Council's adult social care 'requires improvement'

A council has been told its adult social care service "requires improvement" following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The inspector said Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council's challenges, including maintaining a sustainable workforce and securing suitable services for people with complex needs, were impacting people's experiences of accessing care.

However, it praised the authority for making "meaningful improvements to care and support", adding that it had "shown a clear commitment to improving outcomes".

BCP welcomed the report and highlighted the CQC's "good" ratings for its safeguarding and leadership, adding that many improvements were already under way.

Chris Badger, CQC's chief inspector of adult social care, said: "Families and carers of autistic people and people with a learning disability told us that people hadn't always been properly involved in the decision-making process.

"People were experiencing unacceptable waits for Care Act assessments, and although some recent progress had been made, some people with complex needs continued to face delays in accessing support."

Badger said "significant progress" had been made in reducing support waiting times from months to just days.

Its learning disability plan had also increased people's choice and control, improved access to community-based support, although problems with capacity still remained.

A safeguarding review also led to changes including drop-in support sessions for staff and action plans for partner agencies.

"This resulted in more than 90% of people reporting that services in the authority helped them feel safe, which was above the England average," Badger said.

BCP pointed to further improvements, including the reduction of occupational therapy waiting lists, from 633 people to 14 in one year, waiting times for unpaid carers assessments cut from months to days and joined-up support that helped people stay independent for longer.

The council's director of wellbeing Laura Ambler said: "We have been honest about the challenges facing adult social care and the steps we are taking to strengthen services."

Adult social care interim director Tim Branson said: "This was our first full CQC inspection since becoming a single unitary authority.

"Our focus is now to build on this progress by ensuring a consistently good experience for everyone who comes to us for support."

Adult social care councillor David Brown said: "Like councils across the country, we are delivering an adult social care service and making continued improvements in a very demanding financial environment – not helped by reduced government funding.

"Despite this, we are clear in our commitment, we will not step back from supporting those who rely on us."