The Care Quality Commission (CQC), has rated Sunderland City Council as good, in how well they are meeting their responsibilities to ensure people have access to adult social care and support under the Care Act (2014).
CQC has a new duty under the Act to assess how local authorities work with their communities and partners to meet their responsibilities. This includes promoting the wellbeing and independence of working age disabled adults, older people, and their unpaid carers to reduce their need for formal support where appropriate. Where support is needed it should provide people with choice and control of how their care needs are met.
CQC looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well the authority is meeting their responsibilities in order to create their good rating. CQC has given each of these nine areas a score out of four with one being the evidence shows significant shortfalls, and four showing an exceptional standard.
- Assessing people’s needs – 3
- Supporting people to lead healthier lives – 3
- Equity in experience and outcomes – 3
- Care provision, integration and continuity of care - 3
- Partnership and communities – 3
- Safe pathways, systems and transitions - 3
- Safeguarding - 3
- Governance, management and sustainability - 3
- Learning, improvement and innovation - 3
James Bullion, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said:
“At this assessment of Sunderland City Council’s adult social care services, we found leaders had a passion for providing good care. They had a clear understanding of where they needed to address issues and were making continuous improvements to benefit people living in Sunderland.
“For example, there was a specific focus on falls prevention in response to a high number of falls in the older population. The initiative was introduced to understand the underlying reasons for the falls and implement strategies to reduce them. This had been a huge success, and significantly reduced falls related hospital admissions.
“There was a strong focus on reablement to support people to remain independent at home, reducing the need for formal residential care. Sunderland also provided support to help people move out of homelessness and to be able to live independently.
“We heard about staff providing person centred care to someone who had frequent hospital admissions. Staff supported them to move to alternative accommodation to better suit their needs and this reduced their formal care and support needs by 98%. Due to the positive work staff were doing to support people, they had been shortlisted for a team of the year award for Social Worker of the Year Awards.
“Sunderland was aware it wasn’t always easy for unpaid carers to visit drop-in sessions or attend activities available for them, so they had created an app as an alternative way of reaching them. This helped unpaid carers with support, improving awareness of services available and to connect carers with each other. The local authority recognised further improvements were needed to improve the whole journey and experience of carers.
“Overall, Sunderland City Council should be pleased with the many positive findings in our report and are already building on this with further improvement plans. We look forward to returning to see how they have built on these areas of good practice and how their plans mature.”
The assessment team also found:
- The authority worked well with partners to proactively improve the health and wellbeing for people in Sunderland.
- The local authority engaged with people where inequalities had been identified, to understand and address the specific risks and issues experienced by them.
- There was a service in place which offered a single point of access for older people aimed at addressing social isolation.
- People could access equipment and minor home adaptations to maintain their independence and continue living in their own homes.
- There were effective systems and processes in place to make sure people were protected from abuse and neglect.
- The local authority was increasing the use of technology such as text messages, video calls and emails, rather than relying on telephone communication.
- Staff used technology to promote people’s independence and improve safety. For example, someone at risk of falls due to their physical health needs was provided with a device that closed their curtains. This provided them with choice and control.