Care Quality Commission praise for Herts County Council’s adult care services
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Hertfordshire County Council’s adult care service as ‘good’.
The watchdog judged the way it works with partners, such as voluntary organisations, as ‘outstanding’.
In January, the council was one of the first three in England to be assessed under the CQC’s new framework for assessing how well they are performing against their Care Act duties.
The inspectors found Hertfordshire’s adult care service has a “positive culture of continuing development” where staff feel “well supported by their managers” with “strong, stable and effective senior leadership in place.”
Their report said the council had “clear plans focusing on supporting people to lead healthy, purposeful lives”.
Cllr Tony Kingsbury, HCC’s executive member for adult care, health and wellbeing, said: “The CQC’s assessment reflects the commitment of our dedicated and skilled staff who work hard to create a place where people can lead healthy, fulfilling and self-supporting lives; making sure that people are at the centre of their care and support, when they need it.
“Like all public services, we face challenges and there’s always room for improvement. The CQC assessment has given us an opportunity to get focused feedback about where we provide a good service for adults in Hertfordshire and how we can continue to learn and improve.”
James Bullion, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said: “At Hertfordshire County Council, we found a strong leadership team who had a good understanding of the adult social care needs of people living in the area. They also had a good grasp of what was working well and where they needed to focus their attention on improvement.
“They were supported by committed and passionate staff who were delivering services that people generally spoke positively about to CQC. People told us that front-line staff listened to them, understood their needs and developed care plans which reflected these.
“Staff were also aware of the needs of different community groups and had access to interpreters and translation teams where needed.
“Overall, Hertfordshire County Council should be really pleased with this assessment. They’ve built a great foundation on which to build their future plans and make improvements.”
The report indicated that while there are waiting lists for assessment in all areas, linked to a 10% increase in requests for support, there were plans in place to further reduce these.
In addition to services the council commissions partners to deliver, the authority has a team of more than 2,000 staff who supported over 14,800 adults in long-term services with more than 30,000 new requests for support last year.
