We plan to issue communications in May, June and July before the Peer Challenge and in July and October after the Peer Challenge. These communications will be archived here.
July Communication #2
Integrated Adult Social Care Peer Challenge
Update for all staff July 2023
Dear all,
I wanted to feedback the initial key messages from the Peer Challenge that took place last week. I shall go into more detail this Thursday during the scheduled session that should be in everyone’s diaries at 11:15am. Please do attend if you can make it, or view the recording when circulated.
The first thing to say is that the Peers saw lots of examples of great work in Devon, things that they will be taking back to their own areas to improve the outcomes they are helping people to achieve. We should be very proud of that. They saw pockets of excellence and challenged us to be better at spreading our successes across Devon quickly and consistently. We need to work together to make that happen.
The Peers were very complementary about our vision and strategies and highlighted opportunities to shout louder and clearer about the true value of social care, and really live by our vision. To do this we will need to make sure that our delivery plans match our ambition. Peers also noted the importance of being equally focussed on the here and now as well as across the next few years, we’ll need to make sure we get this right.
Our Promoting Independence approach is the right approach, and we need to embed it in everything we do. This means empowering people to take control, and being creative when we see risk rather than being stifled by it; we need to focus all our enthusiasm and commitment on what makes most difference to people’s lives.
The Peers noted a vibrant VCSE in Devon, and that we can build on this and the wealth of its experience and insights to share our challenges and co-producing solutions.
You can access the feedback presentation delivered by the Peer Team on Friday from our Peer Challenge Website where we will publish their full report in the autumn.
I’d like to thank all of you who participated in the process. Peers praised the honesty, enthusiasm and commitment of all those they met; the welcome they received; and the excellence of our organisation.
Hope you can join me on Thursday when I’ll have the opportunity to say a bit more and take any questions you may have.
Tandra
July Communication #1
Integrated Adult Social Care Peer Challenge
Update for all staff and partners July 2023
From 19th July a Local Government Association Peer Team of eight people from around the country will be spending three days in Devon to assess how well Devon County Council is working with partners and providers in the commissioning and delivery of adult social care services in the area using a similar methodology to the Care Quality Commission.
The Peer Challenge started at the end of June when we submitted our Self-Assessment and a supporting library of evidence as well as publishing our Leadership Survey results. It continued last week when two of the LGA Peer Challenge Team joined us for two days of Case Audit which we have now published our reflections on.
The main visit is scheduled for fieldwork on the 19th and 20th of July. While the timetable is subject to further change, we have published the current version. Participants are being written to separately with additional details and we have published our introductory presentation in advance to help their preparations.
The Peer Challenge will conclude with feedback from the LGA Peer Challenge Team on 21st July and we will share their findings as soon as we are able and begin working on our response that afternoon. We are planning feedback sessions to staff, other colleagues in the council, providers and representative users of our services and their carers which you’ll hear about in due course. When we receive the final report and have agreed our response we will publish both in the Autumn.
Thank you for your ongoing interest in this exercise. It is helping us prepare for inspection by the Care Quality Commission but more importantly it will help us improve services for the people of Devon in line with our vision for promoting their independence.
June Communication
Integrated Adult Social Care Peer Challenge
Update for all staff and partners June 2023
Our preparations for a Peer Challenge organised by the Local Government Association to inform our improvement plans and test our readiness for assessment by the Care Quality Commission are now in their final stages.
We are delighted with the range of backgrounds and experiences the Peer Team will bring with them to Devon from around the country and are confident they will give us valuable insights into where things are working well and not so well.
The timetable we have agreed with them will enable them to conduct interviews and focus groups, join meetings, speak to people who provide and use services, and visit frontline settings around the county to speak with staff.
We have provided them with a self-assessment contributed to and tested with a range of stakeholders and supported by a library of evidence. These will evolve to meet CQC requirements for evidence when they notify us they intend to visit.
We have also completed a leadership survey and on 3rd and 4th of July two of the Peer Team will be joining us to audit twenty-four cases. Resulting reports will be posted on our Peer Challenge website when available.
We plan to communicate again before the Peer Team arrive on 19th July and again to give their initial feedback which we’ll receive on 21st July. A formal report and our response to it will follow in October.
If you are involved in a session, we’ll be briefing you beforehand and asking you to provide a short debrief. Thank you in advance for your cooperation to date and over the coming weeks.
May communication
Integrated Adult Social Care Peer Challenge
Initial briefing and key messages for all staff and partners May 2023
LGA Peer Challenge
From the 19 to the 21 of July 2023, a Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Challenge will be taking place to assess how well the Council working with its partners and providers delivers on its duties relating to Adult Social Care.
This will be an opportunity for us to showcase our best practice and reflect with openness and honesty about areas of strength and areas of challenge. It will use the same framework and approach as the Care Quality Commission will do when they assess us under their new powers and be a rehearsal for any future CQC visit.
LGA Peer Challenges have been a key improvement and learning tool that local government has been using for many years as part of its commitment to Sector Led Improvement.
We have a history of engaging in Sector Led Improvement, and are active participants in regional and national networks, but our most recent planned Peer Challenge on Safeguarding Adults in March 2020 was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning our last Peer Challenge was back in June 2015.
Why now
A new Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assurance Framework of local authority Care Act 2014 duties (which include those relating promoting wellbeing, providing information and advice, prevention, assessing for and meeting needs, and market sufficiency) was enabled by the Health and Care Act 2022 and commenced on 1 April this year. It will be similar to the Ofsted inspection process.
All local authorities that deliver adult social care will be assessed, inspected, and a rating published by the CQC as to how well they are delivering those duties.
Local authorities across the country are preparing for the new CQC Assurance Framework, with many, like Devon, taking part in a LGA Peer Challenge to be ‘inspection ready’. Peer Challenges are enormously helpful in providing contemporary experience of an inspection process by independent and experienced senior leaders from adult social care. A Peer Challenge also demonstrates an open and accountable organisational culture.
The additional benefit of undertaking and Peer Challenge now is that it will act as a barometer for our preparedness for CQC Assurance and offer learning to support our on-going readiness for inspection.
Focus of the Peer Challenge
Our Peer Challenge will focus on the four themes of the CQC Assurance Framework:
- Working with People
- Assessing needs
- Supporting people to live healthier lives
- Equity in experience and outcomes
- Providing support
- Care provision, integration and continuity
- Partnerships and communities
- Ensuring safety
- Safe systems, pathways, and transitions
- Safeguarding
- Leadership
- Governance, management and sustainability
- Learning, improvement, and innovation
We have asked peers to pay particular attention to areas where we think we would benefit from their challenge and support:
- Practice Quality Assurance in care management and safeguarding
- Front door, prevention, and early intervention
- Delivery of our market sustainability plan
The Peer Challenge Approach
We will be setting out to the Peers how we think we are performing across these themes, providing them with a position statement that incorporates a self-assessment and supporting evidence. This in itself will be a learning opportunity as it may expose gaps in our evidence, our practice and our assurance of ourselves.
The Peer Challenge will be undertaken by a team of up to 8, including a person with lived experience, a Director of Adult Social Care, Heads of Service, a Principal Social Worker and an Elected Member.
Two of the peers will be joining us to audit up to twenty-four cases to assess the quality of our practice before the main visit.
We are developing a timetable across the three days to provide Peers with opportunities to talk to staff at all levels across Integrated Adult Social Care and the wider Council, from our partner and provider organisations, and most importantly those people, and their families who receives adult social care service, and organisations who represent them.
The Peers will also be talking to our political leaders and will be given the opportunity to attend various meetings including opportunities to interact with people using services. We want the Peers get a true sense of our performance, our strengths and also our areas for improvement.
Once the Peer Challenge has concluded, we will receive a presentation on initial findings followed by a final report which will be shared with us in September.
In terms of immediate actions we are asking Integrated Adult Social Care staff and other stakeholders we work with to fill in a short leadership survey. This is your opportunity to comment on different aspects of Integrated Adults Social Care leadership to help us build the evidence to support the production of our self-assessment document.
Finally, we are developing a Peer Challenge webpage where we plan to share information in the build up to the Peer Challenge: Peer Challenge 2023 – LGA peer challenge (devon.gov.uk) This will include details of the Peer Team, our self-assessment, the timetable, an archive of communications, and reports when we receive them. It also includes more details ion the CQC framework and how the LGA will use it.
Thanks you in advance for your cooperation in this. If you have any questions, please contact LGAPeerChallenge@devon.gov.uk