29/11/2007 - More improvements in Adult Social Care services : Cumbria County Council

Adult Social Care services in Cumbria have narrowly missed out on two stars despite making dramatic improvements over the last year.

In its latest report, the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has re-awarded Cumbria County Council a one star rating and said prospects for further improvement are ‘promising’.

The CSCI uses performance indicators as one of the few measurable factors in the inspection process to determine whether a council’s adult social care services are improving.

Performance indicators for Cumbria show that over the last 12 months, Cumbria’s services are the ninth most improved out of 146 councils audited.

With this in mind, the council took the unusual step earlier this month of appealing against the decision to award Cumbria one-star instead of two.

But inspectors declined to amend their original decision citing two specific rating areas where the council was considered 'adequate' rather than 'good'. These were:

- the way the council recorded the ethnic background of people using adult social care services and;

- the results of a survey carried out earlier this year by the county council - the first of its kind in the country - into the level of disabled access to 100 public meeting venues in Cumbria.

During the last twelve months, the council has worked to help more people with physical and learning disabilities to live at home and provide older people with better choice and independence.

Councillor Oliver Pearson, cabinet member responsible for Adult Social Care and Health at the county council, said: "We are obviously disappointed to have missed out on two-stars by a mere whisker.

"Performance indicators are one of the few measurable factors in the inspection process and on these, Cumbria Adult Social Care's results show that during the past twelve months, we have leapfrogged 51 of the country's 152 councils on performance.

"The disappointment of missing out on two stars should not take anything away from the fantastic improvements made this year by staff right across the county.

"There is no complacency about the work still to do, and between now and the next inspection we will working even harder to speed up the pace of change."

Media enquiries to Mark Graham, Media Officer on 01228-606337

Notes

The Commission for Social Care Inspection is a national independent agency reporting to central government.

The CSCI publish their verdict on the council's overall performance once a year in the form of a star rating –three stars being the highest score.

There are four 'performance descriptors' to reflect whether current delivery of outcomes is: poor, adequate, good or excellent. Prospects for improvement are rated as poor, uncertain, promising or excellent.

Cumbria County Council’s 2007 Performance Ratings for Adult Social Services have been judged one star; adequate current delivery of outcomes with promising capacity to improve.

Follow the link at the bottom of the page to view this year's performance indicator report. The following link will allow you to see a copy of a spreadsheet containing star-ratings - http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/eLibrary/view.asp?ID=21281