Many councils are grappling with how to ensure their services promote better outcomes for their local communities, and nowhere is this more true than adult social care.

Although outcomes are generally acknowledged to be the future of commissioning - research we conducted at the LGiU found that nine out of ten councils regard outcome-based commissioning as ‘important' or ‘very important' in social care in future - the path towards a truly outcome-focused approach has been fraught with difficulty.

Our survey of social care departments showed that three-quarters of respondents disagreed with the statement ‘our current systems will be sufficient to manage our adult social care provision in future'.