Lewisham Council has retained its two star rating for adult social care and received praise for improvements it has made to its service.
The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has announced that the council continues to serve most people well and has a promising capacity for improvement.
Cllr Chris Best, Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “I would like to congratulate everyone that has worked so hard at the council to make this assessment result possible. The judgement is testament not only to the quality of care we provide but also to the hard work that is being put in to making our services even better.”
CSCI noted in its thorough appraisal that the council had improved the way it operated in a number of key areas:
- The council and the PCT have made further progress in the integration of social care and health services for adults.
- Integrated commissioning has been strengthened since the establishment of the new Adults Joint Commissioning Board, the appointment of the Director of Commissioning and the establishment of a joint commissioning unit.
- The integration of adults' social care into the council's Community Services Directorate has enabled the involvement of a broader range of service inputs, particularly in relation to preventative services.
- There is strong collaboration between social care and health staff at operational levels in care planning and the delivery of services.
- Progress has been made in the modernisation of day services and the Council performs strongly in supporting service users to remain living at home.
- The council has effective recruitment strategies in place and invests strongly in staff training.
The assessment also highlighted a number of areas that the council would benefit from concentrating on in the future, including modernising day services, timeliness of assessments, review compliance and direct payments uptake.
The council is pleased to announce that these areas of service have already been highlighted by internal assessment as needing to be focussed on, and improvements to these areas are in progress.