Agenda item

The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education submits a report regarding Adult Social Care’s preparation for Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assurance.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submitted a report to provide an update on preparation for Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assurance and to share the self-assessment completed in preparation of external assurance and seek any comments.

The City Mayor introduced the item, noting that while the Council was proud of its Social Care work, it was not complacent, and a large amount of time was given to knowing where improvement was needed.

The Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding presented the report, it was noted that:

·         In preparation for inspections of the core ASC function for the first time in over 10 years, a self-assessment had been carried out.

·         The large part of the work had been carried out in March and refreshed in July.

·         Peer review had determined that identified areas of strength were well evidenced.

·         An area of concern was waiting times for assessments and overdue reviews, there were numerous actions in progress to address this. Work was ongoing regionally to coproduce an approach to waiting list.

·         Substantial effort was focused on an early intervention and prevention approach.

·         Further revisions to the self-assessment document would include more narrative on how staff led service improvement was encouraged and to properly articulate the approach to ensuring quality in social work practice. 

·         The CQCs assurance timeline had been delayed so it was unknown when a visit would be expected, but it was believed the self-assessment would hopefully reflect the reality.

In response to questions from Members it was noted that:

·         Various departments across the Council including Public Health and Housing had been included in the prevention agenda. The My Choice steering group was looking at other ways to help this agenda.

·         Provider led reviews to address overdue reviews had received positive feedback. Self-reviews would be added to the ASC online offer to give first-hand feedback.

·         Reviews of those who received 2 carers were ongoing to see if that number could be reduced in any cases.

·         The Carers Pathway would be redesigned to enable carers to quickly access what it was they needed.

·         Each area of the service was developing its own service plan which would be brought together into a single service plan.

·         Considerable progress had been made on strength-based practice and it was now well embedded in the service.

·         The self-assessment had been presented to several Health bodies, in order to show CQC a positive relationship with Health services. The CQC had also been tasked with assurance for Integrated Care Systems, which would be inspected across all of LLR at once and it was anticipated that close work with Council ASC services would also be important for that assurance.

The Chair stated that more support was needed for those in the VCS sector doing this work.

The Chair requested that the Commission should take a closer look at reviews for carers, Officers stated they were happy for this to happen at a future meeting.

AGREED:

1.    That the Commission notes the report.

2.    That the Commission requests an update on CQC assurance when appropriate.

3.    That the Commission requests that a report on reviews for carers come to a future meeting.