Agenda item

Report of the Director of Adult Services

The Board gave brief consideration to a report of the Executive Director of People concerning the Adult Services Workforce Development Strategy 2017-2019 and the Practice Quality Assurance Framework for Adult Social Care. Copies of the strategy and framework were set out at appendices to the report. The issue had been discussed at length at the Board’s workshop which had taken place earlier in the day. Councillor Abbott, Cabinet Member for Adult Services attended the meeting for the consideration of this issue.

The report indicated that workforce development was a key element of providing a good quality Adult Social Care service, both in respect of ensuring staff had the skills and learning opportunities to operate in an evolving social care environment and ensuring that staff working in the service were able to respond to the challenges they faced. Linked to this a Practice Quality Assurance framework was key to understanding practice standards and supporting staff to improve and learn where required.

The workforce strategy was conceived out of the need to support the implementation of the vision and principles for Adult Social Care and outlined the key workforce challenges for Adult Services over the next two years. The strategy complimented the City Council’s current Workforce Strategy. The Strategy outlined current national and local demographics, adult social care activity and an overview of the current adult services workforce. It provides a framework for Adult Social Care to ensure its workforce was skilled, stable, motivated and committed to delivering its objectives and that the Council was achieving positive outcomes for the people of Coventry within the resources available.

The development and subsequent delivery of the strategy was overseen by the Adult Services Workforce Development Board chaired by the Director of Adult Services. The strategy outlined the workforce priorities for the next two years which included a priority to enhance leadership, management and supervision to support practice development. A key activity in supporting this priority was the implementation of a revised quality assurance framework which included a process for organisational health checks.

The Adult Services Practice Quality Assurance Framework detailed the service’s approach to quality assurance. The framework built on previous casework audits and developed the approach to focus on self-assessment and quality assessment methods at social work and occupational therapy practitioner level. By applying the framework it was anticipated that there would be greater consistency and accountability in the quality of service provided, with the right support and challenge in place to improve practice.

The specific audit components were in two key areas, those to be owned and delivered by practitioners and their line managers and those to be delivered at an organisational level. The finding from quality assurance would be collated, with compliance and key themes forming part of the quarterly report. This would ensure clear governance reporting and oversight of social care quality and improvement. The framework had been subject to surveying and feedback from front line staff in order to ensure it was relevant and useable by both managers and staff.     

RESOLVED that:

(1) The content of the report on the workforce development strategy and practice quality assurance in Adult Social Care be noted.

(2) The report arising from the forthcoming Care Quality Commission review of the Health and Social Care system in Coventry be submitted to a future meeting, when available.

(3) An update report on the new supervision regime be submitted to a future meeting of the Board once the system has been operating for 12 months, unless the feedback is to be included in the Adult Social Care Annual Report.

(4) The poster setting out the responses from the Adult Services organisational health check be circulated to members of the Board.