A CQC assurance visit took place between June and December 2024 which reviewed nine areas across four themes to assess how well the authority is meeting their responsibilities. These themes include assessing how the local authority works with people, how it provides support, ensures safety in the system and leadership.
North Somerset Council accepts the CQCs report and has already addressed some of their findings, including reducing waiting times for financial assessments, occupational therapy assessments, and safeguarding enquiries. Additionally, the council has updated its webpage to provide better access to information and advice.
Looking ahead, its long-term plans focus on ensuring a smoother journey through the social care system, with minimal waiting times, efficient collaboration with partners, and prioritising individuals’ wishes in all actions.
Positives highlighted within the report include North Somerset demonstrating a real commitment to innovation through collaboration with external partners, which empowers staff and makes people’s care and treatment quicker.
The council has also implemented inventive technology to support people who are in hospital and introduced an innovative service called ‘bridge the gap’ to flexibly address care provision shortfalls while maintaining the quality of residential, nursing, and supported living services.
The CQC also state ‘North Somerset Council demonstrated a strong and inclusive culture of continuous learning and facilitated regular team meetings that fostered collaboration’ and ‘the authority has an impressive 100 per cent rate of people who lacked mental capacity receiving advocacy support during safeguarding enquiries, significantly better than the England average of 83.38 per cent.’
However, the report also highlighted reablement services need to improve. This service helps people to remain at home following a hospital discharge. Only 0.61 per cent of older people receive this support in North Somerset compared to the national average of 2.91 per cent. North Somerset carers also had challenges in accessing the support they need.
The CQC acknowledged the challenges North Somerset Council face with an increasing older demography and sourcing local care need.
James Bullion, CQCs Chief Inspector of adult social care and integrated care said: “North Somerset Council had leaders who understood the issues its community was facing. Our assessment revealed a service facing significant challenges amid growing demand due to an ageing population, with a 22 per cent increase of residents aged 65 and over since 2011.
“They monitor quality effectively and 84 per cent of care homes they commission packages of care to are rated as good by the CQC. However, the borough’s ageing population has created specific challenges that will need them to plan ahead for prevention, dementia care, mobility support, and chronic disease management.”
Roger Whitfield, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Services at North Somerset Council said: “We accept the CQC report findings and had already implemented a significant number of improvements when the CQC did their assurance visit last December. However, as acknowledged in the report, our changes were too early in their development to demonstrate a sustained improvement.
“The CQC rate councils on a range of services and our score of 59 per cent was just short of the 63 per cent needed to be rated ‘good’.
“At the time of the assurance visit, we were already aware of the areas where we needed to improve and were very open with the CQC about these areas. We shared our draft improvement plan with them which has now been finalised taking into account their findings, and it will be monitored and reviewed regularly by the Council’s Cabinet and Scrutiny Committee.
“I’m pleased that the CQC acknowledge the challenges we face with an increasing older population in North Somerset along with care supply issues and significant council budget challenges. We are working closely with our health and care providers and other partners to ensure adult social care continues to improve for our residents now and in future.
“I’d also like to thank our excellent staff who also go above and beyond in these challenging times to support residents who need our help, as well as our wonderful carers. Without them, the social care system would simply collapse.”
To view the CQC report, please visit: Local authority assessment reports – Care Quality Commission.
