Labour Westminster City Council’s Adult Social Care Service has received a “Good” rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – a testament to the important work of council staff who are committed to delivering safe and high-quality outcomes for our residents. This follows a thorough onsite inspection carried out from 17-19 June 2024, where the CQC spoke with council staff, members of the local account group (made up of residents), councillors, commissioned providers and health partners.
The report outlines many strengths for Adult Social Care in Westminster including the council’s commitment towards delivering a service that is co-designed by service users and unpaid carers.
The Local Account Group, a group of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea residents and service users, told the CQC that unpaid carers and service users felt listened to and empowered to influence policy and services that are delivered by the Council.
Staff also felt listened to and trusted by senior leaders to make decisions, with the report describing the service’s leadership as visible, capable and compassionate.
The report states that social care staff demonstrated a person-centred approach during assessment and support planning. This was evidenced by the success of the reablement provision which showed that over 90% of people who received short-term support no longer required ongoing care.
Safeguarding Adults was noted a particular strength. The report commends the Council’s multi-agency approach to identifying and removing obstacles that might prevent people from accessing safeguarding services including language barriers. By working with local partners to meet community needs, we were able to support people to access information, including clarity on what “being safe” means to them and how to raise concerns when they did not feel safe.
Another strength highlighted was the council’s mission to reduce inequalities both within our workforce and in the wider care workforce market. Inequalities were addressed through removing gender and ethnicity pay gaps and using data insight from the Homecare Transformation Programme to increase carers pay by £1.50 per hour, keeping it above the London Living Wage.
The pay increase has had a positive impact on staff retention in our homecare agencies, which in turn has benefited on the continuous care and support given to residents in our care service.
Councillor Nafsika Butler-Thalassis, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Voluntary Sector, said:
“The CQC inspection result stands as a reflection of our unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality outcomes for our service users. This success is a collaborative triumph, co-produced alongside service users, their carers, and our partners within the community.”
“Achieving such a high score is a great source of pride for the council, and we can assure you that we will continue to deliver our Adult Social Care services with residents’ and carers’ voices at the heart of what we do.”
“Our rating of 75% is currently the highest in London and the second nationally. Some things still need to be improved but considering the difficult context in which ASC operates, the financial strains, the delays in NHS treatment, the cost of living, it’s a remarkable achievement.”
Councillor Adam Hug, Leader of Westminster City Council, said:
“The CQC Chief Inspector said Westminster demonstrated a “real commitment’ to manage services with good systems in place for assessing people’s needs and planning care…carried out responsive assessments quickly, and made sure people had good access to the information they needed.” He concluded that “Overall, Westminster City Council should be really pleased with this assessment. They’ve built a great foundation on which to progress their current plans and make further changes.”