The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published the first of its formal local authority care assessments.
Britain’s care watchdog is now required to formally assess how all local authorities in England are meeting their adult social care duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. This covers the general duties of local authorities, when delivering care and support services, to promote individual wellbeing and meet individual needs, among other roles and responsibilities.
These assessments, coming 10 years after the Care Act received Royal Assent, are designed to provide independent assurance to people of the quality of care in their area.
First local authority care assessments reveal positive cultures
This month, they have published three reports pertaining to the first of these formal local authority care assessments, with all Councils in question – Hertfordshire County Council, the London Borough of Hounslow and West Berkshire Council – being rated as good.
The CQC said that Hertfordshire County Council has a “strong, stable, effective senior leadership in place,” and a “very positive culture across the organisation.”
London Borough of Hounslow were praised for their “robust processes to assess and manage risk, and to ensure people were safe,” as well as their “clear pathways and processes to ensure people’s support was planned and co-ordinated across different agencies and services, particularly in relation to timely, safe and effective hospital discharge.”
Meanwhile, inspectors found that West Berkshire Council had a “strong positive, open learning culture” despite undergoing recent changes in political leadership, with “good systems in place to support learning and development of staff, including learning from feedback […].”
The full reports also outline weaknesses and key areas for improvement for each authority.
Health and Care Act 2022 prompts local authority care assessments
The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced the requirement for the CQC to deliver these local authority care assessments.
The watchdog is now overseeing a formal assessment programme of all 153 local authorities in England with adult social care responsibilities. The programme commenced in December 2023.
The CQC worked closely with a number of partners, care providers, stakeholders, people who use health and social care services and their families to co-develop the new assessment approach before testing it through 5 pilot assessments carried out during the summer last year.
The pilot assessments enabled the watchdog to evaluate the new single assessment framework for health and care services.
Resources to support local authority care services
They provide detailed guidance for local authorities on their website which outlines the assessment approach. They will also publish all local authority care assessment reports on the website.
The watchdog first published the new single assessment framework for providers and stakeholders to review in July 2022, saying they would be introducing it in phases. It was rolled out for adult social care providers late last year.
The CQC says that the new Single Assessment Framework “emphasises the need to create cultures that learn and improve, and we set expectations for how services and providers need to work together, and within systems, to plan and deliver safe, person-centred care.”
Skills for Care have also developed a range of resources to help care providers navigate the CQC’s new approach to monitoring and inspection.
The adult social care workforce development charity provides recommendations, examples and resources covering the 34 new quality statements from the framework within their Good and Outstanding inspection toolkit, which is available online.
Learning and development for care services
First Response Training (FRT) is a leading, national training provider.
They deliver over 7,000 courses each year in the fields of health and safety, first aid, fire safety, food safety, mental health, health and social care and other special focus topics.
Their diverse portfolio includes training awards designed for care workers, such as Infection Control and Prevention, Safeguarding Adults, Duty of Care, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Person Centred Care and Support and many others.
Their course portfolio spans Care Certificate standards, mandatory training awards, clinical skills, special focus courses and training for supervisors and managers.
A Trainer at FRT, says:
“We work with many local authority care services across the country and know that they are committed to providing the best possible care for the people they support.
“It is great that the new Single Assessment Framework has been developed to make things clear and simple for providers so that they can focus in on exactly what is needed to provide high quality, safe and compassionate care to all those who need it.
“We know how vital it is that local authority care services are able to foster a positive culture of staff learning and development, with ongoing training provided for staff as well as opportunities for feedback, reflection and mentoring. We want to support as many care services as possible to provide high quality training for their workforce.”
For more information on the training provided by FRT, please call them on freephone 0800 310 2300 or send an e-mail to info@firstresponsetraining.com.