulating and supporting a market which can provide safe effective, high quality and value for money care and support to local residents.
The East Riding of Yorkshire Council commits a significant part of its budget to delivering adult social care services. The Council has a mixed economy approach and includes in-house provision as well as commissioned services.
The Council has a diverse commissioned social care market, and this consists of large organisations, small to medium enterprise and micro enterprise. Our market has some areas of strength, but we also have significant challenges in terms of workforce, rising costs and changes in demand. We continue to work through a tough financial context and we will look for innovative approaches to meet need including technological solutions.
All our services were negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic. Our home care market was under significant pressure but has recovered somewhat in recent months.
The image above is a wordle made up of the key phrases in our strategy and vision. The words care, market, demand, support, social and meet are some of the most frequently used words within these documents and further highlight our commitment to address demand and provide the correct support to meet the social care markets needs through quality commissioning.
As the balance of our population shifts, we will see more and more people needing help to live at home. We expect to see demand for social care for people aged over 65 increase in the next 10 to 15 years.
Our care home market is less stable, and the reducing demand for residential care means we have surplus capacity in some areas. This will bring significant challenges for some providers. Sustainability is a critical factor in shaping our market and we will take steps to continue to monitor and support where possible.
Working alongside partners within the health and care sector we will develop a robust infrastructure to support existing service provision and nurture new and exciting proposals to meet need and support people’s independence. There will be market opportunities for the private sector to deliver products and services, offering opportunity for growth or new providers to enter the market. We will be looking for development in some segments of the market to meet demand in specialist areas such as Dementia care.
Market shaping and subsequent commissioning will provide a route for this and there is always opportunity for business development to occur independently of Council plans. You can find out more about our commissioning approach here.
Our work with new and existing service providers and partner organisations will develop and shape our social care market. We enjoy the support of well-established, long-standing providers in the market and welcome new providers to the area via our tendering processes all of which are managed through the YORtender system.
We hugely value the community of social care providers in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Much of what we do would not be possible without the commitment to the delivery of high quality care and support made every day by the sector workforce. Throughout the recent COVID 19 pandemic we have faced one of the biggest challenges in recent history and alongside our partners, including providers, and other organisations we continue to manage the challenges. We have worked together and acted collectively towards achieving positive outcomes for all residents.
We will continue to build on the partnerships established and strengthened throughout this time to focus on our response and recovery from COVID 19.