Agenda item

To receive a report on the outcome of the recent CQC Adult Social Care inspection.

Jo Baty, Service Director for Adult Social Services, reported to the Panel that the outcome of the recent CQC inspection had been published in January 2025 and highlighted some key areas requiring improvement that the Council was responding to. These included carers, waiting times, communications from the service and with residents, signposting and information/advice and co-production. Measures that were being taken by the Council to make improvements included:

• Proactive involvement of carers in co-production groups, which had begun over a year previously.
• Four more sessions with residents were expected in late April/early May, with one in each of the three physical localities in the Borough and one online. These sessions would be aimed at helping to refine priorities and timelines.
• Priorities for residents included improving availability of information and advice in a timely manner, access to respite services and reducing waiting times. In particular, a minimum standard of communication across the service was required, including improved letters, a more accessible website and striking the right balance between compassion and financial efficiency. 
• A process was being put in place for some detailed performance management reports which would help with monitoring progress and benchmarking against other Boroughs.
• There was ongoing work on co-producing service specifications for home care.
• There were plans for the involvement of residents as quality assurers of service provision.
• There had been mixed feedback from members of the Joint Partnership Board (JPB) on engagement with Adult Social Care and there had been a review of how the JPB had been operating and how Adult Social Care could better engage. The report from Community Catalysts had been circulated in draft and a special meeting with the JPB on progressing the actions was planned. There would also be a recruitment process for a new independent JPB chair.
• Community Catalysts had also produced a draft report following a review of the Learning Disabilities Carer Forum and there would be a meeting with the Forum on this shortly.
• Both of the above reports and the action plans that would follow could be brought to the Scrutiny Panel at a later date. (ACTION)
• The necessary savings and efficiencies through measures such as assistive technology and the day services review would require engagement with residents and a co-production element.

Jo Baty and Cllr Lucia das Neves then responded to questions from the Panel:

• Asked by Cllr Peacock which residents groups had been engaged with, Jo Baty said that there were long-established relationships with various voluntary and community organisations, tenants’ associations and residents’ associations. Recent conversations had been held with the Somali Community Association, the Kurdish Community group and there was a forthcoming meeting expected with Jewish residents. Cllr Peacock suggested that some of the written materials produced by the Council needed to use terminology that a wide range of people from all communities could easily understand.
• Cllr Mason commented that communications from statutory services in general was poor. She welcomed short briefings that were made available to Councillors and suggested that these could be made more widely available online. She also suggested that some engagement approaches could be based on geographic areas and not just to specific community groups. Cllr das Neves noted that the forthcoming resident engagement sessions previously referred to by Jo Baty would be based on the three locality areas. Cllr Mason observed that these were quite large areas and Cllr das Neves agreed, noting that the national agenda around neighbourhoods may help with moving engagement to a more local level.
• Cllr Brennan observed that co-production seemed to be well understood at a senior level of the Council but that, at the front line, some elements of the approach appeared to be lost. She suggested that more training in this area could lead to improvements. Cllr das Neves acknowledged the importance of training, and also support on both sides of co-production, which Community Catalysts was assisting with as an external neutral organisation.
• Asked by Cllr Connor about the induction of new staff to the ethos of improved communications that the Council was aiming for, Jo Baty highlighted the importance of in-house bespoke training for all managers and engaging residents in expert-by-experience training to develop cultural change. Cllr Brennan emphasised the need to ensure that this ethos was also applied to the interactions of frontline staff with residents. Jo Baty agreed with this point and reiterated the importance of the work with managers as they were the gatekeepers to support and supervision for frontline staff. Cllr Connor proposed that this area of training for managers should be monitored by the Panel. (ACTION)
• Eve Trimingham spoke about issues with communications from the Council and the experience of residents and the local community that they didn’t always receive the right information and the engagement that they expected. Cllr das Neves highlighted the role of ward Councillors as a good route to having concerns heard when people feel that something hasn’t worked in the way that it should have.
• Cllr Iyngkaran suggested that consideration could be given to using independent co-production facilitators.
• Cllr O’Donovan highlighted the significant proportion of locum staff in the social care workforce and questioned how the communications ethos that had previously been discussed could be embedded with such a high turnover of staff. Jo Baty acknowledged that turnover in the sector was a national issue but emphasised the importance of promoting what was unique about Haringey and its direction of travel in areas such as co-production, which she felt would help to attract good staff. She also commented that retention was also an issue which could be supported through initiatives such as mentoring or experiences in the health and voluntary sectors. Sara Sutton added that the Council would be playing a role in the national initiatives to bring people with health conditions back to work by working with health and social care providers to enable routes and opportunities to progress and develop skills from entry level roles. There were also dedicated schemes on employment support for local people linked to the Haringey Works programme. Further details could be brought to the Panel at a later date if required.
• Asked by Cllr O’Donovan about the development and engagement process for the new Carers’ Strategy, Jo Baty responded the planning for this was underway including through the four events that were described earlier in the meeting and through the co-production work with carers over the previous 18 months. She added that carers had told the Council for a long time that they wanted information and advice in accessible formats, to know where to go to avoid escalation/crisis and for staff to be respectful, professional and to respond in a timely way. The sessions were therefore intended to hone in on priorities, to agree timelines and to establish a process by which residents could understand the changes that had been made and could then feedback whether they were experiencing social care differently.
• Cllr das Neves highlighted the role of the Adult Improvement Board in tracking progress on service improvement and the opportunity for the Panel to contribute as Cllr Connor and Cllr Iyngkaran were now on that Board. Asked by Cllr Mason if papers from the Board meetings could be circulated to the Panel Members, Sara Sutton said that a summary of key points discussed could be provided but that sharing of the full reports would not be appropriate. (ACTION)
• Cllr Connor reiterated that it would be useful for the Panel to track progress on a number of issues that had been discussed (ACTION) including:

o   the reports from Community Catalysts on the Joint Partnership Board and the Learning Disabilities Carer Forum (when available).

o   progress with the co-production work.

o   progress towards the website improvements.

o   progress on reducing Care Act assessment delays.

o   details on how residents could have easier access to the information about their case, such as through a phone app for example.

• Cllr Connor reminded the Panel that they would need to consider the financial constraints of the Council in the discussions on all of these issues.