However, as briefly explored in Section 8 of this report, this approach would present a well-documented risk to the quality of care provided. It can also be the case that out of area placements are more expensive, as they would be more likely to necessitate spot purchasing placements, rather than a block contract which is often better value. They would also require greater collaboration between authorities to have a shared commissioning and brokerage strategy. As the survey in Section 3 of this report showed, there is little to no confidence amongst senior social care professionals that shared
service arrangements of the scale required across county areas can mitigate the risks posed by disaggregation. The potential scale of legal challenge, judicial review and complexity in determining ordinary residence status should not be underestimated. A further technical point of note for all authorities, once the old placing authorities no longer exist, the legal entity that was the placing authority will cease to exist. This may generate complications where legal challenges in the future are required.
One disaggregation scenario for a large county area would see one new unitary’s WAA residential demand reduce by 15% over 15 years, whilst its neighbouring authority’s demand would grow by 50% as a result of ordinary residence (illustrated in the chart below). This presents significant commissioning challenges for developing the provision locally or using out of area placements. Case Study 2
Figure 18: Expected working age adults demand over time in one local area
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