The Adult Care and Public Health Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the Adult Social Care Strategy 2025-2028, focusing on transforming adult social care services, and reviewed data on out-of-area placements for Lincolnshire residents receiving adult social care. The committee agreed to endorse the work programme with additional items highlighted during the meeting.

Adult Social Care Strategy 2025-2028

The committee reviewed the draft Adult Social Care Strategy 2025-2028, ahead of its consideration by the executive on 2 September 2025. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, presented the strategy, which aims to transform adult social care services for working-age adults and older people in Lincolnshire. The strategy sets out the vision, commitments, priorities and strategic goals for the next three years.

Key objectives of the strategy include:

• Promoting good health and wellbeing by tackling health inequalities and improving access to care and support.
• Empowering people to live independently and confidently by supporting them to achieve their personal outcomes.
• Fostering collaboration across communities, including individuals, carers, health and social care services, and the voluntary and independent sectors.
• Ensuring access to high-quality information, advice, and guidance to support informed decision-making and self-directed care.
• Supporting a strong and diverse care market that offers choice, flexibility and value for money.
• Championing co-production by involving people who draw on care and support in shaping services and future models of care.
• Adopting strength-based, person-centred approaches to care planning and delivery.
• Delivering value for money while improving people's experiences and outcomes in the face of rising demand and financial pressures.

The strategy emphasises a shift towards prevention and early intervention, with a new Target Operating Model (TOM) designed to integrate formal and informal support services. The TOM is underpinned by eight key principles, including tackling adult safeguarding concerns, person-centred interactions, co-producing support, and technology-enabled support.

During the discussion, Councillor J Bean asked about the council's corporate diversity steering group mentioned in the document, its purpose and costs. Councillor J W Brookes, Chairman of the Committee, said he would ask the chief executive to investigate and report back.

Councillor C J Reeve raised concerns about recruitment and retention challenges in the care sector and whether the council relies too heavily on the private sector. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, responded that the strategy addresses market management and shaping, including workforce development and technology adoption.

Councillor Bayleigh Leon Tyler Robinson highlighted the importance of technology in promoting independence, particularly smart home devices, and asked how the council intends to use AI to help social workers and achieve cost savings. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, explained that the council is exploring AI for social work notes and case file analysis, which could save social workers significant time.

Councillor Mrs M J Overton MBE raised concerns about balancing preventative measures with support for those with significant difficulties, and the importance of community involvement. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, emphasised that doing the right thing in the right way leads to the best outcomes for individuals and value for money.

Councillor K H Cooke asked how the strategy will shift services towards prevention and early intervention, and how success will be measured. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, explained that the strategy promotes a proactive approach, focusing on early intervention and measuring success through a reduction in the rate of people coming into more formal services.

Councillor K H Cooke also asked about mechanisms to ensure ongoing co-production with service users, carers and community stakeholders. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, acknowledged that more needs to be done and that the council has restructured to create a division to improve engagement.

Councillor K H Cooke further inquired about how the council can prioritise and fund transformational goals within the strategy given significant financial pressures. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, said that the majority of the directorate's spend is on individual packages of care, limiting the amount of double running, and that assistive technology programmes will live within the existing budget.

Councillor J Bean asked about plans to help move people out of hospital beds and reintegrate them back into the community. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, said that the council has an effective hospital discharge process and that prevention is better than cure.

Councillor J Bean also asked about procedures to support carers, describing them as the young son heroes of the adult care system . Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, responded that supporting carers is more cost-effective than direct care.

Councillor J Bean raised concerns about vetting procedures for co-production with outside bodies and members of the public, citing safeguarding responsibilities.

Councillor Mrs S Woolley asked how the council will address variations in service delivery and how it will reach people who are not yet in the system. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, said that ironing out variations is a matter of months rather than years. Professor Derek Ward, Director of Public Health, mentioned the Connected Support website and the potential for predictive analytics to identify people who might need proactive signposting.

Councillor Mrs S Woolley questioned whether the strategy should be updated to reflect the abolition of integrated care partnerships (ICPs) in the 10-year plan and the removal of the council's previous CQC grading from the CQC website¹. She also asked about ensuring broad representation in co-production and the impact of the NHS moving into the East Midlands region. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, said that the point has been made to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) about the NHS moving in a different direction and that the council will have to develop relationships with the new regional bodies.

Councillor K E Lee praised the report as detailed and well-explained, highlighting the importance of a preventative, person-focused strategy and the value of equality and diversity.

Councillor Bayleigh Leon Tyler Robinson asked about developing a chatbot for carers to direct them to specific advice. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, said that the council has a chatbot.

Councillor Mrs M J Overton MBE asked about the future of commissioning as councils dissolve and whether providers will do their own commissioning. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, said that if the council is replaced by a unitary authority, that authority would take over the care responsibilities.

The committee agreed to support in principle the draft adult care strategy with a caveat of amendments or additional information identified into the debate being reflected.

Out of Area Placements in Adult Social Care

Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, presented a report on out-of-area placements in adult social care, following up on questions raised by committee members at a previous meeting. The report provided data on Lincolnshire residents placed outside the county, their age, type of care, and location.

As of 31 May 2025, there were 192 Lincolnshire residents placed outside the county, representing 4.3% of all residential/nursing home placements and 0.9% of all community placements. Working-age adults were significantly more likely to be placed out of area than older people. Of the 146 individuals placed out of area, 99 were in bordering local authorities.

Councillor C J Reeve asked if the council was content with the number of people placed out of county and if there were plans to increase local provisions. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, responded that the situation for older people was appropriate, but that the council is working to increase local provisions for working-age adults.

Councillor K E Lee expressed concern about the impact of distance on families and asked if the provision and support might build to a degree that these numbers will really come right down. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, agreed and said he would definitely see the working age adult numbers coming down.

Councillor Mrs S Woolley asked for clarification on whether the request for this paper was recorded in the minutes of the previous meeting. It was clarified that the request was made in an informal conversation after the formal meeting.

The committee agreed to thank the executive director for compiling the information and to note that the out-of-area placements overall represent a figure below 5% of the residential and nursing home placements with a high proportion of those placements in adjacent counties.

Work Programme

Kiara Chatziioannou, Executive Support Officer for Adult Care and Public Health, presented the committee's work programme, outlining upcoming items for future meetings.

Councillor Mrs S Woolley requested an agenda item on the number of private care homes in Lincolnshire and the number of placements coming into the county.

Councillor C J Reeve asked if there were any emerging risks, such as the upcoming CQC report or financial pressures, that could change the work programme. Martin Samuels, Executive Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, said that he would expect to give an item about the CQC and that the budget would be discussed on 28 January 2026.

Councillor K E Lee asked if there could be an evaluation of intermediate care and preparations for winter after a certain period. It was agreed that this could be added as a request by the committee.

The committee agreed to endorse the work programme with the additional items highlighted during the meeting.