The council’s care ‘requires improvement’, the CQC found last year
File photo of an old person watching TV(Image: Nicholas.T.Ansell/PA Wire)
Addition funding to improve Adult Social Care provision has been approved by Hull City Council‘s cabinet. The council has developed an improvement plan after the care watchdog found services required improvement.
In October last year, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the council’s Adult Social Care provision as “requires improvement”, following an inspection. The council received the lowest possible ranking (1 out of 4) in both ‘assessing people’s needs’ and ‘supporting people to lead healthier lives’.
Following this, the council’s cabinet received a report which explained that due to the CQC giving two scores of 1, the council was flagged to the Government’s Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), headed by Wes Streeting. This, the council report explains, led to the DHSC mandating that the council develops and implements an improvement plan.
At a meeting of the council’s cabinet held on Monday, January 26, additional funding needed to deliver the improvement plan was approved. Much of the funding is aimed to reduce waiting lists and backlogs, which the council report says “in the most part” led to the poor scores.
A one year investment of just under £1.4 million is to be funded through Capital Receipts Transformation Flexibility. The is to be used to fund temporary agency staff, equipment, and the outsourcing assessments.
The report, the recommendations of which were approved by the cabinet, also called for a further £4.2 million to address home adaptations. The majority of this funding (£3 million) will go to the council’s own maintenance company, KWL.
Also a part of the council’s improvement plan are two ‘spend to save’ schemes which together require £208,000 investment annually, but should provide even greater savings. This funding, despite being approved by the cabinet, is subject to approval through the council itself. The first scheme involves investing £101,000 per year into the Assistive Technology Team to fund two social workers.
The second ‘spend to save’ scheme involves investing £107,000 per year to expand the Shared Lives scheme. The report says that this investment could lead to savings of £944,000 per year. The scheme matches a person who needs care with an approved carer.
At the cabinet meeting, the council’s portfolio holder for adult services and public health, Cllr Linda Chambers explained that much of the pressure on the council’s services can be explained by people wanting to stay at home rather than going into care. Speaking about home adaptations, she added: “Just the smallest adaptation can make the biggest improvement to somebody’s life.”
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