Press Release
Report to Parliament shows a year of achievement
24 July 2007
CSCI has significantly increased the involvement of people who use social care services in the design and delivery of social care inspection, according to the Commission’s third annual report published today.
The report demonstrates how CSCI has been developing its inspection processes. CSCI has recruited people who use social care service - CSCI call them Experts By Experience - to participate in inspections. We are putting in place ways of assessing the performance of councils, which put more emphasis on the quality of services they commission. And the Commission continues to strengthen its new approach to transform the inspection of regulated services: Inspecting for Better Lives, which emphasises listening to people who use services.
Performance ratings, published for all 150 local councils in England, showed steady improvement across the board and CSCI completed 120 inspections of local council social services. Inspectors made over 2,700 requirements on providers to improve their services and responded to over 5,400 letters and e-mails raising more than 13,700 concerns, complaints or allegations about poor care services.
CSCI has also seen a big increase in interest in their individual reports on services. Around 1.5 million reports were downloaded from CSCI’s website last year.
Announcing the publication of the Annual Report and Accounts 2006-2007 Dame Denise Platt, Chair, said: “In all of our programmes throughout the year we maintained our focus on improving outcomes for people who use social care.
“But we are also responding to the need for good information on social care. Interest in our information is going up, and we are advocating good information across social care to help people who are using and choosing services.”
Chief Inspector Paul Snell said:
“For the third year in succession, we completed our programmes of assessing councils’ social care performance and of inspecting regulated services. We have used our uniquely broad perspective of social care to bring together a picture of the whole of social care, whether commissioned or purchased by councils, or by individuals and regardless of the nature of the provider - public, private or voluntary.”
2006-2007 was the last year when CSCI inspected children’s services. We have successfully handed this work on to the new Ofsted, including hosting the Children’s Rights Director for England.
True to its vision and values, CSCI has used its Annual Report to reflect the comments and concerns of real people who use social care services. This is a selection of what they said:
“Some people with learning disabilities think that it’s part of normal life if they are not allowed to have a cup of tea after 9pm because the kitchen has been locked up.”
Person with a learning disability
“You spend your whole life fighting, pushing, cajoling to get the services to do what you need.”
Person using care services
“CSCI needs to change the perception of service providers in terms of who their customer is. Many providers seem to think that the council is the customer, as they often pay the fees. But it’s not: people who use the service are the customers.”
Person using social care services
“Don’t ask silly questions about cultural identity - ask does racism affect you?”
Young person in care
“I want to be free of my past, better than my present and always ambitious for my future!”
Young person in care
CSCI will report and comment on quality and issues in social care in their annual publication to Parliament The State of Social Care in England 2006-07 in January 2008.
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