Agenda item

To receive the report of Sharon Burgess, Head of Safeguarding Adults.

RECEIVED the report of Sharon Burgess, Head of Safeguarding Adults.

Cllr Alev Cazimoglu, Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care introduced the report and extended thanks to the panel for the invitation to attend. The report provides an update on the implementation of the Quality Assurance Framework action plan which is expected to be implemented in October 2023. Aspects of the act are welcomed, in terms of the integration work, but it is very ambitious and does not really tackle the immediate pressures faced in the Health & Social Care system. It is a challenging time for Local Authorities on the back of ten years of austerity, the pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis. However, despite all this Cllr Cazimoglu said she was confident that Enfield Council will be prepared come October 2023. It is a very important piece of work, and she welcomed the interest that the committee is showing.

Sharon Burgess, Head of Safeguarding Adults highlighted the key messages and explained that the work is in preparation for the new duty for the Care Quality Commission to assess how Local Authorities are meeting their Adult Social care duties and how Enfield Adult Social Care are preparing for these inspections. CQC’s new responsibilities under the Health and Care Act are twofold. Firstly, there will be a role in reviewing Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and secondly a new duty is placed on the CQC to assess how Local Authorities are meeting their social care duties under part 1 of the Care Act. Emerging CQC scope for reviews of Adult Social Care has started to be shared. The assessment framework has been grouped into four key themes, each with several quality statements mapped to them and these are set out in the report. A self -assessment tool developed by ADASS (the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services) is being used to ensure that the desired processes are in place, or being worked towards, and that evidence is being regularly collated. CQC will speak to staff at all levels of the organisation as well as partners and those who use the services, their families, and partners.

Questions and comments were invited from Panel members.

The Chair, Cllr Hockney asked what the drive behind this change of process had been. Officers were not sure but said that there is an expectation from the Government for some sort of regulation for all large health bodies so this could be seen as an additional statutory layer. It is also about assuring that Local Authorities are carrying out their duties under the care act, as well as gaining an understanding of the system and how it works.

In response to a further question from Cllr Hockney as to what benefits will come from this process Sharon said that she always welcomes inspections as it is an opportunity to reflect on what’s been done, is being done and what could be done better, and that is what is happening now; by looking at the strengths of the service, strengthening these if necessary and identifying what needs to be put in place to make improvements if required. There is fundamentally going to be risks for any Local Authority, but the important thing is knowing in which areas to focus attention and that there is a plan in place.

Cllr Stevens asked what the key risks were and what was being done to mitigate these. It was confirmed that some risks have been identified and work is taking place in various areas to address these, including more emphasis being placed around the Mental Capacity Act and focusing on audits within this area. There is also a need to be mindful about pathways into other services to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible at the time it is needed. Work is ongoing with partners and safeguarding adult reviews are being used to explore what can be done differently. Enfield already have a good relationship with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as they regulate the care homes and nursing homes in the borough (which Enfield have a lot of). The CQC have been really clear that they are not expecting perfection but are expecting Local Authorities to know where the problems are.

Cllr Supple sought clarification with regard to supervision having not been written and asked officers to elaborate on this point. Sharon advised that although there had not been an actual Supervision Policy, supervision was happening and recorded in the appropriate notes. One of the things that the CQC will be looking at is where is your policy, what are your procedures and do all staff know about it and work towards it. Some of the risks for not having a policy is that supervision may not be the same across the board, so it is always good to have a policy as this provides a baseline. Sharon confirmed however that a Supervision Policy is now in place along with an audit programme plan that will partly look at supervision to ensure that that there is quality of support throughout the workforce.

In response to Cllr Supple’s query regarding incorporating the good plans that are already written so that new ones are not created it was confirmed that officers are looking at everything on the internet and intranet and duplications are being found. Work is taking place to ensure that information is up to date and accessible to all staff and partners. A lot of the review forms and mental capacity forms have now been integrated into the system and sharing with partners what is being done. It is important that things are not over complicated therefore if something works well in another borough, then it is replicated in another.

The Chair thanked officers for the detailed report and for responding to Members’ questions.