Baroness Casey rightly shines a light on the deep, structural challenges facing adult social care — and More Than a Provider, the coalition of five not-for-profit organisations, strongly welcomes her focus.
Every day, dedicated support workers, families, and communities do extraordinary work. Yet the system around them still too often falls short. People are left to navigate a fragmented, confusing landscape that is difficult to understand, hard to access, and places unsustainable pressure on families.
We particularly welcome Baroness Casey’s recognition of the critical role of commissioning. For too long, adult social care commissioning has been driven by short-term cost pressures rather than long-term outcomes. This approach creates instability for providers and limits people’s access to the high-quality, community-based support they are entitled to.
Not-for-profit providers have spent decades developing innovative models of community-based support — especially for people with learning disabilities and autistic people — but the current system does not consistently create the conditions for these approaches to thrive.
That’s why we believe there is a strong case for a thematic review of adult social care commissioning under the Care Quality Commission’s powers. Such a review would help identify how commissioning can better support quality, sustainability, and genuinely improved outcomes for those who draw on support.
As a coalition of not-for-profit providers, we are committed to working with Baroness Casey and with Government to build a more sustainable, fair, and future-focused adult social care system — one that enables more people to access great support and live full, meaningful lives in their communities.