The Care Quality Commission (CQC), has rated Manchester City 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.
1. assessing people’s needs: 3
2. supporting people to lead healthier lives: 3
3. equity in experience and outcomes: 3
4. care provision, integration and continuity of care: 3
5. partnership and communities: 3
6. safe pathways, systems and transitions: 3
7. safeguarding: 2
8. governance, management and sustainability: 3
9. learning, improvement and innovation: 3
Mary Cridge, CQC’s director of adult social care, said:
“When we assessed Manchester City Council’s adult social care services, we found visible and passionate leaders who had a good understanding of the needs of their local population. Where gaps in services had been identified, they were striving to make improvements so people could receive the safe care they needed.
“As Manchester is one of the most deprived areas in England and some communities were experiencing significant variation in life expectancy, we found the authority had a strong focus on addressing inequalities. It was proactively engaging with people and groups to understand the specific risks they were facing. This informed improvements in how people were receiving support.
“For example, the local authority identified that some people weren’t accessing technology enabled care. After listening to people’s feedback, they developed a new satellite site so people could go along in person to see how the technology would benefit them. They also worked closely with Asian carers who were under-represented and dementia groups to make sure more people were aware of it. This is important in an area where 21% of people identify as Asian or Asian British.
“However, the local authority acknowledged that people with mental health needs weren’t always able to access care and support easily, particularly those who weren’t high risk. People told us that there wasn’t enough staff to deal with demand, so not all assessments were timely. However, leaders had close oversight of the situation to help manage risk.
“Additionally, a partner told us that the high demand for mental health services, meant more people needed support from the voluntary sector, which created risk and put additional strain on them. The authority was aware of this and was working with partners to try and address it.
“Leaders and staff at Manchester City Council should be pleased with the positive findings in this report. They are aware of areas where improvements are needed and already had many plans in place to address these. We look forward to seeing how these plans progress.”
The assessment team also found:
- People received a timely assessment before being discharged from hospital. There were also dedicated social workers on each hospital site, who took part in daily ward rounds to support discharge planning and carried out assessments.
- Most people could access equipment and minor home adaptations to maintain their independence and continue living in their own homes.
- The local authority had recruited additional adult occupational therapists which had improved waiting times.
- The entrenched rough sleepers team carried out assessments to help improve outcomes for people sometimes excluded from mainstream services.
- Manchester City worked with neighbouring local authorities to ensure quality assurance procedures were in place when people were placed out of area. For example, ensuring people were offered alternative choices of support if their care home closed.
- The authority ensured that feedback played an important role in shaping service improvements and reinforcing a culture of learning.
However:
- Partners’ feedback about their experience of the authority’s safeguarding systems and processes was mixed. Some would value more support to help understand it, and they told inspectors that the responses they received from the authority weren’t always consistent.