Market Oversight of adult social care

Page last updated: 1 February 2024
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Organisations we regulate

We assess the financial sustainability of adult social care providers that could be difficult to replace if they were to fail and one or more care services stopped. We give advance notice to local authorities so they can put plans in place to ensure that people who are affected continue to receive care.


Read the full document


Market Oversight is a statutory scheme. Our duty to perform this role is set out in the Care Act 2014. The scheme includes providers that have a large local or regional presence where, if they were to fail, this could disrupt continuity of care in a local authority area.

Between August and October 2020, we asked people to give their views on proposals to update this guidance. Our updates reflect our experience and learning from running the scheme since 2015.

Why we assess some providers' financial sustainability

For providers in the scheme, we must tell local authorities if services in their area are likely to stop owing to business failure. This is because, if a care provider fails, the local authority must ensure people using their services still receive care.

We do not assess or monitor the financial sustainability of the adult social care sector as a whole.

We do not have the power to intervene to prevent the failure of a provider.

If a provider is included in the scheme, this does not mean they are at risk of failing. It only means they would be difficult to replace if they did fail.

List of providers in the scheme