[Avril Davies]

Healthy Accountability Forum

Ed Moses, Social Care Strategic Policy and Finance, Department of Health, briefed the Forum on the forthcoming long-awaited Care and Support White Paper. He said ‘Our vision is for a re-engineered care and support system - from a crisis service to a wellbeing service that enables people to live fulfilling and independent lives. This means shifting resources across the health and care system, leaving silo mentalities behind to change the demand curve for social care. It requires new partnerships, which share responsibility and take a whole system approach based on empowerment and outcomes’. We will need to harness the expertise of Local Government, the voluntary sector, the social care workforce, commissioners, and providers to deliver lasting and transformational change. In the current public spending environment, we need to make sure that we get reform right so that it is sustainable into the future.

Lucy Hamer and John Wiltshire of the CQC gave a presentation, attached below, on how the regulator is currently working with Health Overview and Scrutiny, and is now moving on to develop with a group of scrutiny committees protocols and further case studies for working together. This includes a pilot project with some district councils to explore how to work with district councillors involved in health/social care issues, and identifying how people’s voices about their care are being gathered and used across scrutiny and health and wellbeing boards

The following debate and panel discussion endorsed need for better use of resources for social care through prevention and partnership, good leadership and innovation. In fact it was felt there was room for improvement in practice across the board from training, opportunities for co-production, through to better quality contracts. Hearing the endorsement of scrutiny from the DH, members would want to see the role supported in the forthcoming white paper, as they felt vulnerable given the current cutbacks and reorganisations in local government. However scrutiny must make sure to continue to evidence its value. Delegates wanted to know how the emphasis on quality before cost would be achieved

On to working with the CQC, members wanted to know that if the regulations are to be framed in terms of inputs, but inspections focus on outcomes, would the regulations not be better redrafted to reflect this? Finally they wanted to lay to rest once and for all the saying that ‘the BBC have closed down more care homes than the CQC’ and were pleased to hear that the CQC have rejected the case for the use of electronic surveillance.