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Leadership, vision and action combined with learning from service users and staff are some of the important factors that drive improvement in social services says a report published today by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales and the Wales Audit Office.
The report which was written by Sue Mead, a former Director of Joint Reviews, was commissioned by CSSIW and the Wales Audit Office to draw together the learning from joint reviews in Wales over the last ten years, identify the key factors that drive improvements in social services and highlight areas of consistent improvement. The report also considers what organisational and service developments are needed by local authorities to sustain the progress made and improve further.
The report provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the data and information available, drawing together the evidence from the last 10 years of joint reviews, but with a particular focus on the second programme of reviews which commenced in 2004.
The report notes that there are welcome signs of improvement in the leadership of social care within Councils since joint reviews began 10 years ago. Social care has been given a much higher profile within Councils and there has been significant new investment. A strong emphasis on workforce development has yielded positive results with most Councils showing consistent improvement in this area.
There has been an overall improvement in the range of services available with more systematic matching of resources to needs and priorities. Better partnerships with the voluntary sector are also helping services to be delivered more effectively. Progress has been made in developing more focused approaches to promoting independence and rehabilitation with some good project based services now available. However, extending the coverage beyond pilot schemes to an enabling ethos across all mainstream services remains a challenge.
The report identifies that overall satisfaction with social services by those people using them remains high and levels of satisfaction with social services were maintained or improved between the first and second round of joint reviews. However, expectations of Council services have changed during the decade since joint reviews began, and the report says that those using services still find marked differences in the quality and level of social care services provided across Councils, and that there remains too big a gap between the best and worst performing Councils in Wales.
The report highlights a number of service and organisational areas which require further attention including:
- assessment and care management, especially the analysis and management of risk;
- providing good options for older people with dementia;
- providing timely support for carers;
- maintaining a focus on an agreed set of high level priorities; and
- having robust medium term financial plans to support service strategies.
The Chief Inspector of Care and Social Services in Wales, Rob Pickford said today:
‘This report brings together the valuable learning from Joint Reviews of Social Services in Wales over the last decade. It shows that progress has been made in social services during this period and identifies some of the key success factors that contribute to that improvement. We have a real opportunity, through this report, to learn the lessons from this 10 year journey and to use the lessons to promote and steer further improvements. We must all rise to this challenge and ensure that the messages in the report are disseminated widely and built upon in our own organisations as well as across Wales as a whole.’
Auditor General for Wales, Jeremy Colman said today:
‘This report helpfully identifies where improvements have been made in social services over the last 10 years, and the main factors driving improvement. It should therefore provide a real opportunity for all councils to learn the lessons from the Joint Review Programme in Wales and match the standards of the best.’
Notes to Editors:
- Joint reviews began in 1998 and were managed and delivered jointly by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (the Social Service Inspectorate for Wales prior to 2007) and the Wales Audit Office (the Audit Commission in Wales prior to 2005).
- The purpose of joint reviews was to independently review how well local communities were being served by a council‘s social services. Reviews looked at the quality of services experienced by those using them, and how well councils deployed resources and organised themselves to ensure consistently good services were delivered in the future.
- Between 1998 and 2004 all 22 local authorities in Wales were reviewed.
- Between 2004 and 2008 10 local authorities in Wales had a second joint review.
- In April 2007, a new Care and Social Services Inspectorate was established.
Its creation provided an opportunity to reappraise the current context of social services in Wales and at the time of the report being written consultation on new arrangements for inspection of local authority social services was underway.
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