Our Market Position Statement for Adult Social Care is a key resource for care providers, outlining our approach to delivering and commissioning Adult Social Care services in partnership with our communities, health partners and neighbouring authorities, ensuring people are the centre of our consideration and involved in shaping and designing our services.
We cannot support residents with care needs without the valuable input from providers across Medway. These statements aim to share our vision of how we can continue to work together to support people who need us.
Collaboration is important to meet the needs of residents and support independent living, whilst adhering to our responsibilities in the Care Act 2014.
The statement reflects our commitment to:
- enabling residents to live healthily and independently for longer by preventing the escalation of care needs
- providing accessible information and advice which will inform self-care
- ensuring a diverse and high quality range of provision that meets residents’ needs
- considering community resources, unmet care needs and support for carers.
Our approach is to be inclusive, extending support to self-funders and potential future service users.
Adult Social Care covers:
- social work
- personal care
- practical support for adults with a physical disability, learning disability, or physical or mental illness
- support for their carers.
Family or friends often provide unpaid care. The amount of unpaid care provided by family and friends affects the extent care is funded by local authorities, or adults paying for their care privately (self-funders). Eligibility criteria for accessing publicly funded care are set out in the Care Act 2014.
New requests for Adult Social Care
Requests for support have increased in the last 5 years for both working age (18 to 64 year olds) and older adults (aged 65 and older) and are now above England and South East averages.
Statistics
- 11,158 requests for support for adult social care were received from new clients in 2022 and 2023, a 15.2% increase compared to 2021 to 2022.
- 68.1% of these came from those aged 65 and over.
- 7,727 clients were issued with 29,142 items of community equipment from April 2021 to March 2022
- in 2022 to 2023, 2777 requests were for adults aged 18 to 64, from 2021 to 2022, only 2617 requests were for adults in this age group
- in 2022 to 2023, 4846 requests were for adults aged over 65, from 2021 to 2022, 5160 requests were for adults aged over 65.
51% of requests made requests were either:
- signposted
- provided with information and advice
- did not go on to receive a service
This is an 11% decrease compared to in 2021 to 2022.
6% of people who made requests received a long-term service such as domiciliary or residential care. This is an increase on the 5% in 2021 to 2022
The Department of Health and Social Care will verify the data for 2022 to 2023 and make it available from October 2023.
More about Adult Social Care, and the Adult Social Care Strategy.
Medway Council Strategic direction
Our strategic documents provide our vision and priorities, and outline our approach in tackling challenges in order to leverage opportunities. These strategies emphasise the importance of partnership, innovation, and a commitment to improving the lives of those in need of care and their families.
We are currently updating the Council Plan with our new One Medway Council Plan for 2024 to 2028. This plan will set out our vision, values and priorities for the coming 4 years.
Visit our equality, diversity and inclusion and modern slavery statement pages.