"We are very proud of this official recognition" - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council's Adult Social Care Service is rated 'Good'
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council's Adult Social Care Service has officially been rated 'Good' following the publication of the Care and Quality Commission's (CQC) inspection report.
The Council's "commitment to supporting the Borough's most vulnerable residents" and the "strong and supportive" culture of the service are just two of the many strengths that were highlighted by the inspectors.
Inspectors rated the service 'Good' following an inspection in November 2024 which focussed on quality standards in four key themes - how the local authority works with people, providing support, ensuring safety, and leadership. They acknowledged that senior officers understood the demographic of the Borough, praising their insight into inequalities and barriers to social care experienced by people in Stockton-on-Tees.
The Adult Social Care Service provides a range of support to residents whose needs arise from, or are related to, a physical or mental impairment or illness which makes them unable to manage daily life and is likely to impact on their wellbeing.
Councillor Pauline Beall, the Council's Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: "We are greatly encouraged by the Care Quality Commission's report and I'm delighted the inspectors recognised the dedication of our staff, who work so hard to support residents across the Borough.
"This rating is a credit to the service staff, leadership team and our partners for their work to ensure people are well supported and kept safe.
"The report praised our clear vision to improve outcomes for people with care and support needs, unpaid carers and reduce inequalities for people in the local area, including the work we are doing through our Powering Our Futures programme.
"We are very proud of this official recognition, but we are not complacent, and we know there are areas where we need to do more work. We already have plans in place to address these and we're moving on quickly with these areas of work and with our journey of improvement."
The Council's ambition to innovatively increase and utilise feedback about services with a view to improving peoples' experiences and outcomes was highlighted, with the report also recognising that learning from feedback from care providers, staff, and people was listened to, used to influence decision making and to improve practice.
The report also praised "a clear, ongoing, and multi-agency ambition" to better understand and tackle issues through the Council's Powering Our Futures programme, A Fairer Stockton-on-Tees and its Health and Wellbeing Strategy, stating there was a "strong commitment" to addressing these challenges.
Resources provided by the local authority were noted as "helping to prevent, delay or reduce the need for care, and promote early intervention and prevention".
Visible and accessible leadership, a strong awareness among staff groups to keep people safe, and a culture of continuous learning and improvement were some of the many other positives acknowledged by inspectors in the report.
The rating follows on from a national, independent peer review carried out by the Local Government Association (LGA) in July 2024, which measured how prepared teams within the Council's adult social care team are for a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection and how well the organisation is delivering adult social care services for its residents.
The review provided feedback on ways to further strengthen services including improving integrated working for those residents who need a higher level of support, future proofing and planning for a sustainable workforce and ensuring that when residents use services, they do not have to repeatedly retell their story.
This feedback included areas of improvement already identified by the Council, reinforcing the work it is doing to address and further develop these areas.
