Agenda item

The report seeks to provide the Committee with an overview of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Local Authority Assurance Assessment of Adult Social Care Services within Wiltshire Council, to offer insights into the current assessment of services and inform of the opportunities for further development to enhance the quality of care and support provided to residents.

The Chairman noted that Wiltshire’s Adult Social Care Services had recently received a ‘Good’ rating from CQC and that this was the first opportunity the committee had to review the findings in more detail. It was outlined that in the agenda pack was a report outlining the findings of the inspection, which also contained a link to the full inspection report which could be found on page 68, para 12.

Cllr Elizabeth Threlfall, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care Transformation introduced the report, with it noted that this was a complicated process which had resulted in the publication of a “Good” rating from CQC following a huge amount of preparation from the service involved. This included practitioners, managers, partners and providers who had worked hard in order for CQC to see the quality of service provided and the commitment of staff to deliver. Overall, it was stated that the Adult Social Care team should be proud of the result that they had achieved and for having a commitment to continuous improvement with surveys being used to develop improvement plans.

The Chairman invited Mary Harvey (Principal OT) and Kaylie Chapman (Principal Social Worker) to provide a brief presentation on the findings of the inspection:

• It was outlined that the “Good” result published in January had been a fantastic achievement, with an opportunity taken to thank everyone involved in the result, including the people in Wiltshire with lived experience.
• A timeline of the journey up until the publication of the report was provided, which included looking at strengths and weaknesses, working with partner organisations for an LGA peer review and the completion of a comprehensive staff self-assessment. Focus was also given to ensuring that staff wellbeing and readiness was addressed as this was a new process to some of the staff group involved. The inspection itself took place over three days in September with CQC meeting a variety of Adult Social Care Staff.
• An overview of the 9 CWC quality statements across 4 themes was provided, which covered:
  • Theme 1 – Working with people
  • Theme 2 – Providing support
  • Theme 3 – How the Local Authority ensures safety within the system
  • Theme 4 – Leadership
• Attention was drawn to some of the highlights which had been included within the CQC report, with specific reference given to the feedback provided from people that the team had worked with, as well as the prevention strategy and transformation activity.
• Next steps and the development of an improvement action plan was discussed with attention drawn to the ability to enable people to have more choice on how they have their services provided, direct payments and self-directed support and how technology enabled care could be used to prevent and reduce care needs.
• It was summarised that the team were grateful for the positive result., which reflected the impact made by staff and that the team was aware of areas they wanted to develop and improve upon.

The Committee asked the following questions, with clarity sought on what the report meant by “skills going above and beyond”, to which it was noted that staff had provided meaningful support by going above their duty to signpost and connect residents with groups whilst taking the time to listen to individuals. Detail was also provided that the average waiting time varied for each area involved, for example occupational therapy would have a slightly longer waiting time than for waiting for a care assessment to be undertaken.

It was suggested that it was positive to see reference drawn to the development plan, with it stressed that this should plan to protect whilst also enhance the areas which had achieved the “Good” rating. Further reference was made to areas for improvement, with it questioned whether waiting times were an area identified, to which clarity was provided that the team was aware of this and had conducted a vast amount of work 12/18 months ago to bring times down and that CWC had seen this progress in comparison to previous times. It was outlined that the ability for teams to work flexibility across areas to provide consistency had been a factor in this improvement with future consideration being given to the use of technology and AI in order to make processes quicker alongside self-assessments. Reference was also drawn to the Waiting Well Policy, which had received a “Good” review in the report and focused on consistently assessing those on waiting lists to ensure they were not becoming more of an urgent priority.

Reference was made to how the improving use of technology might be discriminate to the elderly with a significant proportion of residents not owning computers of smart phones and that concentrating on technology might lead to further loneliness and isolation for such residents. Assurance was provided that technology was not seen to be the answer for everyone, and that consideration would be given only to where it could add value.

The Chairman thanked the team for their report and congratulated the team for the positive result that they had achieved.

Resolved: 

That the Health Select Committee welcome and note the findings of the inspection.