Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This is to report on the outcome of the Annual Performance Assessment undertaken by Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) for the year April 2007 to March 2008 on Bath & North East Somerset's Adult Social Services.

1.2 The CSCI report identifies where the Council is doing well and areas for further development. Alongside the report is the Council's Improvement Plan in response to the areas for development.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 Notes the Annual Performance Assessment and improvement in the overall star rating for Adult Social Services.

2.2 Agrees the Council's Improvement Plan

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The improvement plan will be undertaken within existing resources.

4 CORPORATE PRIORITIES

5 THE REPORT

5.1 The Annual Performance Assessment (APA) is a year long process of reporting and engagement with CSCI which enables them to form a judgement about the Councils Adult Social Care provision.

5.2 The judgement made by CSCI extends beyond Adult Social Care as it contributes to the Councils Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).

5.3 During the reporting year April 2007 - March 2008 CSCI judged Bath & North East Somerset Councils `Delivery of Outcomes' to be Good and the `Capacity of Improvement' to be Promising. This equates to a 2 Star Rating.

5.4 This is a very positive result and reflects the hard work and commitment of staff to make improvements following the 1 Star judgement for 2006-07.

5.5 The senior management team are pleased with CSCI's comments regarding the improvements that had been observed and accept their assessment of areas for further improvement.

5.6 The recommendations made by CSCI are intended to help Councils improve the outcomes and quality of services for service users and their carers and increase the prospects of improving performance in the future.

5.7 An Action Plan has been developed to address the recommendations and is provide in appendix 2.

5.8 It should be noted that there will be fundamental changes to the inspection and assessment process for 2008-09 due to the formation of the new Care Quality Commission which will bring together the work of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, the Healthcare Commission, and the Mental Health Act Commission.

6 RISK MANAGEMENT

6.1 The report author and Lead Cabinet member have fully reviewed the risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance. This report does not have a directly related risk assessment. Any service changes arising out of the improvement plan will be subject to the ongoing service risk assessment processes.

7 EQUALITIES

7.1 The services which are impacted on by the improvement plan are subject to their own equalities impact assessment processes and timetable.

8 RATIONALE

8.1 To not provide and implement an improvement plan risks a lowering of the external assessment for 08/09.

9 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

9.1 None.

10 CONSULTATION

10.1 Cabinet members; Trades Unions; Overview & Scrutiny Panel; Section 151 Finance Officer; Chief Executive; Monitoring Officer.

10.2 Verbally with Cabinet Member, electronically with Trade Unions, Section 151, Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer and the report will be presented to the 20^th January 2009, Overview & Scrutiny Panel.

11 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

11.1 Social Inclusion; Customer Focus; Human Resources; Human Rights; Corporate; Health & Safety; Impact on Staff; Other Legal Considerations

12 ADVICE SOUGHT

12.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer (Strategic Director - Support Services) have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.