Waltham Forest council has received an overall rating of ‘Good’ from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following a recent assessment of its adult social care services.
The CQC’s assessment, published today, highlights the council’s commitment to tackling inequalities, positive experiences of residents when receiving adult social care, and the improvement plans laid out to further strengthen our services.
CQC has a new duty under the Care Act (2014) 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.
In highlighting where the council performs well, the assessment team found:
The local authority built strong partnerships with voluntary and community groups to help people stay connected and access support beyond formal care.
Staff used performance and demographic data to identify gaps in provision and adjust services to meet local needs more effectively.
Waltham Forest Council promoted the uptake of direct payments, to enable people's control over how their care and support needs were met. There was a higher uptake for people from ethnically diverse backgrounds.
The local authority kept people with Care Act needs safe as they moved between services and transitions were generally well managed.
The local authority listened to feedback from people and demonstrated their commitment to improvement.
The assessment also provided areas to focus on, including more consistent strength-based practice training for staff and improved monitoring of people placed out of area.
Councillor Louise Mitchell, Cabinet member for Adults and Health said:
“Receiving a ‘Good’ rating is only possible thanks to the hard work and care of our staff and partners, to whom we’re incredibly grateful.
I’m pleased the CQC recognised our approaches to early help and prevention, and supporting residents to stay independent rather than rely on formal services. It’s encouraging to hear residents who used the early help service reported feeling more hopeful and confident.
I’m proud that other highlights include our strong commitment to reducing inequalities and our approach to personalised care. There is always more work to do and we’re determined to continue with this positive momentum to improve our services even more.”
Chris Badger, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said:
“Overall, Waltham Forest should be really pleased with the many positive findings in our report and their good rating. They’ve already told us how they’re planning to build on this further with improvement plans and we look forward to returning to see how their plans mature.”
The assessment can be viewed on CQC’s website.