Peer review highlights strong vision for adult social care – Newsroom

Croydon Council’s health and social care service is well aware of its strengths and challenges and has a deep understanding of the needs of the local community, a peer review has found.

Adult Social Care invited the Local Government Association (LGA) to carry out the review as part of the council’s commitment to continually improve services for the benefit of Croydon residents.

Senior staff working in adult social care at other local authorities met 140 people in the service last November to review their work and make recommendations. These included frontline workers, care users, managers and senior management.

The key themes they focused on were the resident journey, assurance, improvement strategy and approach and partnership working.

The review found that the service had clearly identified its strengths and challenges and plans were in place for areas of improvement through the service’s assurance programme. It found that good partnership works and a “robust vision” for adult social care that prioritizes early intervention and prevention. This is supported by the Adult Health and Social Care Strategy 2021/25.

Areas for improvement included the provision of mental health support in adult social care and better use of data to manage waiting lists and provide information on performance and practice.

A peer review is not a statutory inspection that reports to the government, but it helps identify which parts of the service are working well and where improvements are needed.

The LGA report was discussed and approved in Cabinet on Wednesday 15 May. It has been published in full and can be viewed on the council’s website.

“We are always looking for ways to improve our services and ensure our residents receive the best possible care. The peer challenge was a great opportunity to get feedback from the Local Government Association so we could build on our strengths and focus on areas for improvement.”

Jason Perry, Chief Executive of Croydon