Market Shaping in Adult Social Care
Paper | August 2017
The last five years have seen a reduction in the number of residential and nursing homes operating in England: 1,400 fewer homes. The long-term trend of increasing numbers of nursing home beds and decreasing numbers of residential home beds has come to a halt.
This paper captures the keys points of a presentation given by IPC Assistant Director Fiona Richardson at the Health plus Care conference in June 2017. It analyses changes in the care home market in England before and after the Care Act (2014) and summarises experience from IPC's work on market shaping.
Our analysis highlights the fragility of the care home market, although the homecare market is equally under pressure. Councils must be prepared to be bolder and do things differently in order to shape the market.