Issue - meetings

Background:

This report presented Medway Council’s refreshed Adult Social Care Strategy 2025 – 2028. The Strategy had been developed in response to increasing demand, rising complexity of need, and financial pressures. It set out a clear goal and mission to help people live safely, stay independent, and be treated with dignity and respect.

The Strategy was shaped by extensive consultation and aligned with statutory duties and wider system priorities. It outlined five strategic commitments and a phased delivery plan, supported by the Adult Social Care Transformation and Improvement Programme. It would guide future commissioning, investment, and service development, ensuring Adult Social Care remained responsive, inclusive, and sustainable.

The Strategy supported the One Medway Council Plan, the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the work that the Council undertook with partner organisations, as well as supporting the Government’s NHS Ten Year Plan vision of shifting from reactive hospital based care to community led and preventative models of care.

A Diversity Impact Assessment had been undertaken in relation to the proposed Strategy and was set out at Appendix C to the report.

The report had previously been considered by the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 15 January 2026, the comments of which were set out at section 7 of the report.

Reasons:

This report is an update to the previously published Adult Social Care Strategy 2021 - 2025 document. This updated strategy document considers local demographic changes, increased service demand and financial pressures within Adult Social Care, proposing aims and objectives to be delivered by the service to meet this increased demand, whilst maintaining quality of service.