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30
Oct
Council celebrates the CQC's new rating for its adult social care services
North Yorkshire Council’s adult social care has been rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), with some aspects rated ‘exceptional’.
The service works with older people, those with mental health needs, people with disabilities, and those with long-term or chronic illnesses.
The CQC has published its reports for more than half of the 153 local authorities in England, and North Yorkshire Council's overall score of 81 puts it in joint third place in the country so far, alongside Wokingham Council.
The only local authorities to be awarded an 'outstanding' rating so far are in London, meaning North Yorkshire Council is currently the best-performing large countywide authority in the country.
North Yorkshire Council employees, service users and councillors celebrated the rating.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for health and adult services, Cllr Michael Harrison, said:
An inspection by the Care Quality Commission provides a very clear barometer for any local authority to see how well it is doing in providing such important services.
To have received such an encouraging report is testament to all the hard work, determination and talent of our staff and partners in the community, including people who use care and support services, across England’s largest county.
The rating is regarded as particularly significant because adult social care services are such a major component of North Yorkshire Council's remit.
Adult social care services account for 43% of the council's total annual budget – £251 million last year from a total budget of £577 million – even though they support just 9,955 people.
The country's geography makes stretching the budget even more challenging. Each hour of social care in North Yorkshire’s rural communities can cost £5 more than in other parts of the country because of the travel costs and the longer journey times between adults who draw on care and support services.
The inspectors awarded the council an overall score of 81, putting it in the top rank of English local authorities.
The rating breakdown
The CQC looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well the authority is meeting its responsibilities.
It gave each of these nine areas a score out of four; one means the evidence shows significant shortfalls, two means there are some shortfalls, three denotes a good standard, and four shows an exceptional standard.
Here’s how the authority scored:
How the local authority works with people
- assessing people’s needs: 3
- supporting people to lead healthier lives: 3
- equity in experience and outcomes: 4
Providing support
- partnership and communities: 3
How the local authority ensures safety in the system
- safe pathways, systems and transitions: 3
- safeguarding: 3
Leadership
- governance, management and sustainability: 3
- learning, improvement and innovation: 4
High quality
Chris Badger, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said:
At this assessment, we found people living in North Yorkshire had access to safe, high-quality adult social care services.
This was down to strong and approachable leaders who really understood the day-to-day challenges their frontline staff were facing.
He commended the authority’s “excellent, inclusive learning culture”, and was pleased to hear that staff felt well supported by senior leaders and had access to ongoing training and support.
He said:
Leaders were committed to engaging with people and communities who faced inequalities, to help understand and respond to risks they faced.
For example, across North Yorkshire there were transport issues in rural areas, so staff were creative and reached rural communities at farmers' markets. This was so people could access services, such as having their blood pressure taken, and receive helpful information and advice.
Inspectors were also told about the authority’s plans to build new care and support hubs, to provide short-term bed-based rehabilitation and specialist dementia support for people when they are discharged from hospital.
The inspectors found that people in North Yorkshire were positive about the care and support they received from the council.
Council 'should be pleased'
The assessment team also found that the authority treated safeguarding as a priority, treated people with respect, and was strongly committed to listening to unpaid carers and people with lived experience to help improve services.
Although the authority received ‘good’ or ‘exceptional’ rating for all aspects of its service, the CQC’s feedback was not uniformly positive.
Mr Badger said that people could not always access some mental health services and home care in rural areas, but added that this was being addressed at the time of the assessment.
He concluded:
North Yorkshire Council should be pleased with the many positive findings in our report, particularly their two exceptional ratings.
We look forward to returning to see how they've built on their areas of good practice and how their plans develop.
But although North Yorkshire Council celebrated the result, Cllr Harrison said it would not rest on its laurels:
While there is much that is positive, there is still much more work to do as we face significant pressures both financially and in terms of people’s changing needs and expectations of social care.
I would like to thank everyone involved for all that they do and would urge us all to use this report to drive forward further improvements in the future.
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