Staffordshire County Council: local authority assessment

The local authority understood its local population profile and demographics and was using data to identify inequalities in people’s access to care, their experiences and outcomes. For example, staff, leaders and partners told us the recording of protected characteristics, such as people’s ethnic minority, had increased significantly in the last two years. Performance reports supported leaders to understand how access and outcomes to care and support varied by protected characteristic. Some subsequent work to reduce inequalities was underway, such as the inclusion of community voices in commissioning and market-shaping activities, while larger programmes were gathering further information to support the reduction of barriers to care and support, such as the Equity Assurance Programme and Action Plan. Feedback from partners about the local authority’s progress towards addressing health inequalities in the county was mixed. For example, some partners told us there was more the local authority could do to maintain connections with the community and reach seldom-heard groups on an ongoing basis rather than through inconsistent periods of engagement. Leaders acknowledged there was more to do to better understand the challenges of specific community groups, for example, the isolated elderly population, and work was ongoing towards this.

The Equity Assurance Programme aimed to proactively engage with people from nine community groups where inequalities had been identified, to build relationships with and understand the specific risks and issues being experienced by their communities. Connections and trust were being successfully established with the first of these groups with the support of voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector (VCFSE) partners, and staff said a review point was planned for March 2025 to co-produce a clear action plan for the next phase of the programme. Staff and leaders understood the importance of building strong links with people in the community to help understand the barriers to care and support they faced before moving towards active co-production activities to address any issues identified. However, local authority strategies and feedback from staff indicated this was a clear ambition for the future.

The local authority had regard for its Public Sector Equality Duty (Equality Act 2010) in the way it delivered its Care Act 2014 functions. For example, Community Impact Assessments were used to ensure proposed improvement work accounted for protected characteristics and did not inadvertently marginalise these groups. There were equality objectives throughout the local authority’s strategic plans. These included a co-produced and adequately resourced strategy to reduce inequalities and to improve the experiences and outcomes for people who were more likely to experience inequality or to have poor care. There was clear leadership for the work and a shared aim to embed this further throughout all adult social care activity. Additionally, the local authority’s equity strategy and practices aligned with that of partner agencies. For example, local authority and prison staff worked together to ensure reasonable adjustments were made for people in line with their rights under the Equality Act 2010 within the constraints of the environment.

Local authority staff involved in carrying out Care Act 2014 duties had a robust understanding of cultural diversity within the area and how best to engage with different communities. Staff were engaged with forums and equality networks and had opportunities to feedback areas of inequality to leaders in which they required additional support. Additional training was provided as a result, for example, around neurodiversity and gender identity, which staff found useful in their roles. Work was in train to diversify recruitment practices and improve inclusive practises during staff induction, with the aim of the social care workforce becoming more representative of the demographic profile of the county.

There were appropriate inclusion and accessibility arrangements in place so that people could engage with the local authority in ways that worked for them. These included improvements to the local authority’s online information offering and self-referral form to improve accessibility, for example, the ability to view information in non-English languages or British Sign Language. People told us staff were able to communicate and meet with them in ways that suited them, such as in their local café or through video call. Additionally, Community Help Points had been set up across the eight county boroughs and districts to provide people with a broad range of community information and advice in formats that met their needs. Staff said this had improved peoples’ access to support and positively impacted their wellbeing.