Older People Residential Care Services | Provider Hub

Market Context

Older People residential care is for people usually over the age of 65 who require short- or long-term 24-hour care in a Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered residential care home. The type of services that can be provided in a registered residential care home are:

Short- or long-term residential care
Short- or long-term specialist care, i.e. dementia, complex needs
Respite residential care

The core Essex County Council contract for care home placements is the Integrated Residential and Nursing Care Framework, known as the IRN Framework.

Market Rating

The current overall Market Quality is good. There is currently an oversupply of registered residential care homes in all districts apart from Harlow, Basildon and Castle Point. There is a need to work with the market to ensure care home provision meets future demand and need, including an increase in nursing care provision and supporting adults with more complex needs later in life.

Market Quality	Market Supply	ECC Demand
Good	Good	Stable

ECC Ambition	Market Workforce	Market Maturity
Decrease Supply	Stable	Mature

ECC rating of the market, assessed on 1st April 2026.

Current Market Status

We are working with the market to ensure care home provision meets future need and demand as set out in the Essex Supported and Specialist Housing and Accommodation Need Assessment (2025) (SSHANA). This includes an increase in nursing care home provision required across the county and supporting people with more complex needs, including complex dementia needs later in life.

Provider dimension

7% of residential and residential with nursing care homes have less than 80% occupancy.
ECC is committed to reviewing placement prices on an annual basis. Please see the Older People Residential and Nursing uplift page

Essex Market
No. residential and residential with nursing care homes	212
No. residential and residential with nursing rooms	10,807
% residential and residential with nursing care homes CQC rated Good or Outstanding	75%
Total occupied residential and residential with nursing rooms (including ECC funded placements)	9,333
Average residential and residential with nursing occupancy %	86%
% of placements that are ECC placements	34%

Essex Adult Social Care Market (ECC Funded)
Annual residential care spend	£150 Million
No. Contracted (IRN Framework) residential and residential with nursing care homes	123
% Contracted (IRN Framework) residential and residential with nursing care homes CQC rated Good or Outstanding	74%
No. of residential care residents placed by ECC	2,924
% ECC residential care placements into CQC rated Good or Outstanding care home	73%
Contract Utilisation (% ECC residential care placements through the IRN Framework)	86%
Average Length of Stay (Years)	1 years 11 Months

Essex Adult Social Care Market - Sourcing
Average residential care Contracted162 (IRN Framework) Rate per week	£853.19
Average residential care Spot Rate per week	£1,160.43
Average new residential care Contract Placements per month	162
Average new residential care Spot Placements per month	35
Average No. of residential care placements ended per month	117

The information shown in the table(s) above is correct as of 1st April 2026.

Information in the above table for sourcing is based on activity between 1st April 2025 and 31st March 2026.

It is essential to be able to source a care home placement, when needed, within a care home that can safely and effectively meet the person’s needs, both in terms of the building design and the care and support provided, in or close to the persons chosen location, and at rates that are affordable.

The number of older people supported to live at home for longer is increasing. This means that the people that do move into a care home are likely to have more complex needs later in life, including complex dementia and nursing care needs. There is a need to secure additional nursing care home provision across Essex to meet this changing need and demand.

It is the ambition of Essex County Council that whenever someone is placed in a care home, it is in a care home that has a Good or Outstanding CQC rating.

Current market risks:

There could be an increase in the number of care homes exiting the market due to an increase in costs.
The NHS may increase demand for residential placements from hospital driving up longer term costs for Adult Social Care.

ECC does not pay Cost of Care Rates. Please see the Older People Residential and Nursing uplift page.

Our current area of focus is:

Annual refresh of the IRN Framework which can be in place until May 2031.
Continue the Recovery to Home service in North-East Essex for short-term placements.
Working with existing residential care homes to be able to meet the needs of older people with more complex needs later in life, including, where possible, transitioning some residential care homes into residential with nursing care homes.
Responding to planning applications to help ensure the development of any new proposed care home is in line with forecast need as set out in the Essex Supported and Specialist Housing and Accommodation Need Assessment (2025) (SSHANA) and able to meet the needs of older people with higher levels of complexity later in life, including complex nursing and dementia needs.

Last updated: 01/04/2026

Next Nursing Care Services