Jason Oxley, Assistant Director of Care and Health introduced the report, which provided a regular update on the performance of Adult Social Care and Health as requested at the meeting on 13 October 2020.

The report provided statistics relating to residential and nursing care in the borough and it was reported that there was currently a significant vacancy rate of around 15%, partly as a result of temporary closures for new admissions due to Covid-19 outbreaks or contractual issues.

The Committee discussed the care homes that had been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Council’s ability to continue to carry out inspections during the pandemic. It was reported that there were ongoing issues with the quality improvement team accessing care settings, but that quality surveillance was still taking place through the observations of district nurses, GPs and specialist health staff alongside regular surveillance meeting.

Members discussed the reasons why care homes moved into the ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ CQC category and how the performance of care homes could be monitored pre and post Covid-19.

Resolved – That

(1)  the report be noted.

(2)  case analysis of care homes moving into the ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ Care Quality Commission categories be included in future performance reports.

(3)  the Assistant Director of Care and Health be requested to undertake a review of the reasons for ending reablement that were currently categorised as “other” and include the findings in future performance reports.

(4)  the Assistant Director of Care and Health be requested to consider the use of notifiable incidents within care homes as a way of measuring their performance before and during the pandemic and report the findings back to the Adult Social Care and Health Committee.