Market Position Statement - summary

Introduction

In a time of significant challenge for the Health and Social Care system, it is crucial that commissioners and our provider partners work together to co-design solutions that respond to Devon’s population needs. The Market Position Statement is a key tool to help us to achieve a sufficient and effective market for adult care and support for all the citizens of Devon.

The MPS 2019 is a joint publication of Devon County Council and the Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. It is a key enabler of the Promoting Independence Strategy and the emerging 10 Year Plan for Health and Social Care, which itself is based on the NHS Long Term Plan. It is a platform upon which providers can engage with whole system redesign, both across the county and more locally, and will support the priorities of the emerging Primary Care Networks and other place-based systems as they become more established.

The MPS is fully online, enabling each sector to be updated as changes occur. Each market sector offers an assessment of need, both now and (in so far as we can predict) into the future, supported by a ‘dashboard’, which enables analysis of demand and supply in some markets at local level. It will be fully updated annually and, over time, we will arrange market-based workshops around each section so that we can develop our thinking together.

Its focus is the administrative footprint of Devon County Council but we are in discussion with our partners in Plymouth and Torbay with the intention of aligning our Market Position Statements and, potentially, further integrating them across the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprint in future years.

The MPS provides a commissioning context which will form one part of the intelligence which we hope will inform commercial decision making, business planning and service design.

This revision of the MPS differs from its predecessor in content and form and draws from best practice and learning from the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brooks University, combined with our own experience of publishing an MPS for Devon over the last six years.

Promoting independence is the cross-cutting theme which runs through all the commissioning statements. This agenda is a challenge to practice both within provider partners and our own organisations, inviting us all to maximise the potential for independence when providing care and support to each person for whom we commission or provide a service. We expect to commission services which will support people to achieve their eligible outcomes as agreed with them; which are time-limited unless there is an enduring need; and which focus on recovery, reablement and the maintenance of health and wellbeing.

It is envisaged that the MPS will generate discussions; encourage new thinking and invite proposals for innovative service delivery which challenge ‘more established’ models of provision.

Providers, as employers, are also invited to be aware of and support the unpaid carers who work or want to work for them.

• Advice on improving carer awareness and responsiveness can be secured from Devon Carers Mr Billy Hartstein, Head of Carers’ Services, Farm House Rise, Exminster, Exeter EX6 8AT, email billy.hartstein@devoncarers.org.uk 
• Advice on employment practice is available from Employers for Carers
• Devon County Council’s membership of Employers for Carers covers Devon-based small to medium enterprises (SMEs) which therefore allows providers to access policy and practice resources free of cost. (Plymouth and Torbay also have this membership).