Room for improvement in social care

The Commission for Social Care Inspection published its annual reports for adult social care services across the country and gave Wiltshire services for 2007/08 an adequate rating.

It also said it had the capacity to improve and labelled its work ‘promising’.

Ratings for improving health and wellbeing, making a positive contribution, and leadership of the service, were all found to be improving.

In 06/07 the service was given one star, with uncertain prospects for improvement.

For the past two years the county council has been re-organising the way care services are provided.

In that time it has cut the number of people who stay in hospital for a long time, has opened a new residential and care complex in Malmesbury and gained a £1.4million Government grant towards a £8.1m extra care home development in Trowbridge.

Brian Warwick, the chairman of Wiltshire and Swindon Users Network, said: “The problem with inspectorate reports are that they are out of date before they are published, because of the time lag in preparation.

“While the report reflects some improvements in the services in Wiltshire, I am somewhat disappointed that the inspectorate report does not reflect the full picture and the tremendous improvements in user involvement and the enhancements that have been made.”

The report also included a number of recommendations about where improvements could be made. They included continuing to focus with the NHS and hospitals on the length of hospital stays, improve the assessment of individual people’s needs, and help more disabled people into work and volunteering.

John Thomson, the cabinet member for community services, said: “We are committed to developing social care services in Wiltshire to ensure people have a life not a service.

“Turning this vision into a reality does take time but the people who need our services are already seeing many of the benefits and I am pleased the commission recognises what we are seeking to achieve.”