Market overview: care homes
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Overview
Care homes enable people to continue to live meaningful lives while being supported with personal care requirements. Residential care homes provide accommodation and 24-hour personal care for people who cannot live independently, whilst nursing care homes offer 24-hour nursing support in addition to this.
Our preventative approach means that we will support people to be independent for as long as possible and have successfully reduced the number of people entering long-term residential and nursing care. Our ambition is to further reduce the number of general care home beds in the District and diversify our accommodation offer to more independent settings such as Extra Care.
Current situation
The Council is the lead commissioner, together with the ICB, for all residential and nursing care home placements. Care home placements are commissioned via a Provider List, which is in place until 2029 and accessible for new applicants at any time.
There are currently 104 care homes within Bradford. 70 of these are residential, and 34 are nursing homes. All care homes must be signed up to the Provider List in order for a placement to be made – this includes Out of Area placements. The contract is reviewed annually. You can review the documents on our Provider Zone site.
You can view a map of the care homes in the Bradford District here.
In 2024-25, on average there were 356 people with local authority funding in nursing care home placements each month and 988 people in residential placements. The number of placements within care homes with local authority funding has generally remained stable at around 1,300 since 2022.
The Council has Standard and Enhanced rates for both Residential and Nursing placements - to receive the enhanced rate it must be demonstrated at funding panel that a resident's needs are eligible. The rates are reviewed on an annual basis.
Average length of stay in days (July 2025)
| Type | Nursing | Residential | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enhanced | 123 | 139 | 130 |
| Standard | 530 | 454 | 493 |
Future demand
Occupancy
Bradford continues to have an oversupply of bed availability and we do not support any further builds or openings. Overall, the local market continues to have sufficient capacity to meet current and forecast demand.
- For the last several years average occupancy in care homes has been around 82%-83%. In September 2025, average occupancy was at 80%. Occupancy has since returned to 83% as of June 26. This is due to further care home closures and the resulting reduction in available bed capacity, rather than an increase in placement activity.
- Since 2024, four homes have opened. These are typically larger and more modern. Two smaller, typically older homes have closed, all citing business and financial issues as a reason for closure. This increase in available bed space (from 3509 to 3773) together with Council’s Home First strategy contributes to the declining occupancy rate.
- The number of new care home placements per year has reduced by 41% from 778 placements in 2022-23 to 462 per year in 2024-25.
Growth
Population analysis for Bradford predicts that over the next decade, the most notable demographic growth is expected in older age groups. However, despite this, the Council’s strategy of “Happy, Healthy and at Home” means demand for care home placements remains at lower levels, and the need for additional beds is still not a requirement at this time.
Accommodation
Whilst the Council welcomes homes that are able to accommodate people with assessed needs at the contracted base rate, it does not anticipate the need for any more homes to be brought into use, including new builds. However, in line with its Home First Strategy and recent review, it would welcome interest in development of Extra Care Accommodation or other accommodation that supports independence.
Brokerage Team
In November 2025 the Council introduced a brokerage team for all placements for Older People into a residential or nursing home. You can read more about this here: Care Home Brokerage.
Commissioning intentions
Care homes (including out of area homes) can apply to join our Provider List at any time. You can find out more about the Residential and Nursing Care Home Provider List on Yortender.
Our preventative approach means that we will support people to be independent for as long as possible, and we have an ambition to reduce the number of general care home beds in the District.
Over the next 5 years, we want to work with providers who provide good quality services to shape existing provision to better respond to needs within our population, for example through specialising their provision. The current market position does not require any more care home beds due to current occupancy levels.
Although originally intended to be in place until 2031, the introduction of the new procurement regulations, means that we will recommissioning our Provider List contract for February 2029. In advance of this a full review of the service will be carried out in 2028, including market engagement.
Contact information
For more information and support, or for providers who would like to informally discuss the service and opportunities available, please contact commissioninginbox@bradford.gov.uk
The Service Manager for Joint Commissioning for this area is Alexandra Lorrison. The Commissioning Manager is Mary Surr.