Agenda item

The Health and Care Act 2022 creates a new duty for the Care Quality Commission to review local authorities’ performance in discharging their adult social care functions under the Care Act 2014.

This report sets out the work that has been undertaken to date and further work that is planned to ensure the Council is best placed to achieve a positive outcome from any review of the Council’s services.

The Interim CQC Preparation Lead presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix ‘A’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Health and Care Act 2022 created a new duty for the Care Quality Commission to review local authorities’ performance in discharging their adult social care functions under the Care Act 2014.

The report set out the work that had been undertaken to date and further work that was planned to ensure the Council was best placed to achieve a positive outcome from any review of the Council’s services.

The Committee discussed the report, in particular the following was noted:

• In response to a query about supervision and training for staff, the Committee was advised that there was a supervision policy in place and that it was constantly being reviewed to ensure it was appropriate.  The Committee was reassured that during this process supervision was being strengthened to ensure it was robust and supportive.
• In response to a query regarding the Making It Real Framework detailed in the report, the Committee was advised that it was a national framework intended to act as a voice from people who used adult social care and the CQC would be using that to inform their own framework development to ensure their assessments captured the views of the users of adult social care.
• In response to a query regarding when an inspection would be likely to take place, it was advised that the CQC would be testing the inspection framework from April to September and were seeking five volunteer authorities during that timescale whilst gathering national and local data to assist with the inspections and that an inspection would not be anticipated until after those findings were published
• In response to a query regarding adult social care staffing and whether that would be taken into account when an inspection takes place, the Committee was advised that the CQC would be aware of the national challenges facing adult social care including difficulties in the recruitment of occupational therapists and social workers
• The Committee was reassured of the agenda item being considered later regarding the BCP Council Adult Social Care Market Sustainability Plan which detailed priorities including providing support to the local care sector with recruitment, skills development, and fees.
• In response to a query about any areas of concern, the Committee was reassured that the service had put themselves forward for a safeguarding review which was currently underway and a local government peer review scheduled for June, so Officers were busy planning and preparing for those and that this had given the service an opportunity to reflect and consider areas where it wanted to drive improvement.  The Committee was advised of its role within this journey and that it should consider it as part of its Forward Plan.
• In response to a query regarding the case management system called Mosaic, the Committee was advised of the positives and considerations of being on the same system for both Children and Adults Social Care
• The Chair concluded by requesting that monitoring of the ongoing work be added to the Forward Plan for the Committee.  ACTION

RESOLVED that the Committee note the report.