Our Vision and Commissioning Intentions for the Social Care Market for Adults with Lifelong Disabilities

5.1     The Council have set principles around and an overall vision for how the social care needs of adults are met within West Sussex. These can be found on the Adult Social Care Strategy page of the West Sussex County Council website.

5.2     In addition, the Council have also produced an Adults’ Social Care Commissioning Strategy 2023 to 2025.This outlines 12 high level commissioning intentions, including intentions relevant to mental health social care around:

  • provision of early support and prevention services,
  • redefining commissioning arrangements for supported living and residential services, developing a range of accommodation options, developing pathways for individuals transitioning from Children's Services to Adult Services,
  • strengthening the approach to services for carers,
  • increasing the number of people using direct payments and trialling an approach to individual service funds,
  • developing interfaces and processes with commissioned care providers to improve the efficiency of referral and payment processes,
  • designing a new Quality Assurance Framework and approach to contract management.

5.3 Specifically for Adults with Lifelong Disabilities Our High-Level Commissioning Intentions Are to:

  • Support and contribute to a system wide response to optimise early help and prevention to remove, reduce or delay care needs.
  • Ensure customers are being supported using a strength-based approach that reflects their individual and cultural needs, enables them to build self-confidence, learn life and employment skills, increase their independence and progress onto new services where appropriate.
  • Ensure customers are supported to enhance their physical and mental wellbeing with support to access health services and access to a healthy diet and exercise.
  • Ensure customers are supported to engage with their local community, to develop friendships and to stay mentally and physically well.
  • Ensure customers have opportunities to access meaningful activities and opportunities to work and volunteer where appropriate.
  • Customers have a meaningful and positive experience of care and support, feel valued, staff understand their individual needs and always treat them with dignity and respect.
  • Reduce the number of customers with lifelong disabilities placed in accommodation-based care outside of West Sussex.
  • Reduce placement breakdown and avoidable hospital admissions by exploring alternative options.

In order to work towards achieving these intentions the Council will work collaboratively with the market to:

  • Develop new and remodel existing local services to meet the range of current needs in the right environment with just the right amount of support.
  • Create a culture where independence is fundamental in the design and delivery of services.
  • Promote innovation to enable individuals to maximise their potential and quality of life with an expectation that individuals move through a pathway to greater independence when they are able to.
  • Deliver high quality services by supporting with the right contracting and quality assurance frameworks.
  • Ensure a partnership approach enables the right information is available to enable an effective system to meet individuals' outcomes, changing needs and offer value for money.

5.4 In Order to Work Towards Achieving These Intentions

We will

How we are and will be doing it

How providers can engage in this work

Develop relationships and improve partnerships between the Councils’ lifelong services operational teams, commissioners and the provider market.

Through the continuation and development of regular lifelong services provider forums and engagement opportunities.

Email: llscomissioning@westsussex.gov.uk to request being on the mailing list for all provider forums and engagement events

Improve the availability of and access to accommodation, care and support.

Lead partnership work with housing providers including Borough and District Councils to increase access to and supply of housing.

Email: llscomissioning@westsussex.gov.uk

Attend lifelong services provider forums and engagement events. Providers interested in developing housing for adults with lifelong disabilities should email llscomissioning@westsussex.gov.uk

Work proactively to support the development of new care and support services and to remodel existing services where this is needed.

The lifelong services commissioning team is working alongside our Life-long Services and Mental Health Market Development Programme to run workshops, and support providers to develop new and existing services.

Email: llscomissioning@westsussex.gov.uk if you would like to be invited to Market Development workshops, discuss a new development or support to remodel an existing service.

Promote the use of Technology Enabled Care to reduce the reliance on paid support and enable individuals to live as independently as possible.

The Council commissions a local technology-enabled care service and promotes the use of technology in new and existing developments.

For further information on Technology Enabled Care visit the Technology Enabled Care page of the West Sussex Connect to support website.

Ensure customers are supported using a strength-based approach that enables them to build self-confidence, learn life and employment skills, increase their independence and proactively support people to progress onto new services where appropriate

Our Pathways Project which sits within our overall Market Development Programme (see above) is engaging with providers to co-produce new ways of to support these aims. In addition, our recommissioning of

frameworks for residential care and supported living (see below) will consider how pathway planning can be strengthened.

Email: llscomissioning@westsussex.gov.uk if you would like to be involved in this project. Attend lifelong services provider forums and engagement events to hear about progress.

For further information on Technology Enabled Care visit the Technology Enabled Care page of the West Sussex Connect to support website.

Prevent placement breakdown and avoidable hospital admissions.

Continue to provide the Council’s training offer and work collaboratively with NHS partners and providers to prevent placement breakdown and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

Through our respite commissioning plan, explore options to provide emergency short term placements.

Email: llscomissioning@westsussex.gov.uk

Attend lifelong services provider forums and engagement events to hear about this work and its progress.

Support and contribute to a system wide response to optimise early help and prevention to remove, reduce or delay care needs.

The Council commissions preventative support for adults with lifelong disabilities as part of its day opportunities offer. We will be working with stakeholders to build on the success of the new offer and co-produce the future model for day opportunities when the current contracts end in 2027.

Training is also available to identify early signs of health/physical changes to prevent increased need.

Attend provider forums and engagement events to hear about this work and its progress.

Providers can also link to transformation of mental health service provision in West Sussex.

Contribute to the review of contracting arrangements for residential and supported living services to ensure that specifications reflect around a recovery model and supporting a pathway through care.

In 2025 and 2026 the Council is reviewing contracts for supported living and residential services and will be consulting with providers.

Those with existing contracts with WSCC will receive regular updates through provider briefings, forums and events organised to support this work.

If you have not been involved in the discussions so far, please email llscomissioning@westsussex.gov.uk

Improve the information and data available to support effective planning and development of the market and also monitoring of outcomes.

Commissioners will provide regular need and demand updates at market engagement events to ensure providers have the most up to date and accurate intelligence that is available.

Consultation around new contract models for residential and supported living services will review how activity and outcome data is collected and used which should lead to improvements.

Attend lifelong services provider forums and engagement events to receive updates and contribute to discussions regarding need and demand.

 

 

Last updated: 23 April 2025
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