Agenda item

To receive a briefing on preparations for the anticipated Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) adult social care services.

The Committee received a briefing on preparations for the anticipated Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) adult social care services.  Introduced by the SBC Director of Adults, Health and Wellbeing, who began by welcoming developments in relation to this new requirement, information was provided on the following elements:

·       What is the CQC Assurance Framework?

·       How is the assessment structured?

·       What preparation have we done for the CQC Assurance Framework?

·       What’s going to be happening next?

This regulatory framework, enacted through the Health and Care Act 2022, gave the CQC the powers to assess how well Local Authorities were meeting their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014.  Assessment would take place across nine ‘quality statements’ mapped to four key themes (‘working with people’, ‘providing support’, ‘keeping people safe’, and ‘leadership’), with all Local Authorities in England expected to be evaluated by December 2025.

Once SBC received its notification, it would have three weeks to return its Local Authority Information Return (LAIR) which would include a self-assessment and SBC performance data, strategies and policies.  After the completion of extensive off-site preparation work (including speaking with the Council’s partners and reviewing the LAIR / published data), the CQC would then conduct an on-site visit within six months (giving around six-eight weeks’ notice).  It was noted that the regulator may want to speak to the Committee and / or other Elected Members.

In readiness for its assessment, SBC had received a peer inspection in October 2023 (which identified key development areas), a monthly CQC Programme Steering Group had been formed (overseeing progress of the Action Plan which was created following the peer inspection), and a SBC Assurance and Co-Production Manager had started in January 2024 to co-ordinate the work needed to prepare for the Assurance Framework and, alongside the SBC Lived Experience Co-Ordinator, to ensure that people’s voices and their involvement was woven into what the Council delivered.  In addition, a ‘Making it Real’ Board (comprising of people with lived experience, the Lead Member for Adult Social Care, and Council Officers) was formed in January 2024.

Further preparatory work was highlighted, with SBC due to take part in the Local Government Association (LGA) Assurance Peer Challenge in July 2024, and a programme of support to Council staff being put together (including access to external sessions to aid understanding of the framework and practice answering questions from assessors / peers).

Submitted for consideration alongside the briefing paper, a draft self-assessment document had been prepared ahead of the CQC inspection.  The new SBC Assurance and Co-Production Manager outlined the content which included:

·       Overview of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees

·       Our Strategic Vision and Key Priorities

·       Working in Partnership

·       Our Adult Social Care Services

·       CQC Assurance Theme 1: Working with People

·       CQC Assurance Theme 2: Providing Support

·       CQC Assurance Theme 3: Ensuring Safety within the System

·       CQC Assurance Theme 4: Leadership

·       Feedback from People

The production of this key part of the LAIR had been guided by self-assessments provided by other Local Authorities and was essentially an balanced summary (strengths and areas for development) about how SBC was performing against the criteria within each theme.  Collating the material was a collaborative approach across all the Council’s adult social care teams, but also reflected partnership-working with external bodies too.  The CQC would look to triangulate the evidence submitted, comparing this to what its inspectors saw for themselves and what they heard from service-users, families and carers.

Reflecting on this draft document, the Committee welcomed the level of detail, the layout / use of graphics to highlight key information, and the honesty it portrayed.  It was suggested that adding in more quotes would help showcase views on services and the sector in general – this could include the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care (emphasising the value of leadership teams) and the Committee Chair.  SBC officers stated that Member input was envisaged as part of the final version.

The Committee drew attention to some of the statistics within (specifically pages 9 and 20), expressing concerns about the percentage of adults with learning disabilities living in their own home or with families (lower than the regional and national mean), and the percentage of people (65+) offered reablement services following discharge from hospital (lower than the English Unitary Authorities mean).  With regards the latter, Members felt there was an issue in supporting those individuals who were coming out of hospital and required adaptions at home, though SBC officers responded that there may be a problem with how the data was presented (with the percentage quoted (1.3%) being a proportion of the Borough’s population rather than those who had been discharged from hospital).  A typo on page 4 (timeframe of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy) was also acknowledged and would be corrected.

Concluding the item, SBC officers stated that feedback on the LGA Assurance Peer Challenge could be provided to the Committee in September 2024.  Members, meanwhile, noted that the new powers for the CQC around Local Authority adult social care provision added to its existing responsibilities for inspecting care homes, GPs, dentists, hospitals, and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) – the regulator’s capacity to manage this was queried, with the Committee’s recent Access to GPs and Primary Medical Care review showing that some GPs had not been inspected for some time.

AGREED that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assurance Framework Update briefing be noted.