Katharine Willmette to provide a verbal update on the Social Care Position Statement and CQC inspection.
Minutes:
Katharine Willmette (Director of Adult Social Care) provided a verbal update on the Social Care Position Statement and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection.
Katherine Willmette gave a summary of changes in Adult Social Care over the past few months and noted that following a corporate reorganisation, Adult Social Care and Public Health had joined with Children’s Services to form the new People department led by Jacqui McShannon. This new department had a unified leadership team with shared governance arrangements and enabled closer working around key areas such as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The department’s top priority in the short term was the upcoming CQC inspection of Adult Social Care. She explained that it was a new inspection process that had only been running since December 2023. The inspection covered all Adult Social Care teams. The inspection was in two parts - the first was a self-assessment and information gathering which started in May, then a site visit which had been scheduled for 21 October. The inspectors would meet with frontline staff, residents, carers, and partners including the NHS and the voluntary sector. It was a comprehensive process that would result in an Ofsted-style grade of outstanding, good, requires improvement etc. She added that the CQC process was new and evolving, and so each local authority had a slightly different experience – so it was harder to prepare for. There was a lot of work involved but staff were reasonably confident.
Nadia Taylor asked if the Council had a say in which partners the inspectors spoke to. Katherine Wilmette said the inspectors decided who to speak to.
Nadia Taylor asked how confident officers were going into the inspection. Katherine Wilmette said staff were confident, but it was new for many of them. Jacqui McShannon noted that inspections always provided useful insights and direction.
Sue Spiller asked if the self-assessment had highlighted any areas that required further work. Katherine Wilmette said their focus was ensuring that learning from partners and internally was embedded in all areas of their work. She gave the example of the co-production strategy and the importance of ensuring that it feed through to frontline staff. She also noted the importance of working with partners to build on existing positive relationships.
Sue Spiller noted that the Council used to have an internal quality assurance team and worried that with the turnover of staff in recent years she worried that some of that learning would be lost. She also said it was important to keep external partners updated with changes to systems and processes. Katherine Wilmette agreed that staff turnover meant the department had to work harder to retain learning. She added that there was still a quality assurance team, and they were a key part of ensuring teams responded to feedback and learning.
Councillor Alex Sanderson said she had been reading several CQC reports in preparation for the inspection and noted there was volatility in the grades given, despite similar write-ups. She said there was a lot of brilliant work happening in the borough and hoped that was recognised in the inspection but was conscious that it was a new regime still finding its feet.