Birmingham City Council's adult social care services have been rated 'good' for the second consecutive time by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), making it one of only five local authorities inspected twice under the new framework.
Recognition and Challenges
Stuart Lackenby, Executive Director of Adult Social Care and Health, acknowledged the achievement but highlighted areas needing improvement. "We are incredibly proud... however, we recognise that we still have work to do to improve our services. Sometimes we don't offer people support that meets our own expectations, people can wait too long for our intervention, and we don't get everything right," he said.
The assessment praised the authority for working well with partners to provide joined-up care, monitoring partnership impacts, and conducting professional care assessments that consider individual needs. Staff were commended for flexibility and quick adaptation to meet people's needs effectively.
Strengths Identified
- Reduced emergency department attendances for people with mental health needs through prevention services.
- Use of local support networks to achieve best outcomes for communities.
- Changes to senior leadership structures that improved roles, responsibilities, and addressed waiting times and safeguarding concerns.
Services such as dementia and brain health activities, falls prevention, befriending, peer mentoring, and creative arts programmes were highlighted as helping people achieve positive outcomes.
Areas for Improvement
However, inspectors noted that some people wanted more support when moving between services, and links with local NHS services need further development. People and unpaid carers did not always feel safe due to delayed responses and unclear referrals for safeguarding concerns. Emergency placements were hard to access because of shortages in specialist services, leading to out-of-area placements.
Councillor Harris Khaliq, cabinet member for operations, praised staff: "Birmingham becoming the first council assessed twice as Good by the CQC is a huge achievement - and a credit to the hard-working, incredible staff who made it happen. It shows that when we invest in great people, listen to communities, and work together, we deliver real results."
The council is committed to building on this positive result to continue improving the experiences of the people they support.
