Council sets out improvement plan after social care services in West Northamptonshire rated 'requires improvement' earlier this year

Councillors on the adult social care, health and communities overview and scrutiny committee discussed the recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating and priority action areas at a meeting on Monday March 9.

WNC must submit a formal improvement plan to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) by the end of April, outlining how it will rectify any issues with its provision.

After its CQC visit in August, WNC was given a score of two (out of four) in six areas and rated a three, which shows a good standard, in the remaining three areas. It received an overall score of 59 percent – putting it in the ‘requires improvement’ category and three percent away from receiving a ‘good’ score.

Councillor Laura Couse, cabinet member for adult care, public health and regulatory services, said: “As we know the CQC inspection results weren’t exactly what we hoped for. It did highlight our strengths that most people felt listened to, respected and involved in assessments, safeguarding systems were strong with people generally feeling safe, and hospital discharge processes worked well.

“We do have issues in this report with long waits for assessment, reviews, equipment and therapy, difficulty getting through by phone, inconsistent communications, complex needs and rural areas faced the longest delays and the least service availability, and information was not consistently accessible or available in multiple formats and languages.

“We were already implementing changes around these areas in most cases, so that’s good news, and we are now working on a strategy to address all these issues. I’m sure we’re going to see a massive change in our CQC rating next time.”

The council has already submitted a summary of key priority actions, which was due within 10 days of the publication date of the inspection.

These include refreshing workforce development and practice frameworks to create a consistent and equitable approach, improving communication and clear information sharing with residents, carers, and staff, ensuring stable leadership, clear performance reporting and using data to drive progress, strengthening partnerships with NHS and voluntary sector colleagues, and developing a clear programme of work to embed equity, diversity and inclusion.

Melanie Williams, executive director for people, added: “I’m quite determined while I’m here that we will have a really robust improvement plan that will be about improving the experiences of the people on the ground.”

WNC has said that a full first draft of the improvement plan will be completed in March, alongside a number of face-to-face staff feedback workshops.