Home care to be commissioned by neighbourhood under DHSC plans
Communitycare.co.uk report that Councils across will be encouraged to commission home care across smaller geographical areas. Home care will be commissioned by neighbourhood under government plans to provide people with greater continuity of worker and reduce staff travelling time.
The changes will also involve authorities commissioning care from one or two major providers in each neighbourhood.
This would reverse the trend towards increasing fragmentation of services across multiple providers, which, warn sector leads, has undermined continuity of care, employment rights and the sustainability of services.
Approach could significantly cut staff travel time
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said commissioning approaches resulted in providers operating across large areas, meaning workers spent long periods travelling between visits, and people seeing multiple different care staff.
It said it would produce guidance in the spring and toolkits in spring 2027 to support councils to move towards neighbourhood commissioning, and would track and support their progress in doing so.
The DHSC added that research with six providers in Bristol, by Health Innovation South West, found reorganising existing visits into geographical zones could potentially deliver the same care with 35% less staff time and 65% less driving time.
It also argued that the approach would result in people having greater continuity of care worker, enabling staff to better understand their needs and spot issues more quickly.
Commenting on the plans, social care minister Alison McGovern said: “Commissioning social care by neighbourhoods will help people stay well, independent and at home for longer.
"Home care will be more personalised, and people will see familiar carers who understand their needs and priorities. Carers won’t travel as far, saving time instead of rushing from visit to visit and carrying out set tasks in an impersonal way."
