News
Adult social care warning for eight areas of England
As reported by BBC News, eight local authorities in England have been told they must urgently improve their social care services for adults.
The Care Quality Commission found overall improvement, with 95% of councils in the top two categories.
But its annual report rated one in four care homes for the elderly as being adequate at best and found large variations in areas and providers.
Poole, Cornwall, Solihull, Surrey, South Tyneside, Southwark, Peterborough and Bromley are to get extra support. The report covers independent providers of care services as well as an assessment of England's 148 local authorities.
It rated 95% of councils in the top two categories, which means they are performing well or excellently - and none was given the bottom "poor" rating. While the picture is of improvement, the commission said there are still too many vulnerable adults being failed by the system.
And experts have suggested the top grades were achieved only because councils were providing care to fewer people.
More than 340,000 people in England receive care in their own home - a figure which has fallen by a fifth in the past eight years. To cope with the demands they face, councils have been restricting who is eligible for free or subsidised care - social services is means-tested so that people with significant savings are excluded anyway.
The figures from the regulator showed seven in 10 councils only provide care to those with substantial needs - basically those who cannot do everyday tasks, such as washing, dressing and eating, without help.
It means there are thousands of people with so-called low or moderate needs who have been excluded from state support they would normally have been entitled to.
Despite the high ratings given to councils, the regulator recognised the problem.
It said it would be looking to "raise the bar" in the future and would pay particular attention to eligibility.
The CQC also urged councils to do more to drive up standards in the voluntary and private sector. From next year, changes to the ratings system will give more weight to the views of those using care services and fines will be able to be levied against providers the regulator considers are not providing a good enough service.
Most care homes and an increasingly significant amount of home care is delivered by 24,000 alternative providers. Ratings for those showed one in six were ranked as poor or adequate - and the CQC warned they were risking fines or deregistration next year when the new system comes in place.
Care homes for older people were highlighted in particular for their poor record on providing social contact and activities for residents. Councils purchase about half of the services provided by these groups and the CQC said they should look to focus their spending on only the best providers where possible.
CQC chief executive Cynthia Bower said the improvements in council services should be recognised, although they could still do much better on issues such as dignity and offering people more choice.
But she also warned she was "deeply concerned" the expected squeeze on public sector spending could lead to greater restrictions on access.
"We all know there are choppy waters ahead so the issue is how well the system responds to the situation.
"We plan to be particularly vigilant about this on behalf of people who use services."
Andrew Harrop, head of public policy for the newly-merged Age Concern and Help the Aged charity, said some care homes were clearly still "not up to scratch".
And on tightening eligibility criteria, he added: "Local councils continue to deny many older people the care they need to live dignified and independent lives."
But Councillor David Rogers, of the Local Government Association, said: "Councils deserve great credit for their continued good work."
Bromley cited pressures "in managing significant increases in demand for social care services".
Solihull Council said it was "utterly committed" to working to improve services, while a spokesperson for South Tyneside Council said: "We welcome this support to help us move forward with our modernisation of adult social care."
Richard Biggs, Associate at Ralli and member of the Nursing Home Abuse team comments on the article:
The issue of regulation of care for adults is one which has been often ignored by the government for a number of years. However the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of social care in England, performs excellent work in this difficult environment. Although we are pleased to note in this article that the great majority of local authorities are performing well, the fact remains that the minority of councils are not adequately addressing in particular the inadequate level of care provided to the elderly.
Ralli have a dedicated team dealing with cases involving neglect in nursing homes (www.nursinghomeabuse.co.uk) and the horrific stories of abuse we regularly hear serve to highlight that although standards are improving, they are not doing so quickly enough for a large number of vulnerable adults.
