Foreword by the Executive Director for Adult Social Care and Integrated Health

We all want to live in the place we call home with the people and things that we love, in communities where we look out for one another, doing things that matter to us.

That’s the social care future we seek. #socialcarefuture

Hello, I am Katy Calvin-Thomas, Place Director for Barnsley, and the Executive Director for Adult Social Services here in Barnsley.

Landing on this part of the Councils website you will find out more about our care market in Barnsley including our plans and priorities and what we are looking for from care providers.

So, first of all, Barnsley is a fantastic place to live and work and we are immensely proud or everyone’s contribution to the town, and our 2030 plan continues to drive forward our ambition for Barnsley.

Barnsley is the place of possibilities.

Valuing care, and the significant contribution that this makes to the economy, to our families and our friends remains a key priority for the council and its partners.

It’s so important to us that when people need care and support that they have access to the best that Barnsley can provide. This market position statement sets out some of the areas that are important for us, to improve the provision of care and support.  I hope the details in here will enable you to understand how the independent sector and communities can work with the council to deliver great care and support.

We have ambitious plans for Barnsley, and we will be working with our partners across the health and care system to deliver these through our adult social care strategy and our health and care plan.

We continue to have real challenges across the health and care system in Barnsley, but we know we can keep improving things so that Barnsley can be the best version of itself.

To support our care providers with their own developments, we are producing a series of market shaping plans. These plans will include older people’s services, day opportunities, learning disability services and prevention which will help providers understand what type of services we'll need in the future. Our market shaping plans will also look at the sustainability of our market amidst rising challenges.

Our Adult Social Care vision is for Barnsley people to be supported to live in their own homes as independently as possible surrounded by the people and things they love the most.

We want to focus on what we do to prevent people needing care and support and are continuing to grow our in house re-ablement team to support people who need short term help to get back to where they were.

We currently have enough capacity in home care and the number of providers who support younger adults to live independently. We do however need to look at accommodation options for some of those people, like people with a learning disability and those who need support with their mental health.

We continue to have higher than average vacancy rates in some of our older people care homes and want to work with providers who deliver good quality care and support them to develop services where we have gaps including nursing care and care for those people with complex needs associated with a dementia diagnosis.

We continue to build our links with health as we develop local plans. We benefit in Barnsley from our strong relationship with our voluntary, community and NHS partners who help us to engage with our communities, individuals and groups to create better support networks like peer support.

Digital will continue to feature in our plans, and we want to work with care providers who are innovative in this space and bring new ideas to the table.

And finally, we want everyone who accesses social care and support to have the best experience that they can. We have made some changes to the way we monitor care providers including how we identify and manage risk. We'll continue to focus on improving the quality of our care market and will work with providers to improve CQC ratings across the borough. 

We hope that you share our vison and want to work with us to deliver that vision in Barnsley and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Our vision

Our 2030 vision is Barnsley - the place of possibilities. By 2030 we want everyone to benefit from and contribute to making our borough a thriving place of possibilities.

Our new council plan identifies five priorities:

• Healthy Barnsley

• Learning Barnsley

• Growing Barnsley

• Sustainable Barnsley

• Enabling Barnsley - we're a modern, inclusive, efficient, productive and high-performing council

Figure 1: The five council priorities.

Adult social care priorities

We've set important priorities that will guide all our work in Adult Social Care, including our strategies and different projects. These priorities will help us focus on what matters most and what we want to achieve for Barnsley. We'll continue to listen and learn to improve what we do.

 Outcomes set out in the council plan include: 

• People are safe and feel safe.

• People live independently with good physical and mental health for as long as possible.

• We've reduced inequalities in health and income across the borough.

• People have access to early help and support.

• People are supported to have safe, warm, sustainable homes.

• People live in great places, are recycling more and wasting less, feel connected and valued in their community.

We've identified key priorities for improvement and change within our Adult Social Care strategy:

1. build on the opportunities of our joint management arrangements with health

2. empowering people to stay healthy and independent

3. keeping people safe and well

4. support that works for you and your family

5. a valued and empowered workforce

6. we'll look at digital as an enabler

Working with our partners and providers, we'll be working on these areas to put in place new ways of working and achieve better outcomes for the people we support.

Executive summary

• Help for people to help themselves – early intervention, prevention, healthy population.
  
  

• Help when you need it – help focused on supporting people to regain levels of independence.
  
  

• Personalised support to address health and wellbeing for on-going support needs.

Living well

Please note: the supply and demand for each service shown in the table below is based on the expected direction of travel in that area.

Ageing well

Please note: the supply and demand for each service shown in the table below is based on the expected direction of travel in that area.

Our data

Barnsley's demographics

In Barnsley, the population size has increased by 5.9%, from around 231,200 in 2011 to 244,600 in 2021

• 0 to 19 year olds make up 22% (54,400) of Barnsley's population.

• 20 to 64 year olds make up 58% (142,800) of Barnsley's population.

• 64+ year olds make up 20% (47,400) of Barnsley's population.

• The number of residents 65+ is predicted to reach 60,500 by 2030.

Find out more about how life has changed in Barnsley.

Ethnic minority groups

According to the 2021 Census, 3.1% of Barnsley’s resident population class themselves as part of an ethnic minority group, this is 7600 residents and 10,200 residents report their main language is not English (4.2%).  In Barnsley we have 1493 residents aged 45-64, 323 aged 65-84, and 24 aged 85 years and above who class themselves as part of an ethnic minority group.

There are small pockets of older ethnic minority groups across Barnsley. Based on 2019 ONS population data by ethnic group Barnsley has 1.7% of those aged 50 to 64 from ethnic minority groups (excluding white minorities), and 0.7% for those aged 65+.

Older LGBTQ+ Adults

The census 2021 estimates show that Barnsley people aged 16 years and over identified as:

• 91.57% straight or heterosexual

• 1.50% gay or lesbian

• 0.91% bisexual

• 0.07% pansexual

• 0.03% asexual

• 0.01% queer

• 0.09% another sexual orientation

• 5.83% did not answer the question

3.07% of people in Yorkshire and Humber identify as gay or lesbian, bisexual, or other sexual orientation, compared to England at 3.2% (ONS, 2022).

Carers

Barnsley has an estimated 28,000 family/unpaid carers based on Census 2021 data.

During 2025/26 1063 carers (999 new carers and 64 existing carers) contacted adult social care. Most of these contacts came from self-referrals (701) and were done via telephone (53.72%). 99.7% (1060) of carers who contacted adult social care required further action, information, advice or signposting. 89.7% (954) received an adult social care carers assessment, this is 43 assessments less than 2024/25.

Our 2025/26 Carers Survey was issued to 1924 carers known to adult social care and we received 485 (25.2%) responses. Of the 485 responding carers, 1 aged 18-24 years, 1 aged 25-34, 14 aged 35-44, 54 aged 45-54, 142 were aged 55-64, 137 aged 65-74, 106 aged 75-84, 28 aged 85+, and 2 unknown. This is representative of our Barnlsey unpaid carer population; however, we anticipate that this will change over time with our largest population group aged 65-74 years. 67.84% of respondents were female compared to 31.96% males and 0.21% other. 177 carers (36%) declared they had no need of their own while 308 (64%) declared they had a long-term condition/disability they were managing. 164 (34%) of the people cared for by our carers lived somewhere else (outside of the carers home), while 312 (64%) lived with their carer and 9 (2%) provided no response. Of the people that are cared for; physical disability was the reason support was required closely followed by dementia.

Reasons for support (may have multiple per carer)

Barnsley Carers Service provided support to 1084 carers during 2025/26. 751 of these were referrals to service; with the highest sources of referrals coming from self-referrals 392 (52%) and GP referrals 141 (19%). During 2025/26 652 carers were on caseload for personalised support, with their greatest need being around financial advice, closely followed by 1:1 support and advice and information. 37 carers also accessed counselling support during 2025/26.

People accessing support

During 2024/2025 there were 26,665 contacts into Audit Social Care during the year (a 3.2% Increase on 2023/24) (figures up to March 25). 13,409 were new contacts (from people not in receipt of long-term support at the time of contact) (figures up to March 2025).

In total Adult Social Care provided services on 4961 referrals during the year (figures up to 2025) 3019 of the long-term support plans were still active at 31stMarch 25.

2025/26 – figures as of March 2026

• In 2025/2026 Barnsley had 851 social care users per 100,000 population aged 18 to 64 and 6,007 per 100,000 aged 65+.

• During 2025/2026 there were 29,017 contacts in to Adult Social Care during the year (an 8.8% increase on 2024/2025)

• 14,230 were new contacts (people not in receipt of long term support at the time of contact).

• In total adult social care provided services on 5,544 referrals during the year, 3,116 of the long-term support plans were still active 31 March 2026.

• 170 packages of care were fully funded by Barnsley ICB (figures up to March

Personalisation and direct payments 

As of 31 March 2026, 21% of adult social care service users received a direct payment to pay for their care and support

NHS funded services

Fully funded S117

Fast tracks

Market overview

Residential care

Based on data from the NHS capacity tracker, Barnsley currently has 70 care homes operating across the borough with a total of 2207 beds.

42 care homes are identified as homes for older people. Barnsley currently has 28 specialist residential care services supporting adults with Learning Disabilities, Autism and Mental Health needs.

As at the 31 Mar 2026 the council purchased approximately 52% of the 2207 beds currently registered in care homes in Barnsley. Using data from the NHS capacity tracker, providers reported that 347 beds were vacant meaning that the council purchase 61% of the occupied beds with the remaining 39% occupied by self-funders or people placed in Barnsley from another area.

Older people's care homes

Of the 42 older people’s care homes, six are registered to deliver nursing care with a total of 290 beds across all six of the homes.

The average size of a care home is 44 beds, the smallest is 12 beds and the largest 88 beds.

Older people’s care homes in Barnsley have 1858 registered beds in total, based on current CQC registration data.

Although the number of registered beds has decreased, average occupancy remains broadly consistent with last year and is currently around 85%.

CQC ratings:

• Outstanding - 3 (7%)

• Good - 28 (66%)

• Requires improvement - 9 (22%)

• Inadequate - 0 (0%)

• Not inspected – 2 (5%)

As at the end of March 2026, most older people’s care homes in Barnsley continue to be rated Good or Outstanding by CQC. However, the increase in homes rated Requires Improvement shows that quality remains a key area of focus. Barnsley Council will continue to use local intelligence, contract monitoring and quality assurance activity to support improvement, manage risk and ensure people have access to safe, high-quality care.

There remains excess capacity across older people’s residential care. Across the 18 care homes currently operating at less than 90% occupancy, there are 235 vacant beds. Across all older people’s care homes, there are 295 vacant beds in total.

Specialist care homes

Barnsley has 21 specialist care homes have an average bed number of 12 beds; the smallest is two beds and the largest is 46 beds.

CQC ratings:

• Outstanding – 3 (10%)

• Good – 22 (78%)

• Requires improvement – 2 (8%)

• Inadequate – 0 (0.0%)

• Not yet inspected - 1 (4%)

No provider has more than three homes operating in the borough. However, several of our specialist homes are part of larger organisations operating both regionally and nationally.

Home care

Barnsley currently has 55 home care providers registered to operate across the borough. The market is made up of contracted framework providers, non-contracted providers and agencies registered locally that may also operate across neighbouring authority areas.

The majority of providers are small, local, independent organisations operating solely in Barnsley. Some providers also deliver home care across wider regional footprints, which supports flexibility but can create variation in local capacity and engagement.

Of the 55 providers registered in Barnsley, 19 are part of Barnsley Council’s home care framework. The framework includes 32 providers in total, with the remaining framework providers registered in neighbouring authorities. A further 20 agencies are currently operating on a non-contracted basis, 14 of which are registered in Barnsley.

CQC ratings (for agencies registered in Barnsley):

• Outstanding – 1 (1.8%)

• Good – 45 (78.9%)

• Requires improvement – 3 (5.3%)

• Inadequate – 0 (0%)

• Not yet inspected – 11 (20%)

The updated CQC ratings indicate that most home care agencies registered in Barnsley are rated Good or Outstanding, with no agencies currently rated Inadequate. This provides a positive indication of overall quality across the registered home care market. However, the proportion of agencies not yet inspected should continue to be monitored, alongside local intelligence, contract monitoring and quality assurance activity, to ensure emerging risks are identified early and standards remain consistent across the market.

As at the end of March 2026, there were 1,211 active packages of home care, with around 19,190 hours of care delivered per week.

Day opportunities

Our Day Opportunities Market Shaping Plan sets out how day services support adults with learning disabilities, autistic adults, older people (including those with dementia), and adults with physical disabilities to stay active, connected, and independent within their communities.

The plan shows that Barnsley has a diverse mix of council funded, voluntary, community and independent provision, with overall capacity available across services and no current waiting lists. Demand has grown steadily since the COVID 19 pandemic, particularly for people with learning disabilities and autistic adults, while provision for older people remains stable but under utilised.

Future demand is shaped less by population growth and more by increasing complexity of need, changing expectations and a desire for flexible, community based support. People who use services and carers value local provision, meaningful activities, flexibility, and reduced travel.

The council’s focus is therefore on quality, sustainability and better use of community assets, rather than increasing capacity. Priorities include flexible delivery models, stronger links with the voluntary sector, improved access through framework arrangements, and reviewing transport to ensure value for money.

Finance

Barnsley adult social care budget and spend 

Total gross spend in 2025/26 on adult social care services/provision was £131.0 million, of which £108.8 million (representing 83%) relates to spend on direct care provision, e.g. residential/nursing care, domiciliary care, etc.

The above was partly funded through contributions from service users, Better Care Fund and government grants. The table below summarises the total net spend on direct care provision within adult social care in 2025/26.

The adult social care budget for 2026/27 has been increased by £4.6 million to take account of expected increased cost pressures arising from demographic changes and care provider fee increases due to national living wage and other inflationary pressures. The budget increase has been mainly funded from the following resources: Council Tax adult social care precept, and wider efficiencies across the Council.

Looking forward to 2027/28, the economic conditions facing the Council is one of increased uncertainty due to the following: rising pay costs (e.g. national living wage), high inflation and interest rates, rising service demand and a cost-of-living crisis. The funding outlook is also uncertain with Government funding not keeping pace with rising inflation and demand pressures facing adult social care – resulting in the need to find further efficiencies in future years.

Average fees paid for care services

*Enhanced rate paid to providers who commit to paying care staff £1 above the national living wage.

Nursing rates for residential care and residential EMI (including enhanced service) are as above, plus funded nursing care within that financial year.

Workforce

In 2024/25, in Barnsley there are an estimated 6,700 jobs in adult social care, with 6,400 of those posts filled leaving approximately 300 vacant posts.

Since the previous year, the total number of posts has increased by 100 (1.6%), the number of filled posts has increased by 250 (4.0%) and the number of vacancies has decreased by 175 (37.1%).

The estimated 6,400 filled posts were split between local authorities (6%), independent sector providers (88%), and posts working for direct payment recipients (6%).

Skills, recruitment and retention

Skills for Care estimates that the staff turnover rate in Barnsley was 15.1%, which was lower than the region average of 24.3%. Latest data available as of October 2025.

The council continues its commitment to ensuring direct care staff working as part of council contracts are paid £1 above the national living wage.

Commissioning intentions: living well

Individuals and families are healthy, resilient and have the confidence and skills to thrive and achieve their full potential so that collectively our communities achieve the best possible outcomes for themselves, their families and each other.

Support to individuals and families will be offered within their community and as close to home as possible.

Early intervention and prevention

Early intervention and prevention are at the core of our approach to reducing the overall need for high-cost social care and crisis services and improving overall outcomes and health inequalities. The authority aims to commission services that promote health, wellbeing and independence, enabling people to have choice and control as well as reducing the risk of people reaching crisis point and/or needing future intensive care and support.

Barnsley wants to make sure that everyone has the ability to live happy and healthy lives. To do this we'll work with our communities and organisations involved with communities to develop support that makes sense to them. Our approach will be to work with groups of people and organisations to develop, design and where necessary change the way support is provided. This approach should help people get support early and avoid people escalating into a crisis.

We recognise that most of our resources are used to provide reactive support for people when things have got really challenging for them. We want to target more resources to support earlier on in people’s lives.

Our plans are to commission services which:

• empower people and communities to build capacity and resilience, so they can do more for themselves

• address the underlying causes and ensure people have access to early help and support around things that impact on physical and mental wellbeing (housing, mental health, substance misuse, caring)

• look at solutions to address the risks of social isolation in older people or other vulnerable adults highlighted through the pandemic

• operate a home-first model, where possible ensuring support is offered in a way that allows people to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible.

• maximise people’s independence, doing with and not for.

• support the view of 'lives not services', are asset based, and form part of an individual’s wider circle of support including the community in which they live.

• are progression focussed, moving away from long term maintenance wherever possible.

• identify opportunities for early intervention and prevention.

• reflect Barnsley’s public health agenda focussing on the wider determinants of a person’s health and wellbeing which may impact on their need for support.

• supports seamless pathways and links to other services.

• promotes the use of technology to meet individual needs.

To do this, commissioners will: 

• work with partners and the market to develop support that promotes early intervention and prevention, and support that reduces risks of harm and prevents or delays admission into hospital or long-term residential care.

• commission high quality services that deliver value for money ensuring that the Barnsley pound is maximised.

• work with providers who can clearly demonstrate a commitment to delivering high quality care and who place service users at the centre of what they do.

• work with providers to ensure Barnsley has a diverse and sustainable market which can continually grow to meet the needs of the borough in future years.

• support providers to continually improve services and to ensure that both national and local standards of care continue to be met.

• co-design services with partners, staff and service users to ensure they are fit for purpose.

• develop a market that offers service users a choice in how and from whom they receive their support.

• identify gaps in service provision through the monitoring of data available and ensure these form part of future commissioning intentions.

• continue to promote community-based services and reduce admissions to long term residential care.

• develop services to ensure people can be discharged from hospital in a timely manner and with the right support avoiding unnecessary admissions into residential care.

Our approach to prevention will be based on a better understanding of our local populations health needs and we will work closely with colleagues from Public Health to understand how we can commission services that support the wider determinants of health.

We'll continue to develop stronger partnerships with the third sector and build on existing networks such as Age Friendly and Dementia Alliance.

Our Age Friendly Barnsley partners are:

• Age UK

• BMBC

• Berneslai Homes

• South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive

• South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

• Barnsley U3A (University of the Third Age)

• Barnsley Dementia Third Sector Alliance

• South Yorkshire ICB Barnsley Place

Personalisation - direct payments

The number of people accessing a direct payment or support managed account has been increasing annually; however, we recognise that a number of direct payment holders are using their funding to purchase traditional models of care such as home care. We'll be working closely with service users to ensure their needs are being met in the best way to meet their needs, and where appropriate this may result in a change to a commissioned service.

We would like to see service users who choose a direct payment be more creative with their budgets, using community assets as part of their care plans and one of our priorities in 2026 is to review the use of Personal Assistants.

Personal assistants provide individuals with the opportunity to tailor support to meet their needs, which is often a more empowering and flexible option.

There is however a recognised gap, creating a delay for service users waiting for PA’s to be recruited to progress their care plan. We've started working with a wider group from other authorities to build on best practice and identify opportunities to develop a PA market. This is in the early stages.

Reablement

The reablement service supports the Borough of Barnsley with hospital discharges, intermediate care, short stays and community referrals. The service aims to enable individuals to redevelop or learn daily living skills, increase independence and reduce the need for long-term care.

The service, which is for those people aged over 18, can support people for up to six weeks. The average length of time customers are on service remains around 22 days.

Since we have extended the offer to people with Mental Health needs, we have seen a gradual increase requesting support for this customer group. There has not been any progress made with extending the service to support people who are preparing for adulthood and following our CQC inspection we will not be able to offer support to people with a learning disability for the foreseeable future.

Learning disabilities

Strategically, Barnsley is part of the South Yorkshire Integrated Board (ICB).

Our LDA Market Shaping Plan sets out how Barnsley Council will work with people, families, carers, providers and partners to develop the local care and support market for adults with a learning disability and autistic adults. It brings together evidence on current supply, demand, finance, quality and feedback from people who use services to identify where the market is working well and where further development is needed. The overall aim is to support more people to live well, safely and as independently as possible in Barnsley, with access to high-quality local support that reflects their needs, preferences and aspirations.

The plan identifies four main priorities:

• developing more local supported living, including single-person and core-and-cluster models;

• strengthening local respite, short-break and crisis-prevention options;

• ensuring residential care is used in a targeted and sustainable way for people whose needs cannot be safely met elsewhere;

• improving quality, value for money and contract coverage across the market.

These priorities are intended to reduce reliance on high-cost out-of-area placements and reactive spot purchasing, while supporting better outcomes, stronger local oversight and a more sustainable provider market.

Supported Activities for people with a learning disability

The offer for day opportunities is known as supported activities and is part of our in-house offer to people with a learning disability and autism.

The service provides person-centred, outcome focused support which is tailored to individual needs. The offer can be accessed through a range of community venues, individual sessions or one of the Council’s three buildings which are located across the borough. Our Day Opportunities Market Shaping Plan has further detail.

Respite for people with a learning disability or autism

Respite is a key area of pressure for us and future market development. Barnsley has a commissioned respite service at Silver Street, a six-bed residential respite service, which is operating at full capacity and holding a waiting list.

There is an increasing demand for respite and short breaks, particularly for carers of people with profound or complex needs and autistic young adults, we want to strengthen local respite, short-break and crisis-prevention options so carers can access timely, flexible breaks and reduce the risk of family carer breakdown or crisis placements.

Hospital avoidance and discharge

We've worked with our SYICS colleagues to procure a new crisis/safe space service for South Yorkshire aimed at reducing admissions to specialist hospitals for people who have a learning disability and/or autism under the Transforming Care agenda. The contract for this service has been awarded to Voyage and we are working with them to find an appropriate location within South Yorkshire to develop the service; it will be somewhere with good transport connections and accessible from across South Yorkshire.

Autistic adults

Barnsley has an all-age autism strategy; it has six themes:

• improving understanding and acceptance of autism within society

• improving autistic children and young people’s access to education, and supporting positive transitions into adulthood

• supporting more autistic people into employment

• tackling health and care inequalities for autistic people

• building the right support in the community and supporting people in inpatient care

• improving support within the criminal and youth justice systems.

The strategy and its action plan will be reviewed and updated annually, and we will use this to inform our commissioning intentions.

Specialist residential care

Specialist residential care, which is predominantly occupied by working age adults, whose needs cannot safely be met in supported living or other community-based provision.

Moving forward we want to use residential care in a targeted and sustainable way, with a focus on improving quality, value for money and contract coverage across the market. We want to reduce reliance on reactive spot purchasing, strengthen local oversight and develop a more sustainable provider market. We will continue to work with our local specialist care home providers to consider how we can make sure that wherever possible beds are available and used for Barnsley residents.

Residential care is a key financial pressure for the Council, with average residential care costs per person increasing by 38% between 2021/22 and 2025/26.

Housing and accommodation

During 2026 10 new single occupancy accommodations are being developed.

Affordable supported living service that needs local need and housing are key areas for us. Barnsley needs for more supported living opportunities for adults with learning disabilities, autistic adults over the next ten years; estimated at around 10 new homes per year. We want to work with our strategic housing colleagues and our framework providers. Our focus is on creating sustainable, affordable provision, with compliant housing providers, in the right locations, so people have more choice over where they live and who they live with.

We have clear principles for new housing: it should be delivered in partnership; supported living providers should be on the Community and Supported Living (CSL) framework; housing partners should be regulatory-compliant social housing providers; rents should be affordable and, the in the main, the preferred model is own-front-door accommodation rather than shared accommodation that has communal facilities.

Community and Supported Living Framework (CSL)

CSL is the framework contract for care and support in people’s own homes or supported living accommodation and runs until 2031, it has 30 providers. Demand for support is expected to increase steadily over the contract period. We will review periodically how the framework is working for the people of Barnsley. Should we identify any unmet needs, we will reopen the framework. This process will be conducted transparently via YORtender, and we will ensure the provider market is notified accordingly.

Mental health

A significant amount of consultation was undertaken as part of the development process of Barnsley’s all-age Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022 to 2026. This strategy directly contributes to improving mental health and wellbeing across the Borough.

Read the Barnsley Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-26.

In relation to the implementation of the strategy, a mental health strategy delivery plan and mental health dashboard has been developed, and the Barnsley Mental Health Forum (a service user and carer group) have also developed several quality standards against which progress is being measured.

The all-age mental health and wellbeing strategy is also a key enabler of a 'healthy Barnsley' and will also impact on delivery of the overall Barnsley 2030 vision.

As a strategy it covers a wide range of mental health needs from perinatal, young people, prevention, such as suicide prevention, eating disorders, through to older people with dementia, with the overall aim of helping people to live independent lives.

The mental health social workers specialise in helping people with mental health conditions to live independently in the community with a recovery focus where possible, adopting a strengths-based approach and ensuring each person is engaging in an active life, addressing issues of inclusion and diversity, ensuring equal access and opportunities and getting rid of discrimination and intolerance.

The services commissioned in Barnsley enable adults to have greater choice and control over their care, and to live well in their community. In Barnsley there are a small number of specialist residential care homes and supported living units that provide mental health support. There are capacity issues in relation to care and support for specific diagnosed mental health such as eating disorders, dementia and behaviours that challenge.

Digital innovation

There are now an increasing range of digital tools to support the way care and support is assessed and delivered that would support better outcomes for people.

Digital innovations can improve the way we use information about how people live their lives, so they can have more meaningful support plans.

We will be engaging with providers to trial new approaches and where possible future commissioning will be based on the following principles:

• Increased support available to back-office functions through the automation of tasks.

• Increasing expectations that a digital option is available e.g. to keep people in their own homes.

• The offer of web-based information, advice and self-support.

• Information sharing to support more joined up care and support.

• Monitoring and reporting of health conditions.

• Use of video meetings and consultations.

• Apps to support information sharing and support planning.

• Robotics to support care workers around manual handling.

Unpaid carers

Whilst it is acknowledged that not all carers will want or require support, it is imperative that we take steps to identify those that do and provide an offer of both early intervention and more intensive support where appropriate to meet their wide range of needs.

Our Barnsley All Age Carers Strategy 2022-27 strategic vision; ‘Carers are identified and recognised and have access to information and practical and emotional support to help them achieve the outcomes which matter most to them’.

The Barnsley All Age Carers Strategy Steering Group will work in partnership to ensure processes are transparent in the review, development, and delivery of the Carers Strategy Action Plan.

The focus will be on all the priorities of the Barnsley Carers Strategy as detailed below:

• raising awareness to increase the identification of carers

• working with carers

• assessing carers’ needs

• carers’ health and well-being

• carer breaks

• helping carers stay in work

• young carers

• parent carers

Work on the key priorities will help us shape and inform our future carers service offer.

Commissioning intentions: ageing well

In Barnsley we'll support our ageing population by offering person-centred, flexible, integrated care and support in their community or at home.

Through early interventions we aim to maximise people’s health, wellbeing and independence and reduce the need for long term support wherever possible.

Residential care

The proportion of people aged 65 and over whose needs are met through residential or nursing care remains high in Barnsley. In 2024/25, Barnsley’s rate was 809.3 per 100,000 population, compared with 592.5 for England and 631.6 for our statistical neighbours. This indicates that Barnsley continues to make greater use of residential and nursing care than comparator areas, and this remains a key area for improvement.

In November 2021, the Council went out to tender for a new residential and nursing care home framework. The service specification outlines a number of key outcomes expected of providers, alongside the support available from health and social care partners to enable providers to deliver against these. The current contract will be extended to its maximum term, ending on 31 March 2028.

40 care homes operate under the current framework, which remains open to new applications.

Barnsley continues to have an oversupply of residential beds within the market, with current occupancy rates remaining around 85%.

Through the market shaping plan, which will be published in 2026, Barnsley Council will review current and future need for residential and nursing care, including the number and type of beds required to meet demand. This work will consider demographic change, occupancy, quality, complexity of need and local intelligence. The findings will inform future commissioning intentions for the residential care market once the required level and type of provision is better understood.

Capacity

The table below shows year on year the combined occupancy and vacancy rates for all residential and nursing care homes in the borough.

Vacancies

The table details vacancy rates annually against each of the types of residential care provision.

Dementia care

Most care homes now include dementia within their service specialism as part of their CQC registration however this is reflective of the change in demographics with people living longer and more people receiving a dementia diagnosis.

As of Mar 2026, the council had 503 service users in residential care with a recoded status of dementia.

While most care homes can support people with dementia, we have seen an increase in requests for one-to-one support for individuals where their needs change as a result of their dementia meaning that those needs can no longer be safely met in the care home environment without additional support.

As part of our market shaping plan Commissioners will be reviewing the needs of individuals with more challenging and complex behaviours and how these are met within residential care settings. Following this an assessment of current local provision will be undertaken to identify future commissioning intentions.

Our vision will be to commission dementia care that can support residents throughout their diagnosis including any deterioration and increase in needs and to ensure that they continue to enjoy a good quality of life in an environment that allows them to maximise their independence.

Intermediate care (IMC)

Barnsley’s Intermediate Care Service provides short-term rehabilitation, reablement and recovery support for people who require additional care and support following a hospital stay or who are at risk of hospital admission. The service aims to maximise independence, support recovery and enable people to return to their usual place of residence wherever possible.

A review of the Barnsley Intermediate Care Service (IMC) has highlighted several opportunities for service development focussing on improving service user outcomes, quality of care and sustainability. This includes the growth of community IMC to support more people in their own home as well as making sure we have the right number of beds for people whose needs cannot be met in the community.

The current bed base for IMC is located across two sites, 26 beds are located in BDGH with a further 24 beds located in Buckingham care home.

Although the Barnsley Hospital site is the current best available option, best practice has identified that IMC facilities are most effective when housed outside of the hospital site. The move to the hospital site is intended to be temporary until a long-term location for the Acorn unit is available.

The demand for IMC services has increased and currently the service provides up to 50 beds across a mixed economy and 200 services users at home who would otherwise be in a care home setting.

Service users, IMC workforce and the wider community will be further engaged and invited to help shape the future estate of the IMC service in 2026/27.

Day opportunities

Barnsley currently commissions a buildings-based dementia wellbeing day service for older people with a dementia diagnosis and two buildings-based day services for older people without a dementia diagnosis. The contracts for these services expire on the 31 Oct 2026.

Service users with other needs can access other health and wellbeing services, including building-based centres, delivered by providers in the community.

The overall aim of the health and wellbeing centres (day services) is to promote healthy lifestyles, reduce isolation, stimulate interest and regain skills to promote and increase independence. It provides respite and a break for both the carer and the cared for person.

A review of day services identified a range of issues including demand for the service and transport arrangements with service users feeding back that they would prefer services that are closer to where they live and offer flexibility in the days and times, they are accessible

The outcome of the review has informed our market shaping plan for day opportunities. The plan describes what we need the market to look like in this area to help providers develop their own business plans, the plan also outlines our intention to develop a framework contract for day opportunities which will start from the 1 November 2026.

Home care

Demand for home care is rising steadily increasing from 1,171 packages of care in March 2025 to 1,212 in March 2026.

The number of hours of care being delivered has increased by 5.3% in the period from 18,317 hours per week in March 2025 to 19,291 in March 2026.

Under previous arrangements, a significant proportion of home care packages were delivered through non‑contract provision, presenting challenges in oversight, quality assurance and market stability. To address this, Barnsley Council re‑procured the Support to Live at Home (STLAH) framework, implementing a capped model of up to 40 providers from 1 February 2024 to strengthen quality and sustainability.

As at the end of March 2026 the framework (now extended to January 2028) operates with 32 approved providers, though fewer are actively bidding. While a greater proportion of activity has transitioned back into the framework over time, non‑contract provision remains, with around 20% of hours delivered by 21 providers to maintain flexibility where capacity or engagement is limited.

The long‑term direction is to embed home care within a wider community offer, moving away from time‑and‑task commissioning towards outcome‑focused models that enable providers to deliver more flexible, person‑centred support in partnership with individuals, families and multi‑disciplinary teams.

Extra care

Barnsley currently hosts four schemes designed to provide accommodation and support for individuals aged 55 and over. Two of these, Fitzwilliam Court and Westmeads, operate as Extra Care Housing schemes, offering self-contained accommodation that supports independent living alongside access to flexible, onsite support and 24-hour regulated care where required. Care and support at both schemes are delivered by a single provider, Creative Support.

As of May 2026, the service supported 37 tenants delivering 508.50 hours of care and support per week.

In addition, Cherry Tree Court and Lavender Court, managed by Together Housing, operate as supported housing schemes. These provide self-contained accommodation alongside low-level wellbeing support but do not include an on-site 24-hour care presence.

These models enable residents to maintain their independence, promote health and wellbeing through preventative interventions, and reduce reliance on more intensive residential care by delivering tailored support within a community-based setting.

Procurement opportunities

Early intervention

Transitions (learning disability/mental health)

Older people

Other

Brokerage

In 2024, in partnership with Adult Social Care, Commissioning Improvement and Assurance completed a change management process to formerly establish a brokerage team. The function was originally developed during the pandemic to support timely discharges from hospital, and following positive feedback from stakeholders, and an increase in productivity was developed as a permanent team from July 2024.

The Brokerage Team are responsible for realising community care packages to ensure that we comply with contractual requirements and support the gathering of market intelligence to inform future commissioning plans. Providers have reported an improved experience following the development of the new brokerage function.

Quality assurance

We are committed to ensuring that all commissioned services deliver safe, effective and high-quality care that achieves positive outcomes for people in Barnsley. Our approach to quality assurance is intelligence-led, risk-based and proportionate, enabling us to target oversight where it is most needed and respond to emerging risks.

Our contract compliance audit process is a key part of this framework, using a structured and evidence-based approach to assess performance against contractual, regulatory and quality standards, informed by safeguarding, performance data and feedback from people who use services.

Alongside this, we are embedding a sustaining quality improvement approach, working in partnership with providers to support continuous improvement, strengthen leadership and ensure that positive changes are maintained over time. This combined approach enables early identification and management of risk, supports sustainable service improvement, and ensures we meet our statutory responsibilities while maintaining consistent and transparent oversight of the care market.

We are also supporting the development of a robust organisational quality assurance framework. This includes strengthening governance, improving oversight of risk, embedding effective audit and monitoring systems, and ensuring learning from incidents, complaints and feedback is translated into meaningful service improvements. By building provider capability in quality assurance, we aim to promote greater resilience, accountability and continuous improvement across the market.

Social value and carbon footprint

In line with the council's 2030 vision, we want to work with providers who can help us to deliver our ambitions around social value and reducing our carbon footprint.

Our contracts will include a requirement for providers to evidence how their services support the principles of social value and deliver the council's ambition to ensure people live in sustainable communities with reduced carbon emissions.

What businesses and organisations can do

• Champion healthy workplaces and active travel.

• Bring the zero-carbon ambition to life by using sustainable sources to run their services.

• Run services efficiently and responsibly to benefit the environment and community.

• Support volunteering opportunities and community group initiatives.

Read our Social Value Policy.

How to engage with us/co-production

In Barnsley, we want to develop further the approach of working with people with lived experience, as there is a recognition that there is further work to be done to ensure that there is real inclusive input over the design and delivery of the services Barnsley provides. Adapting the current Think Local Act Personal group (TLAP) approach to a People with Lived Experience Co-production Group is an important step forward in making care and support services more inclusive, responsive, and person-centred, by capitalising on the feedback from partners and people with lived experience. This approach emphasises the importance of person-centred care and highlights the contributions of individuals with lived experiences in shaping policies and practices, utilising crucial feedback to undertake this work.

Together for Better Care is Barnsley’s adult social care involvement and co-production group, bringing together people with lived experience of care and support, carers, families and professionals to shape and improve local services. Formerly known as Think Local Act Personal (TLAP), the group provides a structured and inclusive forum where members work as equals to share experiences, identify what works well, highlight areas for improvement and help develop realistic, person-centred solutions. The group meets every six weeks and plays a key role in ensuring the voices of people who use services directly inform commissioning priorities, service design, quality improvement activity and decision making across adult social care in Barnsley. For more information or queries, please contact adultscommissioningimprovementandassurance@barnsley.gov.uk.

We recognise that we cannot meet the challenges faced by the local authority and our health partners without a continued close working relationship with all of our stakeholders including providers, service users and carers.

In order to develop creative, innovative services which will help deliver our vision, commissioners will continue to use a range of methods to support the on-going development of commissioning intentions and the co-production of services with stakeholders.

Our offer to support providers can be described as follows:

• Workforce planning and development.

• Implementing a refreshed quality framework for contracted care providers.

• Regular provider forums that cover prevention and wellbeing services through to specialist learning disability provision are available to local providers regardless of contract status. Alongside information sharing around gaps and tender opportunities, the forums will provide the opportunity for developing best practice within the provision of care and support.

• Continued promotion of individual budgets and direct payments.

• Involving providers in meaningful operational and commercial discussions as part of project work, service shaping and pre procurement.

• Progression of key commissioning plans.

The recommendations below are for all parts of the market, and they aim to help organisations to understand what they can do to make sure that their services align with the council’s priorities for care and support in the future:

• Use tools to gather feedback from people who use your services and develop your organisation and service provision.

• Support us in developing and shaping the market locally, such as regularly attending provider forums.

• Access training and proactively use the council’s contracts and quality team to help improve your service quality.

• Engage with the work on integrating health and social care services, so the system works for you and your service users.

• Focus on maximising independence, supporting people to help themselves as much as possible.

• Think about how your services could support the increase in the number of service users who take up direct payments for their care and support.

Working with people and communities

In Barnsley we want everyone to have the best possible chance of enjoying life in good physical and mental health. Our Adult Social Care services play a vital role in making sure local people experience high-quality care and support when they need it.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people's needs and experiences of care. Their single assessment framework supports this commitment.

Using new ‘quality statements’ called ‘we statements’ CQC will focus on specific topic areas. The ‘we statements’ are written from a provider's perspective and provide information on what CQC expect of them. They draw on previous work developed by Think Local Act Personal (TLAP), National Voices and the Coalition for Collaborative Care on Making it Real.

CQC will make judgements using evidence which will include people’s experience.
The ‘we statements’ show what is needed to deliver high-quality, person-centred care. They directly relate to the regulations, and are used in the assessment framework to:

• Sets out clearly what people should expect a good service to look like.

• Places people’s experiences of care at the heart of CQC judgements.

• Makes sure that gathering and responding to feedback is central to CQC expectations of providers and systems.

Our framework for working with people and communities will provide adult social care staff with the principals, tools and resources for working with our Barnsley people and communities. This will allow people’s experience of care to be captured and placed at the heart of what we do in Barnsley Place, health and adult social care.

Meet the commissioners

Adults Commissioning, Improvement and Assurance structure and portfolios:

Jayne Hellowell - Service Director

• Stephanie Gee – Management Support Officer
  

Katherine Purton - Head of Service Commissioning

• Alison Rumbol - Senior Commissioning Manager

  • Val Cole - Commissioning Manager

  • Vacant - Projects and Contracts Officer

  • Vacant - Projects and Contracts Officer
    

• Emma Round – Quality Assurance Manager

  • Vacant – Business Development Officer

  • Samantha Purvis – Business Support Officer
    

• Jacqui Atkinson – Service Manager – Improvements, Programmes and Assurance

  • Hayley Appleby - Project Manager Wellbeing

  • Hayley Oughton - Project Manager Wellbeing

    • Helen Furniss – Project Officer Wellbeing

  • Jess Conway - Resource Allocation Officer

  • Victoria Wainwright – Resource Allocation Officer

  • Angie East – Resource Allocation Officer

  • Vacant – Resource Allocation Officer

  • Shelley Gill – Team Leader – Personalisation

    • Rachel Schofield – Personalisation Monitoring Officer

    • Julie Jagger - Personalisation Monitoring Officer

    • Sarah Austin - Personalisation Monitoring Officer

    • Zoe Boyes - Personalisation Monitoring Officer

    • Vacant - Personalisation Monitoring Officer

    • Karen Thorpe - Personalisation Officer

    • Kath Simpson - Personalisation Officer

    • Sharon Merry - Personalisation Officer

    • Samantha Hall - Personalisation Officer

    • Sadie Howe - Personalisation Officer

    • Naomi Gott - Personalisation Officer

    • Lauren Dalton - Personalisation Officer

    • Vacant - Personalisation Officer

Sharon Graham - Head of Service Commissioning

• Debra Anglesea – Service Manager – Improvement and Quality Assurance

  • Jo Harper – Compliance and Quality Improvement Officer

  • Dawn Mullins - Compliance and Quality Improvement Officer

  • Gayle Bennett - Compliance and Quality Improvement Officer

  • Debbie Whitehead – Compliance and Quality Improvement Officer

  • Cath Erine and Jonathan Douglas - Service Manager - Safeguarding Adults (joint role)

    • Charlotte Cox - Business Support Officer

    • Vacant - Business Support Officer

    • Vacant – Safeguarding Officer
      

• Clare Burton - Senior Commissioning Manager

  • Jayne Hemmingham - Senior Commissioning Manager

    • Diane Turner - Brokerage Manager

      • Jane Holroyd - Brokerage Officer

      • Gillian Scallon - Brokerage Officer

      • Christine Sharp - Brokerage Officer

      • Louise Ellis - Brokerage Officer

      • Julie Griffiths - Brokerage Officer

    • Diane Swift-Baldock – Projects and Contracts Officer<.li>

    • Vacant - Projects and Contracts Officer

    • Projects and Contracts Officer
      

• Joe Allen – Project Improvement and Assurance Manager
  

• Paige Bate - Quality Assurance Manager

  • Vacant – Business Development Officer

  • Michael Hayes – Business Support Officer

Cross-cutting workstreams:

• Market shaping

• Contract management

• Finance/systems

• Digital

• Workforce

Useful links

• Barnsley 2030

• Barnsley Council

• Barnsley Council Contract Register

• Live Well Barnsley

• Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

• NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

• YORtender

Plans/strategies

• Barnsley Council key strategies

• Barnsley Council Medium Financial Strategy

• Council Plan

• Health and Wellbeing Strategy

• Adult Social Care Prevention Strategy

• Provider contract meetings terms of reference

• Provider workshops terms of reference