Medway Council has welcomed a report by the Care Quality Commission which recognises and guides its journey to further improve its Adults’ Social Care service.
Medway’s Adult Social Care service has been rated ‘requires improvement’ overall. With some areas achieving good, the overall score is a strong requires improvement rating and the council is confident in what it needs to do to get to a good rating or better.
CQC inspectors carried out the assessment of Medway’s Adult Social Care in August 2024. This was carried out as part of a two-year series of inspections of all 153 local authorities responsible for adult social care, which were reintroduced as part of the Health and Care Act 2022.
Medway was rated under the new CQC assessment process which looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well Medway is meeting its responsibilities. The service scored good in ‘Supporting people to lead healthier lives’, ‘Partnerships and communities’, and ‘Safe pathways, systems and transitions.’
Service already working to an improvement journey
Medway Council was pleased the CQC could see its Adults Social Care service was already delivering to an improvement journey and aware of what was needed to achieve the best outcomes for its residents.
Medway’s Adult Social Care’s improvement journey included improving waiting times, especially for Care Act assessments and reviews, occupational therapy assessments, safeguarding enquiries and a number of other areas, increasing support to unpaid carers, making the website fully accessible and working with partners to understand the needs of the community.
Medway Council has invested £2.4million in its Adult Social Care service this year, as part of its improvement journey to increase the number of staff across the service to ensure resources and practices are in place to provide a good service. This followed a long period of austerity at a time of rising demand, making it difficult to retain staff and meet statutory obligations.
Inspectors’ findings
Inspectors spoke directly with some of the residents requiring the council’s support. Feedback included how they had felt listened to by ‘compassionate, kind, caring and knowledgeable staff’. However, the service appreciates that not all those they support always feel valued and is working hard to address this.
The report acknowledged how people transitioning between services were kept informed and updated by the social worker and their views had been valued and considered. The service was also praised that those it supports could promptly access equipment and minor home adaptations to maintain their independence and continue living in their own homes, including having access to an emergency call system to maintain people’s independence and to keep them safe.
However, inspectors found that reviews of people’s care were not always undertaken in a timely manner. The service had found this as part of its own self-assessment and had already started taking action to improve waiting lists, while working to ensure a consistent approach when carrying out an assessment.
Like local authorities nationally, Medway Council’s adult social care services are stretched due to both an increase in demand and a shortage of social workers, and this has led to waiting lists in a number of areas. Medway is addressing this by identifying gaps and recruiting to roles. Inspectors noted how staff enjoy working for Medway Council and spoke about the learning and career development opportunities available for them.
One Medway – agencies working together
Medway Council is proud of the agencies, charities and volunteers it works closely with to support its vulnerable adults, and inspectors acknowledged there was good partnership working with voluntary sector groups. The service is looking at how it could develop its partnership working more to understand the needs of local communities and the different groups of people within them. The service is also looking at how it can provide a more consistent service to care providers.
Safeguarding – an area of focus
Medway Council acknowledges that improvements need to be made to the way it delivers its support through its safeguarding service. Inspectors noted that this was being addressed in a number of ways, including restructuring the current safeguarding hubs and mandatory learning sessions for staff from Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) and other serious incident enquiries.
Inspectors found that adults receiving support were not always contacted in a timely way following a safeguarding referral, but work was ongoing to improve this and to reduce the backlog of people waiting for updates to their case.
Medway works hard to support independent living and inspectors acknowledged how ongoing work to improve the discharge pathways of people coming out of hospital was going well. However, Medway Council is not complacent and recognises the challenges presented by a shortage of care home places.
Cllr Teresa Murray, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder covering Adult Social Care, said:“I am proud of the journey Medway’s Adults Social Care has been on since Labour took over Medway Council in 2023. I am particularly proud of the staff who have embraced the improvement journey and like me have put adults in Medway who receive our care or support at the heart of all we do.
“We are pleased that the report has acknowledged the progress achieved to date and continue to drive forward in our aim to deliver the best possible service. It is of course disappointing that the service is not quite where we’d like it to be at for our residents, but it is important to acknowledge that some areas of Medway’s Adult Social Care achieved good feedback, and I feel confident that through our improvement journey and the investment we have put into the service we are on course to reach a good standard in all areas inspected. We will continue making the necessary improvements to achieve a good standard overall, as well as striving for outstanding in those areas already found to be performing well.
“Prior to the inspection, Medway Council was working on a number of improvements following a long period of austerity which saw staffing reduce while demand was steeply rising. This includes improving early joint working between adults and children’s services, as well as further improved links with SEND. The pathway for young people transitioning from children’s to adults has been strengthened. The service is also exploring better use of technology to streamline administration and help those we care for remain independent in their own home. We are developing ongoing training support for staff, and upskilling our teams to complete all assessments in a timely way. The investment has enabled us to begin to recruit much-needed new staff and, through restructuring, increase management accountability which was difficult to achieve after staff had been cut.
“We are One Medway and together we will continue to work with support from across the council and our partners towards a strong and renewed focus on the prevention of poor health, to provide the high-quality support our vulnerable adults need and deserve.”