The Care Quality Commission (CQC), has rated Halton Borough Council as good, in how well they are meeting their responsibilities to ensure people have access to adult social care and support under the Care Act (2014).
CQC has a new duty under the Act to assess how local authorities work with their communities and partners to meet their responsibilities. This includes promoting the wellbeing and independence of working age disabled adults, older people, and their unpaid carers to reduce their need for formal support where appropriate. Where support is needed it should provide people with choice and control of how their care needs are met.
CQC looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well the authority is meeting their responsibilities in order to create their good rating. CQC has given each of these nine areas a score out of four with one being the evidence shows significant shortfalls, and four showing an exceptional standard.
- Assessing people’s needs – 2
- Supporting people to lead healthier lives – 3
- Equity in experience and outcomes – 3
- Care provision, integration and continuity of care - 2
- Partnership and communities – 2
- Safe pathways, systems and transitions - 3
- Safeguarding - 3
- Governance, management and sustainability - 2
- Learning, improvement and innovation - 3
James Bullion, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said:
“At our assessment of Halton Borough Council’s adult social care services, we found strong leaders who had a good understanding of their local population, and staff who were enthusiastic and passionate about providing good care and support to people living in Halton.
“The authority was working well with people, partner organisations and the local community to ensure support was available to promote people’s independence. For example, a prevention and wellbeing service had been set up so people could access care and support services directly from people such as social workers and occupational therapists, by phone or online. This had resulted in a 47% reduction in the number of people needing long-term services.
“When a person was discharged from hospital and moved into a residential home in another area, we saw that information was shared with relevant services in a safe and timely way. This meant the person had a smooth transition and everyone understood the person’s individual needs and could provide effective care.
“We heard mostly positive feedback from unpaid carers. They told us that they’d received timely assessments and were updated regularly with information to support them in their caring role. However, some didn’t have emergency plans in place if they were unable to care for their loved one which concerned them.
“Also, when young people were preparing for adult life and transitioning from children’s to adults’ services, some families didn’t know how to access the service if they weren’t automatically referred, and they didn’t feel information was easily available to them.
“Halton Borough Council should be pleased with the many positive findings in our report and are already building on this with further improvement plans. We look forward to returning to see how they have built on these areas of good practice and how their plans mature.”
The assessment team also found:
- The authority had a prevention strategy in place to tackle health inequalities, looking at increasing independence and improving people’s wellbeing.
- People were able to access equipment and minor home adaptations to maintain their independence and continue living in their own homes.
- A health improvement team was in place promoting healthy living to reduce people’s future need for social care support.
- The authority had a liaison officer who was working with members of the gypsy, roma and traveller communities to gain a better understanding of their specific needs.
- The authority’s website was easy to access and issues which had been identified were being addressed. The authority had also translated it into other languages.
- There were clear safeguarding polices in place to ensure processes were followed to keep people safe.
However:
- People often had to move out of Halton to receive specialist residential care, such as for people living with dementia with specific needs. However, leaders were working to address this issue.
- Some unpaid carers were unaware of respite opportunities. Data showed 15% of carers in Halton were accessing support services to take a break from caring for up to 24 hours, which was worse than the England average of 21.73%.
The assessment will be published on CQC’s website on Friday 4 July.