The report proposes the establishment of an internal service called Better Care at Home which will deliver a rapid intensive therapy led reablement service for residents, modelled on the externally commissioned Stabilise and Make Safe service. The SAMS model has been shown to deliver improved independence and reduce costs. This will maintain much needed capacity and support our work on reducing the length of time people remain in hospital or intermediate care services whilst waiting for home care.

Negotiations have been held with current providers and it was established that TUPE did not apply. Given the lack of capacity in the market, our statutory duty to maintain market sufficiency is best met by retaining an in-house service as this ensures capacity within the system and builds on the skills of an already experienced workforce.

The implementation of the Better Care at Home service will deliver the required savings of £800,000 agreed at Executive in February 2017 over two financial years.

Savings will be achieved by implementing the next phase of the previously consulted on changes to the service by commissioning a rapid, intensive support service which has been shown to deliver improved independence at a lower cost, from the market of care providers (called Stabilise and Make Safe). The internal service will no longer be provided but residents will have an improved level of access to the new service.