Case Study
CQC Inspection Report
Adult Social Care
The new CQC inspection framework challenges councils by demanding higher accountability and transparency in adult social care services. Councils must now meet stringent quality standards, requiring significant resource allocation and staff training to ensure compliance and continuous improvement.
This shift aims to enhance care quality but adds operational pressure, at a time when councils are already struggling to meet the needs of communities they serve.
The requirement
Barnet Council, required a specialist Consultant who could steer their preparations for assessment, whilst ensuring that a culture of continuous improvement continued to ensure delivery of high quality and effective services.
The priority was making sure services were fully prepared for CQC Assurance and met the latest standards through continuing to drive forward improvements identified through the self-assessment process.
The solution had to be within a defined cost envelope, & needed to be flexible to meet fluctuating demand of the project, focussed on delivery and achieving value for money.
Our solution
Futures used our detailed knowledge of the Social Care Transformation world to identify the right independent expert, that would work to deliver the requirement in the best interests of Barnet Council.
We priced the work competitively, ensuring best value for the council. The cost was significantly below that of many large ‘consultancies’ operating in the sector, and crucially the council got the benefit of an independent expert that hit the ground running.
Challenges our experts faced
Understanding and communicating the CQC requirements as they continued to evolve and making sure all stakeholders were ready (including members, residents and staff).
Ensuring a balance of improvements identified through the self-assessment process continuing to be driven forward, that business as usual continued to deliver high quality and effective services, whilst responding to the information and scheduling requirements of CQC.
Working closely with senior leaders, providers, service users, Members and council teams to get everyone on the same page.
Expert action plan
We started with a deep dive into how services were performing through analysis of the self-assessment, validating the areas of strengths identified and identifying further area areas for improvement and ensuring grip and pace on all improvement action areas.
We then created & mobilised a cohesive single action plan (CQC Improvements and Readiness Programme) that included a communication plan, training, mock inspections, briefings, Q&A sessions & regular reviews.
This helped staff, members, partner representatives and residents feel confident and ready for the assessment process including face to face interviews.
We developed the onsite assessment schedule in collaboration with CQC and maintained coordination of the plan throughout the onsite period ensuring that over 100 interviewees were supported and ready to attend interviews and group discussions.
Data played a big role
We used the captured data to confirm the self-assessment strengths and improvement areas and track progress of the improvement and readiness programme.
Result. It worked!
Inspection readiness
Services were more prepared, staff and other stakeholders felt confident, and feedback f rom service users was positive. Outcomes we delivered in a cost-effective way, utilising the experience of an independent expert.
Local Government sector experts
Futures Local Government delivers end-to-end support across every tier of council delivery – from frontline stabilisation to digital transformation.
