Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Interim Corporate Director of Adult and Health Services which provided members with an update on the outcome of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assessment of the way in which the Council discharges its adult social care duties under part 1 of the Care Act 2022 undertaken earlier this year.

The report also sought members approval for the Service Improvement Plan to address areas for development set out in the CQC report and our wider service improvement aspirations, progress against which would be subject to annual reporting in the future (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

L Alexander, Head of Adult Care was in attendance to present the report and advised Members that of the 11 Care Quality Commission assessments published Durham County Council were scored joint third.

Councillor Crute referred to the Service Improvement Plan and asked if there was an update. He continued that the some of the timescales were tight and asked if they were on top of the Care Home Market Shaping and if an update could be provided and reassurance that the items that were purple would turn to green within the indicated timescales. With regard to the recommendations, he recommended that an update to future Adults, Wellbeing and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings be built into the work programme.

The Head of Adult Care responded that he welcomed the recommendation. He stated that the Improvement Plan was hot off the press, and they were starting to put in place the infrastructure around it. He indicated that some of the timescales were tight, but they believed were accurate and would be kept under review. He was confident that they would be able to address all the items and much of what was identified in the Improvement Plan did not come as a surprise with one or two exceptions.

S Burns, Joint Head of Integrated Strategic Commissioning, County Durham Care Partnership, Durham County Council and North East and North Cumbria ICB stated that the commissioning for care homes was on target. She indicted that she could provide a briefing report on this to the Committee.

The Chair referred to the government’s announcement today that they were looking at the cost of private sector children’s care homes and asked if there was any merit in also looking at adult care provision.

The Joint Head of Integrated Strategic Commissioning, County Durham Care Partnership, Durham County Council and North East and North Cumbria ICB indicated that the markets were different and the news from government this morning was welcomed. She stated that they did have a different approach to negotiating fees for children’s homes and adults 24-hour care provision. She continued that there was a different mechanism for this market that did not lead to profiteering.

M Laing, Interim Corporate Director of Adult and Health Services advised members that the government had advised that next year they would be publishing a companion plan for Adult and Social Care that would cover some of the issues picked up.

Ms Stoddart referred to technology digital solutions and the use of Artificial Intelligence that had a target of June 2025 and asked if this work had commenced.

The Head of Adult Care responded that they are collaborating with Partners in Care and Health and had held four of five workshops with them and provided details of the workshops and indicated that they were currently looking at what are the priorities moving forward. He continued that a lot of work had been undertaken behind the scenes and provided an example of an Artificial Intelligence pilot for frontline case management where a tool was used such as hospital discharge to help interpret the narrative that had saved some time. They were also working on technology called Enabled Care and provided an example of a tool called virtual home that was a digital tool that allowed front line workers to show a virtual house that identified products available to support people in their home.

Councillor Stubbs asked if any areas identified from the assessment came as a surprise.

The Head of Adult Care responded that he had touched on the equity in experience and outcomes already that focuses on an area that they had considered to be a shortcoming of the Council’s social care service. He continued that there were a couple of areas where there was room for improvement and was surprised at the reference to safeguarding. He provided assurance that there was nothing within the report that the service were not responding to in a timely manner nor undertaking practices that may be deemed as potential risks. They had undertaken further work with communication and held briefings and reminded staff of how to make a referral of any safeguarding concerns and reminding the workforce of key component parts.

Members wished to pass on their thanks to Jane Robinson, Corporate Director of Adult and Health Services.

S Gwillym, Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer indicated that it would be appropriate for the committee to reference the Service Improvement Plan when considering the work programme. He advised members that the annual safeguarding report was due to come to committee in January 2025.

Resolved: (i) That the outcome of the CQC assessment be noted.

(ii) That the Adult Social Care Service Improvement Plan 2024-

2025 at Appendix 2 of the report be approved.

(iii) That annual update reports on progress with the Service

Improvement Plan be agreed.