Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director, Adults

The Assistant Director, Adults, submitted a report (previously circulated) to update and inform this Committee on the CQC assurance framework and inspection outcome.

The submitted report stated that the CQC Assurance Framework for Local Authorities in England, introduced by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), was a structured approach to evaluating the performance of local authorities in delivering Adult Social Care services. It aligns with the goals of the Health and Care Act 2022, which aimed to ensure high-quality, equitable, and sustainable care for individuals in need.

The submitted report outlined how the CQC assurance Framework evaluated how local authorities assessed the needs of their population, provided support in the form of personalised care, ensured safety through high standards of care, and exhibited effective leadership in tandem with a motivated workforce.

The Assistant Director, Adults, then discussed the assessment criteria deployed by the CQC, outlining the four key themes that underscore such criteria, namely; Working with people, providing support, ensuring safety and leadership.

With regards to the methodology of evaluation, the Assistant Director, Adults, detailed how the CQC utilises data and evidence to review data from local authorities and service providers, conducts on-site inspection visits, and engaged with stakeholder feedback to garner input from individuals utilising the service. The Assistant Director, Adults discussed the Outcome Ratings of other Local Authorities and outlined the categories by which such Local Authorities were rated on their performance, such as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate.

Members commented upon the narrow margins of the scoring criteria, notably how a 5-point difference could separate a Local Authority from being “Good” or “Requires Improvement”. The Assistant Director, Adults responded by explicating the scoring criteria in further detail and outlined the process carried out by the CQC in producing the final score and commented that this narrow margin has also been challenged by other Local Authorities.

The Assistant Director then went on to discuss the improvement focus outlined in the framework. The Chair asked that this be taken into account and that the Darlington’s score be proactively responded to once returned by the CQC.

RESOLVED - That the contents of the report be noted,