The Care Quality Commission (CQC) the independent regulator of health and social care in England has rated Westmorland and Furness Council as requires improvement, in how well the council are meeting their responsibilities to ensure people have access to adult social care and support.
CQC looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess
how well the authority is meeting their responsibilities in order to create
their requires improvement rating.
The CQC scored each of these nine areas out of four with one
being the evidence shows significant shortfalls, and four showing an
exceptional standard.
The council scored good in four of the nine areas but scored
requires improvement on five of the areas covered by the inspection leading to
the overall requires improvement rating by the Care Quality Commission. The rating
of each of the nine areas are:
1. assessing
people’s needs: 2
2. supporting
people to lead healthier lives: 2
3. equity in
experience and outcomes: 2
4. care provision,
integration and continuity of care: 2
5. partnership and
communities: 3
6. safe pathways,
systems and transitions: 2
7. safeguarding: 3
8. governance,
management and sustainability: 3
9. learning,
improvement and innovation: 3
Chris Badger, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and
integrated care, said:
“During our inspection of Westmorland and Furness Council,
we found an authority which wasn’t far off from providing good access to
services in all the areas we looked at. It had strong leaders who were aware of
the challenges they faced, and were on an improvement journey to ensure people
have more positive experiences of adult social care.
“The local authority needed to improve waiting times for
both allocation of a social worker and occupational therapy assessments and
reviews, as people didn’t always receive them in a timely way. This resulted in
people waiting longer for support and could lead to them deteriorating.
“Partners told us the local authority was supporting people
to receive therapy services after they had been discharged from hospital.
However, we heard there had been challenges with people receiving this due to
demand, and the lack of availability which needs to be addressed.
The assessment team found:
Unpaid carers didn’t always have access to respite care for
the person they were caring for, in both planned and unplanned situations. This
was especially difficult for people in rural areas.
Leaders recognised there were gaps in specialist supported
housing for people which needed addressing, including those with complex mental
health needs and autistic people.
Some people felt the financial assessments process was
unclear. They were repeatedly sent bills asking them to pay money towards their
care, without a clear explanation of what they were being asked to pay for.
263 people were waiting for occupational therapy reviews at
the time of the assessment. Leaders were making plans to improve this.
The local authority recognised there were many rural areas
where access to care was an issue and people were at risk of feeling isolated.
However, the assessment team also found:
The authority learned from people’s feedback around their
experiences of care and support, to enable them to make improvements to its
services.
Leaders had created strong partnerships with the Voluntary,
Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector to develop initiatives
such as the ‘take home and settle’ service. This aimed to prevent people from
being in hospital unnecessarily and to ensure they were discharged quickly.
Leaders ensured that all staff involved in safeguarding were
fully trained so they could provide appropriate support to meet people’s needs.
Cllr Patricia Bell, Westmorland and Furness Council Cabinet
member for Adults, Health and Care, welcomed the report, saying: "This is
a strong report with a lot to be proud of. It is an accurate representation of
where we were when the assessment took place, and our own self-assessment of
our strengths and areas to focus on improving.
"After less than three years as a new unitary council it is an achievement to come so close to a 'Good' rating overall, and for the CQC to recognise we are well on the way to being good in all areas.
"A huge amount of progress has already been made since CQC visited us nearly eight months ago. For example, we have continued to reduce the number of overdue support plan reviews, and have halved the number of people waiting for a social work or occupational therapy assessment - with nearly all people waiting no longer than 28 days for their assessment to commence.
"On waiting times, I would like to reassure residents that we prioritise and schedule our assessments carefully at first contact, and if anyone is going to be waiting longer than their agreed date they are contacted again to ensure they can safely wait a little longer.
"We are also particularly pleased that our strong
partnerships with our NHS and voluntary sector colleagues were recognised, and
the success of our hospital discharge partnership work highlighted, with the
council providing new intermediate care beds in Barrow, and soon Kendal, and
the NHS providing therapeutic support for patients.
"This week we have also heard about the severe
financial pressures the council is under. Providing statutory adult social care
and support for people with a physical or mental impairment or illness accounts
for one third of the council's £301m budget for the year ahead, and is under
ever-increasing demand pressure and the impact of an ageing population.
"A key part of our improvement plan is to have the
right type of provision to support people to be as independent as possible for
as long as possible, leading to better outcomes for people at the same time as
helping us better manage demand and costs.
"I would like to thank and congratulate our staff and
leadership in Adult Social Care, and the many others across the council who
support adults' care and wellbeing, for their professionalism, compassion and
the pride they take in the work they do with our residents every day."
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