(Scrutiny Committee – 29 September 2009)
Somerset County Council
Scrutiny Committee
Paper
A
Item No. 5
– 29 September 2009
Independence, Wellbeing & Choice – The Results of an
Inspection of Adult Social Care Services in Somerset 2009
Lead Officer: Miriam Maddison Corporate Director - Community
Author: Miriam Maddison
Contact Details: mmaddison@somerset.gov.uk Tel: 01823 356631
Cabinet Member: Christine Lawrence
Division and Local Member: All
1.
Summary/link to the Annual Plan
1.1.
Somerset County Council’s Adult Social Care services were subject to a detailed
inspection by the national regulator, The Care Quality Commission (CQC),
between January and March 2009. The inspection looked at the themes of
Independence, Wellbeing and Choice in respect of services for older people and
also looked at how SCC works to safeguard all adults. Overall Somerset’s
services were rated highly. A number of areas for improvement were identified
and an improvement plan (Appendix 1) was agreed between SCC and CQC.
CQC are monitoring our improvement on a six monthly basis.
1.2.
The inspection covered statutory services delivered by SCC that contribute to
three of the outcome themes in our corporate plan and Sustainable Community
Strategy – Making a Positive Contribution, Staying Safe and Being Healthy.
2.
Issues for consideration
2.1.
Members need to consider the areas for improvement identified by the Care
Quality Commission during their inspection and to assure themselves that good
progress is being made on the agreed improvement plan.
3.
Background
3.1.
Somerset County Council’s statutory adult social care services are subject to
performance review and sporadic inspection by the Care Quality Commission. As
a high performing adult social care Authority, inspection has been infrequent for
SCC. After a five year gap, we were subject to detailed inspection between
January and March 2009.
3.2.
The inspection looked at the themes of Independence, Wellbeing and Choice in
respect of services for older people and also looked at how SCC works to
safeguard all adults. The themes of ‘Independence’, ‘Wellbeing’ and ‘Choice’
reflect national policy aimed at transforming care services by preventing loss of
independence, offering people personalised services that meet their needs and
circumstances and services that offer greater choice and control for members of
the public. At the same time all adult care services must be as safe as possible.
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3.3.
The inspection team gathered information through reading case records, home
visits to service users and carers, focus groups with service users and carers,
visits to see services in action, focus groups with our staff and with partners and
a postal questionnaire to service users, carers and partners.
3.4.
CQC rated Somerset’s services as follows (from a potential range of Poor,
Adequate, Good or Excellent):
Safeguarding – Good
Personalised services – Good
Preventative services – Excellent
Capacity for continued improvement – Excellent
This result compares very well with similar Local Authorities inspected in the
same period.
3.5.
The inspection highlighted a number of areas for improvement. These included:
•
•
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Case recording in relation to safeguarding adults needed to be clearer
Management information in relation to safeguarding should be improved
More work was required to ensure we are responsive to the needs of
diverse communities
More work was required to ensure all family carers can access services
3.6.
Following the inspection site visit we agreed an improvement plan with the Care
Quality Commission. This is attached for members as Appendix 1 to this report. It
sets out actions covering all the recommendations for improvement within the
inspection report. The action plan is being monitored by the Community
Directorate as part of our normal quarterly performance reporting and is also
being followed-up by CQC at their routine business meetings with us on a six
monthly basis.
3.7.
Each of the actions in the plan is regularly self-assessed in terms of progress
and we use a standard red, amber or green colour coding to highlight work that is
problematic (red), needs attention (amber), on track or complete (green).
Members will see that the majority of the improvement work is on track. Officers
will make a brief presentation at the scrutiny meeting to highlight areas where
progress has been slower than anticipated.
4.
Consultations undertaken
4.1.
The inspection itself involved postal questionnaires to service users, carers and
partner organisations. It also involved face-to-face visits to service users and
carers in their own homes as well as through focus groups.
4.2.
SCC has kept key individuals and groups informed of our progress with the
improvement plan and service users and carers have been involved in many
aspects of the improvement action.
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5.
Implications
5.1.
Finance – There have been resource implications for SCC in terms of the
management capacity required to ensure the improvement plan is implemented.
As much of the work as possible has been incorporated in to existing work
programmes to help with this. In addition, we have successfully bid for £5k nonrecurrently from SW Councils to support some of the improvement work on
safeguarding.
5.2.
Legal – SCC has statutory responsibilities for adult social care. The inspection
findings reflect that these are being met and that the Care Quality Commission
did not have any significant concerns about our practice.
6.
Background papers
6.1.
Independence, Wellbeing & Choice: Service Inspection Report for Somerset
County Council, Care Quality Commission 2009.
http://www.cqc.org.uk/publications.cfm?fde_id=12001
Note For sight of individual background papers please contact the report author
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