The Care Quality Commission (CQC), has rated the London Borough of Haringey as requires improvement, in how well they are meeting their responsibilities to ensure people have access to adult social care and support.
CQC has a new responsibility to assess how local authorities meet their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act (2014).
CQC looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well the authority is meeting their responsibilities in order to create their 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 – 2
- Supporting people to lead healthier lives – 2
- Equity in experience and outcomes – 2
- Care provision, integration and continuity of care - 2
- Partnership and communities – 3
- Safe pathways, systems and transitions - 2
- Safeguarding - 3
- Governance, management and sustainability - 2
- Learning, improvement and innovation - 2
James Bullion, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said:
At this assessment, we found the London Borough of Haringey demonstrated a commitment to transformation and improvements, with clear efforts to support people’s independence and wellbeing. Although it’s too early to assess the full impact on people’s experiences and outcomes we did see some results already. Haringey’s reablement services were particularly effective, helping people regain independence and reducing the need for long-term care.
We were pleased to see the introduction of a more local approach, making it easier for people to access care and support closer to where they live. The authority worked well as part of a multi-agency team, made up of health professionals, social workers, and specialists, to help people stay healthy and live independently. We saw this play a key role in reducing hospital admissions.
However, there are areas Haringey needs to improve. People were waiting too long to have their care needs assessed and were frustrated with the communication around this. This was reflected in the mixed feedback we received about people’s experiences. Once people were being supported, they were generally happy with their assessments, but people with additional communication needs and non-English speakers faced barriers when seeking information or trying to access that support. Haringey is aware of this access issue and it’s reassuring to see them taking steps to address it.
The authority also needs to address the limited local care provision which reduced people’s ability to make choices about their care. This also extended to carers who told us they struggled to get access to the support they needed, making it difficult to get a break from their responsibilities and negatively impacting their wellbeing.
London Borough of Haringey has a really good understanding of the areas they need to improve and an effective foundation on which to build them. We look forward to returning to see how their plans mature and the impact this has on the community.
The assessment team found:
- People were given quick access to support and equipment after a hospital discharge to help them remain independent at home. Data showed 92% of people supported were still at home after 91 days, which is better than the England average of 83.7%.
- Mental health was recognised as a key priority, with funded activities like the mental health network aimed at preventing people’s mental health becoming poor. Plans for a refurbished mental health centre were in progress to support early intervention, though this project had experienced delays.
- Haringey had reduced rough sleeping in the borough by 71% since July 2018. They had effective strategies behind this success and had planned further work to reduce risks and improve people’s wellbeing.
- Frontline teams had introduced a triage system to ensure urgent cases were prioritised reducing risks for people with immediate needs.
- The authority was in the process of improving the support for children transitioning into adult care services as well as it starting earlier.
- Haringey’s reablement services supported people’s independence and reduced unnecessary hospital admissions.
- Effective safeguarding processes reduced the risk of people being abused or neglected.
However, the assessment team also found:
- Older people and people without digital skills find it difficult to access services or information through the local authority’s online platforms.
- Most feedback from unpaid carers was negative. Data showed only 23.29% were satisfied with services in Haringey, compared to the England average of 36.83%. Many carers told CQC that the support on offer hadn’t had a positive impact on their lives and their health and wellbeing was declining.
- Data showed that approximately 30% of people’s placements were outside of the North Central London (NCL) region. While many placements remained within the local sub-region, a significant proportion of placements outside the NCL region likely reduced people’s choice and continuity of care.
The assessment will be published on CQC’s website on Friday 7 February.