Derby City Council: local authority assessment
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Overall summary
Local authority rating and score
Quality statement scores
Summary of people's experiences
People’s experiences of care and support from Derby local authority were mixed. Some felt their views were heard and listened to, with their needs considered throughout the assessment process. People identified positive relationships with social workers and clear involvement of the family when decisions were being made. Carers felt assessments were not carried out in a timely manner, highlighting a lack of communication between the teams and providers. Teams were aware of cultural differences and the diversity of Derby as a city. The need for different language interpretation had been acknowledged and where specific requests had been made information had been produced accordingly. The local authority had teams to support the deaf community and people with learning disabilities and autism. People told us there were clear gaps in provision for learning disabilities, autism and the Deaf community which impacted timely access to local service provision.
Derby Direct was the named contact centre for the local authority. People with non-eligible needs were provided with information and signposted to relevant organisations for support. Staff told us that Derby Direct referred people with eligible care needs directly to frontline teams, and that they were clear when to escalate identified problems. There was a range of online information which covered how to access different areas of adult social care. However, people told us that there was an over reliance on the online support which failed to consider barriers of access for people with learning difficulties or people where English was a second language.
Carers identified gaps in support and provision provided by the local authority. While the feedback the local authority received from carers was mixed, the feedback we received from carers was largely negative. They told us there was a lack of preventative measures put in place to support them and that the long waiting time for assessments was in some cases impacting on their mental health. The local authority was working to improve this, and work had already begun to improve communication and ensure regular engagement with carers to understand their needs.
Summary of strengths, areas for development and next steps
Derby local authority had gone through a recent change in political leadership. Both leadership and staff spoke of the positive governance in place, demonstrating scrutiny and challenge, with adult social care being viewed as a priority.
There was a positive learning culture, with staff acknowledging accessible training and the ability to request additional training when it was needed. Frontline teams considered the different needs of the people they worked with, however gaps in provision meant there wasn't always appropriate service provision for some groups of the community. The local authority had initiated work to start to understand the need of seldom heard groups, those people who find it more difficult to access council services, through such initiatives as their Black Lives Matter group, but we had feedback from community groups, and the local authority themselves recognized, there was more work to be done in this area. There was a gap in strategic understanding the experiences and needs of seldom heard groups to ensure service provision met their needs in the community.
The national data for Derby was in line with national trends with only slight variances in some areas. However, the trend of negative feedback we received from carers demonstrated that there was more work to be done to improve their experiences of accessing the support they needed. The quality of care was good with both residential care and nursing care available in the city. The local authority was aware where they had gaps in services and strategic plans had begun to identify areas of improvement which would take place over the next couple of years. Staff told us of gaps in the market that they had identified, and future work was planned to engage with providers in a consistent way. The local authority had several strategies in draft form and accepted the Covid-19 pandemic had affected progress on several strategic areas. There was a gap in how data and performance data was used to strategically develop and monitor service provision to ensure continuous improvement. There was also an acknowledged need to further develop systems which capture people's experiences in a consistent way to ensure the full engagement of people that use services.
The local authority had strong partnership relationships and had positive examples of working in an integrated way with health, staff told us that community connectors were trained to take blood pressure in the community and had successfully worked with people. There were clear relationships with the voluntary sector and processes to engage on issues experienced by the community. However, the voluntary sector told us they didn't always feel they were listened to and engaged with, as there was very little co-production, which affected the authorities' ability to understand the needs of the people they worked with. Staff told us that there was a need to involve people's experiences in the quality assurance of services, in a way that would support future strategic planning.
The take up of direct payments was high particularly amongst carers. Partners told us that prepayment cards were the only option for people to arrange services. We were told that people were told there were no alternatives and families often struggled to find services. Partners felt that this was an area which needed more monitoring as suitable services were not always available in the community.
Partners spoke positively about the relationship they had with the local authority; the Safeguarding Adults Board described the local authority’s involvement in the Board as ‘promoting a culture of openness’ to challenges.
The local authority was going through a process of strategic change with many strategies in draft form. However, there was no overall plan for delivery of these strategies within the current resources of the organisation.
The local authority had identified that there were waiting lists and a backlog for safeguarding enquires and assessments. The local authority had taken action to address this and had started to reduce the back logs. There was also a waiting list for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) assessments. Safeguarding was an area which had undergone huge changes, the local authority had recognised the issue of the backlogs and had made notable improvements. The reduction in waiting lists was supported by using additional staff. There was a gap in how strategic oversight of performance management was used throughout the authority to both mitigate risk for people using the service and ensure waiting lists did not escalate again.