To consider a report on Adult Social Care self assessment in readiness for the Care Quality Commission Inspection.

(Note: presented by Jo Williams, Director of Adult and Community Services, Torbay Council and Cathy Williams, Strategic Lead for Adult Social Care Quality and Assurance,Torbay Council).

The Strategic Lead for Adult Social Care Quality and Assurance presented the submitted report which provided Members with an update and information in relation to self-assessment and the new Care Quality Commission’s inspection of Adult Social Care.

Members were informed that as part of the Health and Care Act 2022 the Care Quality Commission (“CQC”) had been given additional responsibilities and powers to review, assess and report on Council regulated adult social care functions.

The self-assessment was an open document and would be reviewed quarterly.  It had been subject to external scrutiny by partners in health and care, who had given a positive response.  The Council was currently working with the South West Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the CQC to check and challenge each other on aspects of self-assessment, for example, the position with carers.  As a result of learning from the self-assessment process,  work had been undertaken to produce the Adult Social Care Strategy and webpages for Adult Social Care had been refreshed on the Council’s website.

It was explained that the self-assessment document set out, in broad terms, some information about Torbay to help inspectors understand the complexities which were unique to Torbay.  The document was modelled on the CQC framework around four main themes:

·         working with people;

·         providing support;

·         ensuring safety; and

·         leadership and workforce.

Members were informed that strengths against the themes were outlined in the submitted report and generally included:

·         integrated working;

·         excellent community and voluntary sector partnerships;

·         very strong carer services which had been co-produced for many years;

·         quick access for domiciliary care those individuals discharged for hospital who required extra support at home;

·         learning and opportunities presented by being part of a Joint Safeguarding Board with Devon County Council;

·         quality checking process which provided feedback about the safeguarding process;

·         good leadership and governance of complex arrangements;

·         commitment to investing in services that supported wellbeing and prevention under the Health and Care Act 2022; and

·         having a clear co-produced Carers’ Strategy and improvement plan.

Areas for improvement had been identified as:

·         services for people with learning disabilities;

·         direct payments;

·         the reablement offer;

·         equality and diversity;

·         the contracts and contract management process;

·         the deprivation of liberty waiting list;

·         developing a local work force strategy;

·         exploring further ways in which to provide support and early intervention;

·         strengthening the complaints system, ensuring that feedback was fed through into practice; and

·         working with health colleagues to improve cost, quality and productivity.

The Chairman wished to expressly acknowledge the progress made over the last year and in particular the hard work which ensured that the Council was in a good position in terms of readiness ahead of CQC inspection.

Members received responses to the following questions:

·                     How much notice would the Council be given that an inspection was due to take place and when?

·                     How was the inspection conducted?  Would it be computer based and what was the grading system?

·                     Would the inspectorate receive service user feedback?

·                     In terms of domiciliary care how many individuals were quickly re-admitted to hospital?

·                     How did Torbay Council’s self-assessment compare with other Local Authorities’ self-assessments?

·                     How long had the extra agency support for DOLS been in place to reduce the backlog and how long was it envisaged that it would remain in place?

·                     If the Council was assessed tomorrow and on the basis of the current self-assessment what would be the probable rating?

·                     Had Torbay Council learnt anything from similar unitary authorities that had already gone through an inspection? 

·                     What had Torbay Council learnt through networking with other Local Authorities?

·                     What were the top three vulnerable areas for the Council?

Councillor David Thomas spoke under Standing Order B4 and asked whether Members felt reasonably confident that they could answer questions that may be asked of them by the Inspector and that it was the responsibility of Members to ensure they were ready for that.

Resolved (unanimously):

1.            that Members of the Sub-Board noted the contents of the Adult Social Care Self-Assessment Report;

2.            that the Director of Adult and Community Services be requested to provide regular progress updates on self-assessment to the Sub-Board; and

3.            that the Director of Adult and Community Services be requested to encourage the CQC inspector to engage with the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector.