northlincs.gov.uk

68 (11) ANNUAL COMPLAINTS REPORT 2009-2010 – The Service Director Adult Social Services submitted a report to present the annual report for April 2009–March 2010 in respect of formal complaints received about Adult Social Services.

It was a requirement of the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 to present the annual report on complaints made about Adults Social Services. The complaints report was compiled in accordance with the above legislation and guidance. It outlined the complaints made and key actions taken by the services in response to them. The report also contained information about the operation of the procedure over the year.

The report highlighted that out of a total of about 6000 service users, 41 formal complaints were made about the service. This identified that there had been a decrease in the number of formal complaints dealt with in the year.

Resolved – (a) That the Annual Report on complaints for 2009-2010 be accepted, and the actions that had been taken, both to resolve the complaints and to learn from them be endorsed.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) was the independent regulator of Health and Adult Social Care Services in England. The commission was formed in April 2010 and brought together into one body the former Health Care Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission. Every year CQC made a judgement on all Social Services Departments in England and these judgements were publicly available. The judgements were based on a range of performance indicators, inspections and visits relating to activity during the previous council year (in this case April 2009 to March 2010).

The CQC rated how well the council’s adult social services were delivered by using four grades – poor, adequate, well and excellent. North Lincolnshire Council’s grading of “performing well” showed the Commission had found that the council –

• Consistently delivered above minimum requirements
• Was cost effective
• Made contributions to wider outcomes for the community

The assessment judged North Lincolnshire Adult Social Services to be performing well in delivering outcomes for the people of North Lincolnshire and excellent in the outcome of “making a positive contribution’. Some aspects of performance showed improved ratings over the previous year’s performance and in no areas had performance dropped.

Resolved – (a) That the report from the CQC be endorsed, (b) that the achievements of Adult Social Services be noted, and (c) that the staff be thanked for their continued dedication to service users.

70 (13) COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE WITH A LEARNING DISABILITY – The Service Director Adult Social Services submitted a report to seek approval to explore how users with a Learning Disability received services and if their support could be met in a more person centred way by another agency or agencies.

Community Support was identified as support received by people within Learning Disabilities in their own home in relation to personal care and medication.

Whilst there was a statutory responsibility for providing the support, it was not specifically a statutory function of the council. There were a number of private sector providers who provided support to users in the community. The support required would need to be provided by a service regulated by the Care Quality Commission.

The benefit to the users was that they would have some control over who would support them in the future.

Resolved – That option two outlined within the report be approved and adopted.

Note: Reports are in Portable Document Format (PDF) and therefore require a suitable reader to view them. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).

Where there is no report this is because it is exempt, as it contains information which is considered to be of a confidential nature, as detailed in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act.