The Health and Care Act 2022 puts the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) assurance of local authorities on a statutory footing. The new duty on the CQC to assess local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care (ASC) duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014 came into effect on 1 April 2023. Linked to this new duty is a power for the Secretary of State to intervene where, following assessment under the new duty, it is considered that a local authority is failing to meet their duties.
In March 2023, the CQC published the draft assessment framework. Five end to end pilots of the assessment process are currently underway between July and early September 2023 in Lincolnshire, Nottingham City, Birmingham, North Lincolnshire and Suffolk councils. It is planned that all local authorities will be inspected over the next two years and the first tranche of 20 councils to commence in late autumn 2023.
In August 2023, the Department for Health and Social Care published its framework for adult social care (ASC) intervention in local authorities. We will be developing the intervention support offer with our partners and this will be an iterative process as we learn from the pilots. Please contact your regional CHIA for further information.
We are holding a webinar for elected members and two one-day peer and support residential training events for council officers to help shape our support for councils preparing for and following Care Quality Commission inspections. Details below.
In our webinar for elected members, we will explore learning from the CQC's pilot phase of assessments of council delivery of their adult social care duties, and discuss how to prepare for the next phase, from a lead member perspective. This webinar follows one held in June and will inform our continued support for councils and our ongoing discussions with CQC and the Department of Health and Social Care.
17 October, 10.30am - 12.30pm | Webinar
ASC assurance and post-inspection peer and consultant support one day residential training (fully funded)
We are offering two free residential peer and consultant training events for adult social care assurance and post-inspection in October and November. The aim of these events is to refresh the skills of our existing peer pool and bank of experienced consultants, and encourage new recruits with good communication skills and understanding of adult social care. Both training events include a pre-night dinner and accommodation.
26 October or 14 November 2023 | Warwick Conference Centre (Scarman House)
Places are limited on the training days. Please email us to secure your place.
Documents and tools to support councils with implementation
We’ve produced a suite of documents and tools to help councils with the implementation of the CQC's new framework.
They are:
- our Adult social care assurance: A guide to the development of your adult social care assessment is designed to support councils as they prepare for CQC assessment. It is comprised of two parts. The first part provides an introduction and overview of self-assessment. While the second part is a workbook providing tools and templates which have been developed to support the self-assessment process.
- our Unpaid carers and CQC assurance publication, which builds on what the CQC have published to date about their approach to assessing how well councils are discharging their duties to unpaid carers under The Care Act (2014).
- our Top tips for CQC assurance preparation gives nine top tips of how councils can maximise their preparation for the new assurance framework. In addition, our Ten things to do now to prepare for CQC assurance around unpaid carers is a quick checklist focussing on local authority duties towards unpaid carers.
- and our recent webinar on adult social care assurance
- a range of resources, events, and support is available to portfolio holders or lead members for adult social care to help them with their roles.