HEREFORDSHIRE Council has defended the adult social care it provides in the county after being told by a government inspectorate it ‘requires improvement’.

The Care Quality Commission rated nine areas of the council’s work with disabled adults, older people and their unpaid carers, rating seven of these with a two out of four.

The council’s work in partnership and communities and safeguarding, each received a three.

One identified weakness in the service was in the help given to people to regain their independence after an illness, injury or hospital stay, with some facing long waits for support equipment and home adaptations to enable this – not helped by the council’s main equipment provider that unexpectedly ceasing trading five weeks before the Care Quality Commission’s visit.

In some cases, discharging people from hospital “took longer than needed, which affected their subsequent recovery and rehabilitation”, the Commission found.

Its chief inspector of adult social care, Chris Badger, said: “We found further work was needed to assess people’s needs promptly and support them to be as independent as possible.”

He added that people in the county sometimes waited a long time for their care assessments, reviews and financial assessments, though leaders had already put in place some measures to address this.

Herefordshire Council’s Cabinet member for adults, health and wellbeing Cllr Carole Gandy said: “We fully recognise the need to improve in areas of how we support those adults who are often the most vulnerable in society and need us the most.

“We have developed and already made progress on many elements of a comprehensive improvement plan during the past year.”

The Care Quality Commission’s report is clear about where we are doing well and reflects where we know we can provide better services for people in our care, and those who look after them, she said.

“Like everywhere, demand has increased dramatically, putting pressure on services and budgets, and as the Commission recognised, we have the additional challenges of a large rural area and ageing population,” Cllr Gandy added.

“That’s why we’re now doing things differently – introducing new services, care models, and technology.”

Care Quality Commission has only recently moved into assessing local authorities’ adult social care, and this is the first such inspection of Herefordshire Council.

The Commission’s report recognised strengths in how services support people including keeping people safe with the authority’s safeguarding arrangements which was rated ‘Good’.

The assessment found there were effective systems, processes and practices to make sure people were protected from abuse and neglect’, and that safeguarding concerns were triaged quickly and timely responses.

The Commission also highlighted a ‘robust, evidence‑based approach’ to quality assurance with clear arrangements to monitor the quality and impact of the care and support services provided for people.

The Care Quality Commission stated that ‘staff were passionate about supporting people’, and ‘understood the area and the specific needs of the people.

The Commission evaluated that partnership working was rated ‘Good’, with a ‘collaborative nature to health and care in Herefordshire’, and ‘there were strong links between adult social care, housing, public health and community organisations.