The Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Services presented a report on the outcome of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection undertaken in July of this year which focussed on the areas of ‘Safeguarding Adults’ and ‘Improving health and wellbeing for people with learning disabilities’, and also the CQC’s main Assessment of Performance for 2009/10.
In respect of the latter, the Cabinet Member announced that the CQC has now lifted the embargo on the publication of its findings and she was very pleased to announce that the Council has, for the third year in succession, been awarded the CQC’s highest rating of “Excellent” for the delivery of its Adult social care services, with the grade of “Excellent” being awarded in four of the seven categories and the second highest rating of ‘Well” in the other three. This places Barking and Dagenham in the top 25% of all local authorities both nationally and within London. In respect of the specific review of the areas of ‘Safeguarding Adults’ and ‘Improving health and wellbeing for people with learning disabilities’, the Cabinet Member was also pleased to announce that the services have been judged by the CQC as “performing well” and that the Council’s capacity to improve was “promising”.
The Cabinet Member stressed the importance of continually striving to provide improved services to the local community and, to this end, referred to the Improvement Plan that has been drawn up in response to the CQC’s findings.
Agreed, to accord with statutory requirements and assist the Council to achieve its Community Priorities, to:-
(i) Note the findings of the CQC inspections contained at Appendices 1 and 4 to the report; and
(ii) The Implementation Plan set out at Appendix 2 to the report.
The Corporate Director of Adult and Community Services confirmed that a letter from herself and the Cabinet Member would be sent to staff in recognition of their commitment and professionalism.