Adult social care services in Wiltshire rated as 'Good'
The Care Quality Commission has published a report into Wiltshire Council's services
Adult social care services in Wiltshire have been rated as 'Good' by an independent report.
Inspectors from regulators the Care Quality Commission (CQC) conducted a review of the adult social care services provided by Wiltshire Council in April last year.
It's awarded the rating of 'Good' after people consistently told them of the high standards being reached by staff.
As part of a comprehensive process, inspectors spoke to people receiving care, unpaid carers, providers and other care professionals as well as checking council policies and processes and interviewing staff before making a final judgement.
Inspectors summed up their findings in the report saying: “People told us staff went above and beyond when working alongside people with care and support and their carers in Wiltshire. “
It also noted:
• Focus on providing the right care in the right place and developing a skilled workforce
• People had access to approaches and options to prevent, reduce and delay their need for care and support
• Feedback was positive on reablement the in-house, therapy-led reablement team which works with people to gain their independence and remain at home – on average people received four weeks of reablement and 69% were fully independent leaving the service
• The enablement service which works with people with learning disabilities and/or autism or have additional health needs – evidence shows it helped people develop goals including independence, maintaining tenancies and accessing universal services.
• The council was active on feedback and complaints to improve experiences for people – ie improve accessibility of contacting staff and reducing waiting times.
• Young people and their carers told inspectors their experience of transitions from children to adult services was improving
• Good leadership at Wiltshire Council and an “always improving” ethos
• Feedback from unpaid carers was mostly positive – they felt support and aware of opportunity to be involved in co-production projects.
• Promoting people’s independence was part of everyday practice.
• An improving culture with staff “doing with” people rather than “doing to” so people felt involved in decisions about their care and support needs.
Council 'immensely proud' of workforce
Cabinet member for Adult Social Care, Cllr Jane Davies, said the report made her 'so happy', calling it a good outcome for whole county.
She told Greatest Hits Radio: "We respect people's need for independence. We like to get in early. As a Council we have a preventative approach and we want to get the right care in early, at the right time, in the right place, so that needs don't escalate and we make sure that we support people when they need it."
Cllr Davies heaped praise on the workforce, saying she's 'immensely proud' of them.
The report highlights developing a skilled workforce and Cllr Davies told us it's vital people enjoy coming to work.
"People don't come into adult social care because they're going to earn a fortune, it's not a well paid profession, but what it does give you is fantastic job satisfaction when you are working within a good organisation," she said.
The Council is targeting reducing the need for statutory care: "It's about all living together," she said, saying they work hard to ensure there's equal access to health and leisure services in the county.
She added: "The ideal outcome would be everyone would get to live their life in the way that they choose with positive outcomes that remain independent for as long as possible. And that would be a win all round, wouldn't it? A happy life for everyone."
The report noted work was focussed on continuing to improve waiting times and assessing need. While people were waiting for an assessment on their care and support needs, they were part of a “waiting well” approach as people had information or access to local services.
More work was being done to capture the voices of all groups of people and the council was funding independent statutory body Healthwatch to hear the views of local people.