Agenda item

The People Overview Scrutiny Committee is recommended to review Oxfordshire County Council’s plans for Care Quality Commission Assurance implementation in April 2023 and review progress to date towards readiness for assessment, what we know so far, and the actions planned to support the assessment framework.

It is also recommended that the committee discuss ways to support preparations through awareness raising, engagement and promotion of the good work being undertaken in Adult Social Care.

Karen Fuller introduced the report and in conjunction with Victoria Baran provided a presentation at the meeting. The Health and Care Act 2022 had introduced a new duty for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to independently review and assess how Local Authorities were delivering their Care Act function.  The key elements of CQC’s new strategy were independent assurance to residents about the quality of service, assurance driven by needs and outcomes for residents, working towards stronger safety within the system and acceleration of improvement.

Reference was made to the progress the Council had made with the extensive programme of transformation, resulting in the Oxfordshire Way.  This was in order to improve outcomes for residents, improve the governance structures, form a stronger integration with health partners and focus on using residents’ feedback to inform decision making.  The Oxfordshire Way had been co-produced with partners across the county and was the Council’s vision of supporting people to live well at home in their community, remaining fit and healthy for as long as possible. The Oxfordshire Way aimed to provide people with the ability to support themselves through personal, local and system assets to lead independent lives and strongly aligned with the CQC’s assessment framework. The introduction of the CQC assessment allowed the Council to build on its transformation programme.

The CQC would be using a Single Assessment Framework to assess services.  The framework was based on a set of quality statements describing what good care looks like and Local Authorities were required to evidence their commitment to these quality statements through feedback, policies and data.  There was a strong focus on placing people’s experiences of care at the heart of the process.

Areas of focus for Local Authority assessments included Working with People in terms of supporting people to live healthier lives, assessing needs, including unpaid carers; Providing support with market shaping, commissioning, workforce capacity and capability, integration and partnership working; Ensuring safety in safeguarding, safe systems, pathways and transitions and Leadership in terms of governance and risk management at all levels, culture and values of the workforce and organisation, innovation, continuous learning and improvement.

The Committee was advised that there was a delay to DHSC sign off on methodology which was part of the Framework Implementation.  It was expected that the CQC Digital Solution design, build and implementation in order for ASC to upload its evidence, would be available by March 2023.  The Go Live date was scheduled for April 2023.

ASC was preparing by engaging with the CQC in co-producing the Framework and commissioning an independent consultant to review its readiness for assurance and provide insight into further development opportunities. It built on the findings of the independent review with its own self-assessment workshops for operational teams.

Next steps included aiming to embed a culture of continuous improvement and development aligning with the ethos of the CQC strategy and our corporate values of ‘Always Learning’ and ‘Daring to do it differently’.  By further embedding and building upon the successes identified through Teams Led Transformation and delivery of the Oxfordshire Way ASC would continue to reduce the number of people waiting for assessment.  The Quality Assurance project board was developing a detailed action plan setting out further next steps with specific timeframes for implementation. This would be aligned with the final CQC Assurance Framework once it has been published.  By strengthening feedback mechanisms ASC would gain much improved insight into how local residents feel about the service they receive.

The Committee noted that ASC was exploring opportunities for independent peer review with conversations taking place with the LGA regards the offer of a peer review to provide further independent scrutiny and offer check and challenge to the process of self-evaluation.  Members of the Committee supported this concept of external check and challenge.  This would be further discussed as part of the work plan.  It was suggested that the outside engagement that ASC had was clearly set out and could be included in the Council’s Forward Plan.

No recommendations were made in relation to this item.