Improvement support programme 2023-2024: Annual report

Purpose of this report

This report has been developed to provide a summary of the improvement support provided by Partners in Care and Health between 1 April 2023 and 30 June 2024, in delivery of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) 23/24 contract (formally known as C161501 DHSC:ASC: Partners in Care and Health 23/24 Contract). This programme was developed to support the provision of adult social care and public health services, delivering quality and innovative improvement support offers, empowering councils to deliver services that support everyone to access high quality care that enables choice, control and independence.

This report highlights the activities and support offers delivered over the course of the 23/24 improvement programme, highlighting the councils or systems we have engaged with, the unique support offers we have developed and the outcomes and outputs we have achieved in delivery of our improvement programme.

This report demonstrates the local, regional and national reach of our programme, with our data highlighting the consistency and scale of support provided to councils over the 15th month programme. We will also demonstrate the high levels of positive satisfaction with our support offers, using case studies, councils’ testaments, and performance data to highlight the impact of the improvement support we have delivered.

Through this approach, we evidence how we have supported councils and systems to better understand and address the challenges they face, developing improvement support offers that provide councils with opportunities to immediately self-improve and imbed best practice solutions that will achieve improved operating practices over the long-term.

... high levels of positive satisfaction with our support offers...”

Background

Partners in Care and Health (PCH) has been commissioned by DHSC to deliver national improvement support to the adult social care sector since 2022.

Prior to this the programme was known as Care and Health Improvement Programme (CHIP), delivering improvement support for 10 years.

It supports lead members, health and wellbeing boards, officers and their teams working in social care, public health and integration utilising a sector-led improvement (SLI) approach which recognises that:

• councils are responsible for their own performance

• they are accountable locally, not nationally

• councils share collective responsibility for the performance of the sector as a whole.

Overview of programme

The Partners in Care and Health 23/24 programme has been developed to provide support to councils and their partners in delivery of their adult social care and public health services. Utilising our unique sector intelligence and close working relationships between out subject experts and DHSC policy leads, this joint-partnership programme between DHSC and PCH was developed to deliver on the following objectives:

• support local authorities and their partners to meet their adult social care and public health legislative duties under the Care Act 2014
• support councils to improve their services, ‘providing the right support at the right time to councils’ to help them provide tangible improvements for people accessing adult social care and public health
• support councils who are at risk of failing to deliver their statutory adult social care and public health functions or meet relevant funding conditions, inline with enhanced quality assurance standards following the commissioning of the new Care Quality Commission adult social care assessment in 2023.

Approach to delivery

We work in collaboration with councils to deliver sector improvement, utilising our unique partnerships with the sector to develop targeted support offers that address the needs of councils. We also work closely with DHSC to support the department in its stewardship of the sector, utilising insight and learning from our improvement offers to help shape current and future policy of the sector. In the execution of our support offers, we adopt the following approach to delivery.

• Intelligence-led decision making: We utilise our existing unique links with regions, national intelligence networks, partnerships and databases to inform the development of our support offers, ‘understanding the picture’ of current service delivery and identify the needs of councils based on honest self-reflection and self-analysis.
• Opportunities for self-improvement: We recognise that councils are best placed to understand the depth of the support they need to enhance service delivery. We develop our support offers with this in mind, working in collaboration with local authorities and regions to build positive change processes at a local, regional and national level.
• Outcomes focused delivery: We work in partnership with local authorities and systems to set clear deliverables for our support offers, agreeing delivery objectives and setting appropriate success metrics to measure the expected impact and outcomes of the support we provide.

We utilise our existing regional and national intelligence networks, partnerships and databases to inform the development of our support offers...”

Workstreams

In delivery of the 23/24 improvement programme, we established central workstreams to support councils to implement reform across a range of priority areas. These included:

• Safeguarding and protection: Supporting councils to meet their legislative duties to keep people who use adult social care and public health services safe and protected. Assessment and personalisation: Supporting councils to undertake care needs assessments, helping councils and their staff to develop trusted, asset-based approaches in their assessment of individual care needs.
• Workforce: Providing strategic planning support to councils, delivering a highly skilled, representative, and valued workforce in the provision of their services.
• Finance and resources: Supporting individual councils who face the greatest financial challenges within adult social care, providing high quality financial advice and support to councils at a local, regional and national level.
• Public health and prevention: Supporting councils to tackle social and health inequalities, working with council leadership to imbed place-based prevention measures and solutions to develop healthy sustainable places and communities.
• Market sustainability and commissioning: Supporting adult social care services to assess their current capacity and performance in the provision of care, manage market risk and implement sustainable, customer focused commissioning practices.
• Digital transformation: Co-creating improvement tools and support offers with councils, enabling the uptake of scalable technology solutions in social care to building staff confidence in the use of digital technology.
• Unpaid carers: Support offers developed to ensure the profile of unpaid carers is understood across the health and social care system, improving the lives of carers and their access to the right information and support.
• People with learning disabilities and autism (Building the Right Support (BTRS)): Supporting councils to improve their support for autistic people and people with a learning disability including housing support, preparation for adulthood resourcing and supporting families to navigate care responsibilities and the cost of living.
• Mental health: Supporting councils in their provision of mental health services, helping individuals access high-quality, person-centred care that delivers good outcomes.
• Information and advice: Supporting councils to improve service user support and enable service users to make informed choices.

Each workstream is led by a subject-matter expert, with the programme of works developed in collaboration with regional policy leads, partner organisations and support systems. Each individual workstream has shaped the improvement programme in collaboration with their relevant policy lead in DHSC, with national priorities for social care and public health imbedded within support offers provided to the sector.

Support offers

In delivery of the programme, we have developed sector-led support offers to address the challenges faced by the sector at both an individual and national level. Support offers have been designed to support councils to imbed tangible improvements to their current service delivery, delivering outcomes that support councils to enable people to access the care that meets their needs, in a time and manner that suits them. Our categories of care can be broken down into three distinct areas:

• Targeted support: Offered to councils on an individual basis, these support offers are developed to address specific priorities/challenges faced by an organisation.
• Universal support: Freely available support offers to all councils. Support offers are designed to enable councils identify opportunities for self-improvement against proven techniques/operating standards used across the sector.
• Intensive support: support offer delivered to councils who have been assessed as ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ as a result of CQC assurance report.

Each workstream has developed a series of support offers available to councils, packaged with quarterly work programmes to facilitate delivery. All targeted and intensive support offers are developed in collaboration with individual councils, with pragmatic objectives agreed following a comprehensive scoping and intelligence gathering process. Delivery outcomes are the assessed following the conclusion of support, measuring the value and impact of the improvement support provided.

We have developed sector-led support offers to address the challenges faced by the sector at both an individual and national level.”

Case studies

Case studies on workforce planning; market sustainability and strategic commissioning; safeguarding and digital transformation, form part of our annual report.

Key performance summary

For the 2023/24 programme, we delivered 616 instances of targeted improvement support, working directly with individual or small groups of councils to identify and address challenges impacting their current delivery of adult social care and public heath services.

During the support offer design phase of this programme, our subject-matter experts and workstream leads worked in partnership with DHSC policy leads, councils and ADASS regions to define the sector support requirements for the 23/24 financial year. This led to the development of a suite of adaptable targeted support offers, designed to be delivered in collaboration with councils to address the pressures and challenges faced across the priority areas of focus within adult social care delivery. The finalised suite of offers where then added to the quarterly workplans for each individual workstream, with operational delivery taking place over a rolling three-month period.

Number of targeted support offers 2023/2024 broken down by priority workstream:

• Workforce: 31
• Social work practice and safeguarding: 35
• Public health: 76
• Market sustainability and commissioning: 109
• Learning disabilities or building the right support (BtRS): 51
• Intervention and assurance: 80
• Working with people including assessment: 35
• Finance and resources: 127
• Digital transformation: 72

In delivery of the programme, we achieved 100 per cent coverage across the nine local authority regions, with ADASS regional leads and ourcare and health improvement advisers (CHIAs) working with council leadership to correctly assess their social care service needs and priorities, matching each council with the relevant targeted support offer to maximise the value and impact of improvement support provided. Targeted support offers were also promoted across our comprehensive intelligence and partnership forums, with our workstream leads establishing community of practices and policy networks to engage with their counterparts in councils, utilising feedback, and insights to deliver targeted support offers that addressed the specific improvement needs of councils.

Targeted support offers provided by our workstreams to each local authority region

Each targeted support offer is tailored to the unique demands of the council requiring support and was developed in collaboration with councils. Following the scoping and diagnosis of the challenges faced by the council, clear improvement objectives were defined and agreed between the two organisations. This approach has allowed us to respond to both live service pressures (supporting 200 council queries in 48 hours regarding the 2023/24 MSIF funding round) and long-term operational challenges.

The outcomes of support were assessed to measure the value and impact of the improvement support provided, including assessing councils’ satisfaction with the support provided and the organisation’s ability to deliver against the agreed objectives.

Case study: Workforce planning proactive support for London borough council

Delivered as part of universal support offering to councils, we ran 82 events in 2023/24 programme, receiving a total of 9,650 attendees over the course of the year. Developed to address specific topics across the priority workstreams, events were delivered both in person and virtually, utilising expert analysis and evidence-based insights to address council needs and challenges. 

Of the total 9,650 attendees, 7,311 were from councils in England with adult social care responsibilities, with 152 unique councils represented. Other organisations reached include ADASS regions, NHS, charities, universities and other government departments. For all events, we achieved an average satisfaction rating of 93 per cent, with an average of 89 per cent of respondents saying that the objectives of the events were met. 

A highly trusted source of support with understanding across the country coupled with local analysis.” 

Case study: Market sustainability and strategic commissioning -High cost placement webinar series

Case study: Adult social care safeguarding - discrimination and discriminatory abuse

The 23/24 programme saw us deliver 43 publications to add to its existing library of resources to support councils deliver improved social care services. Our universal support offers are a series of evidence-based, interrelated guidance documents, templates, support tools and publications. These documents support sector-led improvement by providing councils quick, easily accessible information to help improve adult social care services and deliver reform. Publications included the publishing of case studies, and sharing knowledge practical resources to empower individual councils to adopt best practices examples from across the sector into their day-to-day operations. Our universal support offers published between 1 April and 30 June 2024 received 15,888 views, with publications achieved across all priority workstreams.

Example 1 – Second national analysis of safeguarding adult reviews

The ‘Seond national analysis of safeguarding adult reviews’ universal support offer, published on 1st April 2024, included an executive summary and supporting publications developed to analyse safeguarding adult reviews between 2019 and 2023, identifying learning that can drive change and prevent harm form occurring in similar circumstances.

The documentation series is used to inform national policy and how safeguarding can be moreeffective in provision of adult social care services.

Example 2 – CQC assurance framework and supporting document

With the launch of the Care Quality Commission local authority assessment for adult social care in 2023, we looked to develop a suite of resources to support councils in the preparation for upcoming CQC assessment. Developed in consultation with councils, the Adult Principal Social Workers network, ADASS regions and policy leads, we launched self-assessment toolkits, frameworks and guides to help councils with the implementation of the CQC new framework. Live learning and insight from the sector following completed CQC assessments has been used to inform the supporting documentation, with support documents amended to address current trends and feedback from the sector

Case Study: Digital transformation— “What good looks like” self-assessment tool

2024/25 Continuous improvement programme

As the core representatives of the sector, we will continue to provide market leading improvement support to local authorities, in their delivery of adult social care and public health services. We have been commissioned by DHSC to deliver its continuous improvement programme for 24/25, providing tailored and universal support offers to the sector to help drive forward improved service delivery and performance. In delivery of this programme. We are excited to announce that we will be working in partnership with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCiE). Together with SCIE, we form a unique alliance to deliver quality and innovative improvement support offers, empowering councils to deliver services that support everyone to access high quality care that enables choice, control and independence.

Despite the challenges faced by councils in their delivery of adult social care and public health services in 24/25, we are best placed to deliver support offers that directly meet the needs and requirements of the sector. We will:

• use our intelligence-led approach to support councils to quickly identify their challenges to service delivery, implementing robust, targeted support offers that can pivot quickly to address new and emerging risks and priorities.
• work with councils to co-produce the support we provide, imbedding an outcomes-focused approach that helps councils to provide quality services, maximising their reach and impact across the communities they serve.
• ensure that all councils who have been identified as failing or at risk of failing to deliver statutory functions or meet relevant funding conditions receive expert, support, formulating pragmatic and adaptable and support offers with councils to drive forward improved service delivery.
• build on our unique and established relationship with the Department of Health and Social Care, supporting DHSC policy leads in the shaping and effective implementation of national priorities for the adult social care and public health sector.

Partners in Care and Health will continue to provide market leading improvement support to local authorities...”