A report by the Interim Director of Adult Social Services informed the Cabinet of the completion of the milestones as identified in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Improvement Plan September 2010 as recommended by the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 8 November 2011. 

The report sought the Cabinet’s agreement to the proposed reporting mechanism for those Milestones that were subject to Change Control and informed of the Self Evaluation process that had been agreed between the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Government and the need to publish a “Local Account”.  The report also sought the Cabinet’s endorsement to the Department of Adult Social Services (DASS) Self Evaluation document that had been undertaken in preparation for the Peer Review that would take place in 2012.

The Cabinet’s agreement was sought to the publication of a Local Account by 31 December 2011.

The Interim Director of Adult Social Services informed that it was his view and that of his colleagues, based on evidence, that his Department had made enormous progress over the last year.  The Department had met an overwhelming number of milestones.  Some changes had already had positive effects whilst others needed time to bed in.  The evidence of the impact was in the benchmarking information in the report where comparisons were made against North West Departments of Adult Social Services.

Councillor A McArdle commended the Department on the quality of the report.  She considered that it was an excellent model that could be used across the Council for presenting evidence.  The staff had put a lot of time in and had worked hard.  Councillor McArdle congratulated them and the Interim Director of Adult Social Services on the progress that had been made.  This was to the credit of the previous Council Administration who had started out on this journey and the staff working in the Adult Social Services Department.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the Cabinet approves the completion of the milestones as identified in the CQC Improvement Plan September 2010;

(2)  the Cabinet agrees the proposed reporting mechanism for those Milestones that were subject to Change Control;

(3)  the Cabinet notes the Self Evaluation process that has been agreed between the LGA and Government and the need to publish a “Local Account”;

(4)  the Cabinet endorses the Department of Adult Social Services Self Evaluation document; and

(5)  the Cabinet approves the publication of a Local Account by 31 December 2011.