Date: 03 December 2006 20:47

COUNTY COUNCIL WORKING TO IMPROVE SERVICES FOR ADULTS

Cambridgeshire County Council has acknowledged that further improvements are 
needed in support services for adults - but has reassured the public that 
work is in hand to address areas for improvement  identified by government 
inspectors.

Following an inspection by The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), 
the County Council's Adult Support Services have retained their one star 
rating. Existing action plans have been updated and incorporated into a 
comprehensive plan to improve and develop services. Achievements in 2005-06 
in reducing waiting times for assessments, speeding up the delivery of 
equipment and increasing the numbers of people receiving intensive home care 
and Direct Payments have been improved on further in the first half of 
2006-07.

 This work builds on existing partnerships with NHS organisations to deliver 
integrated services in a timely manner, with an emphasis on maintaining 
independence and control. Continuing to implement modern approaches to 
service delivery, like Direct Payments and initiatives to avoid hospital 
admission are central to the plan.  The number of people taking control of 
designing their care packages, with Direct Payments, has doubled from 200 in 
October 2005 to over 400 in October 2006.

The CSCI report concludes that: "The council has corporate arrangements and 
capacity to achieve consistent, sustainable and effective improvement in 
Adult Social Services.

"Senior management have made heroic efforts to improve the quality of 
performance data and a number of long-standing problem areas are being 
rectified, with some progress being reflected in improvements in performance 
indicators."

Many areas of existing service are singled out for praise, including:  * A 
range of joint projects across the county that are achieving a reduction in 
the need for hospital care and residential care in future.

* The Council has introduced wide-ranging improvements in support to carers 
and achieved an excellent performance for delivery of services to carers.
* Externalised services providing better value than previous in-house 
provision for older people's homes. Home care and extra care housing being 
substituted for residential care. Reduction in the rate of hospital 
admission reduces long-term demand for services.
* Staff turnover, vacancies and sickness rates compare favourably with 
neighbouring councils and have improved favourably with neighbouring 
councils and have improved since last year.
* Occupational Therapy waiting times reduced and good performance in the 
delivery of equipment and adaptations to help people with disabilities or 
limited mobility.
* The rate of direct payments has improved with particularly rapid progress 
in learning disability.

 In many areas of service, the County Council has improved its performance, 
however CSCI also highlight areas where further improvements are needed and 
the revised action plan addresses these issues which were highlighted in the 
report which covers Adult Support Services in Cambridgeshire during 2005/06.

They include:
* Further work to reduce delayed transfers of people from hospital to social 
care after medical treatment
* Better information collection and management and improvements to budget 
monitoring - particularly of pooled budgets where financial responsibility 
for providing services is shared with NHS organisations.
* Reducing waiting time for care packages.
* Increasing the number of people with learning difficulties helped to live 
at home.
* Improving the number of people with mental health issues who use direct 
payments.
* Implementing crisis resolution and early intervention teams across all of 
Cambridgeshire.

 County Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Community Services, 
Councillor John Reynolds, said: "Whilst acknowledging that more work still 
needs to be done to improve adult support services in Cambridgeshire, I am 
pleased that the CSCI report also highlights the much good work which is 
going on in the county to support adults, older people and those with 
disabilities, in our community."

"Our staff are working extremely hard to ensure we provide the best possible 
services within the very tight financial constraints which exist in 
Cambridgeshire and senior managers and Councillors will giv them every 
support they can to achieve further improvement to our services."

John Reynolds