Local Government Association publishes Peer Review Challenge report of Torbay Adult Social Care

The Local Government Association (LGA) has published its Peer Challenge Review report following a visit to Torbay’s Adult Social Care services earlier in the year.

The LGA came to Torbay in June to speak with officers and councillors at Torbay Council and to management and frontline staff at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust (TSDFT) and to take a detailed look at their Adult Social Care Services.

The team gathered views of over 150 people including staff, providers and those of people with lived expertise. They also reviewed our Adult Social Care Self-Assessment and 30 other documents.

Councillor Hayley Tranter, Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services, Public Health and Inequalities, said: “The LGA Peer Challenge Review gives us a great opportunity to review our services and see what is working well and what needs improving. Thanks to everyone who took part in the Review.

“Our Adult Social Care Strategy will also support our vision for a happy, healthy and prosperous Torbay, as outlined in our Community and Corporate Plan.”

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust’s Chief Nurse Nicola McMinn said: “We are committed to making sure people in Torbay are supported to live independent, healthy lives in their communities. Our community and adult social care teams do a phenomenal job supporting people and last year they carried out 167,000 visits and helped 1,200 people remain independent at home.

“We can only achieve this by working with our partners at Torbay Council, and I am proud that our people’s commitment to delivering high quality safe care for people has been recognized. Our ambitious adult social care transformation plan will address both our challenges and the opportunities that we have to shape the future of our services together.”

Areas the LGA praised include:

• Our new Section 75 agreement and our long-embedded integration of health and social care services. The Section 75 agreement for Torbay was established in 2005 when TSDFT and Torbay Council signed an agreement to become the first area in the country to provide a joined-up NHS and adult social care service to help improve the lives of people in Torbay, called an Integrated Care Organisation.
• Staff spoke well of professional practice and line management support.
• The Partnership Boards also received praise and were described as very good.
• Quality individualised care through the Multi-Disciplinary Team and people are kept safe and urgent issues responded to well.
• Ambassadors were seen as a good example of giving local people a voice.
• Case file audit – good practice around legal decision making, least restrictive practice and good person-centred practice.

Areas for improvement that were highlighted by the Review include:

• More work to do in relation to carers and communication and expectation management and explaining how different services interact with each other.
• Improve staff awareness of priorities plans and strategies.
• Some barriers for staff when needing to access substance misuse or Mental Health services.
• Direct payments are below the England average, processes not well understood or embedded in teams.
• It was recommended that we should develop our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work including increased use of data to demonstrate need and impact and ensure its more visible across Council and Integrated Care Organisation (ICO).

The report from the LGA comes as our Adult Social Care Services are preparing for an expected visit from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who are inspecting whole Adult Social Care systems at a number of authorities across the UK.

Although we do not yet know the date of the inspection, it is anticipated that the CQC will give nine weeks’ notice ahead of the inspection and afterwards the CQC will publish a four-point rating – Outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.