Wiltshire Council receives Good rating for adult social care in Wiltshire

Wiltshire Council has been given a Good rating for work with adults needing social care as inspectors found people consistently told them the “quality of care they received was good in Wiltshire.”

The inspectors from the regulatory body the Care Quality Commission (CQC) first announced in April 2024 the review of adult social care services. As part of a comprehensive process, inspectors spoke to people receiving care, unpaid carers, providers and other care professionals as well as checking council policies and processes and interviewing staff before making a final judgement.

Inspectors summed up their findings in the report published Friday 24th January by saying: “People told us staff went above and beyond when working alongside people with care and support and their carers in Wiltshire. “

Main points from the resulting report included:

• Focus on providing the right care in the right place and developing a skilled workforce
• People had access to approaches and options to prevent, reduce and delay their need for care and support
• Feedback was positive on reablement the in-house, therapy-led reablement team which works with people to gain their independence and remain at home – on average people received four weeks of reablement and 69% were fully independent leaving the service
• The enablement service which works with people with learning disabilities and/or autism or have additional health needs – evidence shows it helped people develop goals including independence, maintaining tenancies and accessing universal services.
• The council was active on feedback and complaints to improve experiences for people – ie improve accessibility of contacting staff and reducing waiting times.
• Young people and their carers told inspectors their experience of transitions from children to adult services was improving
• Good leadership at Wiltshire Council and an “always improving” ethos
• Feedback from unpaid carers was mostly positive – they felt support and aware of opportunity to be involved in co-production projects.
• Promoting people’s independence was part of everyday practice. 
• An improving culture with staff “doing with” people rather than “doing to” so people felt involved in decisions about their care and support needs.

The report noted work was focussed on continuing to improve waiting times and assessing need. While people were waiting for an assessment on their care and support needs, they were part of a  “waiting well” approach as people had information or access to local services. More work was being done to capture the voices of all groups of people and the council was funding independent statutory body Healthwatch to hear the views of local people. 

Cllr Jane Davies, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care said:  “Some of those needing adult social care are the most vulnerable in our communities and they should expect to receive the highest standards of care and support. As a council we are about actions not words and through adapting, improving and learning we are striving to be better.  We want people to have the right care at the right place and at the right time – and have independence as much as possible to live their lives their way.

“I am very proud of all our staff have achieved which is reflected in this independent report. “Going above and beyond” and an “always improving” ethos is nothing new to us – it is the way we work every day. We still have learning to do but we are ready to take on any challenges and I know we will continue to help people live the lives they want to lead into the future. When we also consider that Wiltshire has an Outstanding Children’s Services Ofsted and received the highest rating in our SEND inspection, we are clearly delivering on our commitment to ensure our residents live full, healthy and enriched lives. “

You can read the assessment on on the CQC website.