Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Adult Services

Forward Plan Ref: 2010/152

Contact: Steve Thomas, Performance Information Manager Tel: (01865) 323609

Report by Director for Social & Community Services (CA 9)

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England. Within its remit it provides an annual performance assessment of all councils with adult social care responsibilities in England. The 2009/10 report for Oxfordshire is attached as annex 1. Oxfordshire is rated as performing well which means that Oxfordshire is ‘consistently delivering above the minimum standard required for people.'

The report is structured around seven key outcomes, which are used to evaluate how well the council currently serves people, and 2 further criteria which are used to describe the future prospects for the council. The council was described as performing well on 5 of the 7 outcomes, and as performing excellently on the other two outcomes, ‘Making a positive contribution’ and ‘Economic well-being’. Being assessed as excellent on ‘making a positive contribution’ means that people who use services and carers are supported to take part in community life. They contribute their views on services and this helps to shape improvements. Voluntary organisations are seen to be thriving and accessible. Organisations for people who use services and carers are well supported. Being assessed as excellent on ‘Economic well-being’ means that people who use services and their carers have income to meet living and support costs and they are supported in finding or maintaining employment.

These results show a significant improvement on the previous report (2008/9) where the council was assessed as performing well on 6 outcomes and as performing adequately on one outcome. The outcome that has moved from performing adequately to performing well is 'Maintaining Personal Dignity and Respect'. The report notes that following the inspection of adult safeguarding in 2008/09 the council has addressed all the issues raised. It notes that strong governance arrangements are on place, improved public awareness of adult safeguarding, greater partnership working and improvements in the time taken to complete case work.

The report’s overall summary says ‘Oxfordshire County Council has had a very productive year and has achieved well on the key outcome areas. It has strong leadership and tight financial controls in place that have enabled it to deliver significant efficiency savings and a slight budget under-spend.’ As well as providing reports on individual councils, CQC provide a national report, which highlights areas of good practice. Several examples of developments in Oxfordshire are included in the national report. 

This is the last year that CQC will provide an annual assessment of performance.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to

(a)       receive the report;

(b)       review progress on the areas for development through the council’s performance reporting arrangements for next year.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England. Within its remit it provides an annual performance assessment of all councils with adult social care responsibilities in England. The Cabinet considered the 2009/10 report for Oxfordshire (Annex 1). Oxfordshire had been rated as performing well ie. that Oxfordshire was ‘consistently delivering above the minimum standard required for people.'

The report (CA9) is structured around seven key outcomes, which are used to evaluate how well the council currently serves people, and two further criteria which are used to describe the future prospects for the council. The Council had been described as performing well on 5 of the 7 outcomes, and as performing excellently on the other two outcomes, ‘Making a positive contribution’ and ‘Economic well-being’.

The outcomes showed a significant improvement on the previous report (2008/9) where the council had been assessed as performing well on 6 outcomes and as performing adequately on one outcome. The outcome that had moved from performing adequately to performing well is 'Maintaining Personal Dignity and Respect'. The report also noted that following the inspection of adult safeguarding in 2008/09 the Council had addressed all the issues raised. It noted that strong governance arrangements were in place, improved public awareness of adult safeguarding, greater partnership working and improvements in the time taken to complete case work. The report’s overall summary says ‘Oxfordshire County Council has had a very productive year and has achieved well on the key outcome areas.

Prior to consideration of this item the Cabinet was addressed by Councillor Jenny Hannaby. She commended the Director and his officers for their achievements as cited in the report. She asked that monitoring continue on the out-sourced areas of safeguarding dignity and on ensuring that sufficient information is conveyed with patients on their hospital discharge.

Councillor Arash Fatemian and Jim Couchman echoed Councillor Hannaby’s commendations, adding that the numbers of delayed transfers of care were moving in the right direction.

RESOLVED: to

(a)       receive the report;

(b)       review progress on the areas for development through the council’s performance reporting arrangements for next year.