Tracey Bell

Last night, Sutton’s Health and Wellbeing Board approved an ambitious new Dementia Strategy for our borough. This five-year plan has been developed with residents alongside local organisations across the voluntary, community and health and care sectors. A key part of the Strategy is the new Dementia Hub, delivered by our Admiral Nursing Team and Age UK Sutton. The Hub, which launched in April 2025, provides people with dementia and their loved ones and carers, the information and support needed at every stage of their dementia journey. Find out more about what this means for dementia care in Sutton: https://lnkd.in/eySYfsi6

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Earlier this week Skills for Care published their annual Size and Structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England report. There are some signs of positivity, and this is despite a fall in the number of international recruits but there is still a need for all of us in the sector to focus on future proofing the care workforce. Headlines include: - Vacancy rate has fallen to 7% (a return to pre-Covid levels) - The number of filled posts has grown by 3.4% - Turnover rate (independent sector) has decreased to 24.7% There is no silver bullet but I believe that we need to focus on: 👩‍🎓 Training and upskilling – this is critical if we are to build a workforce that is well armed to deliver increasingly complex care. There is a good reason why we call our carers Care Professionals – it’s recognition of the work they perform. 🙋‍♂️ Meaningful work – empowering care workers to deliver quality care that makes a difference to their clients’ lives will make the work more appealing. 🤗 Engender a positive workplace culture – care can be lonely; we need to create an environment where care workers feel valued and part of a team. You can read the report here: https://lnkd.in/eH6DrfGW

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CQC rates Lancashire County Council adult social care as “Requires Improvement” The Care Quality Commission gave scores of 2/5 for all statements, with an overall score of 50/100. Context Lancashire serves 1.27m residents; 22,970 people access long-term support. Adult social care was 22.06% of total spend in 2023/24 (c. 43% of the net revenue budget). An ageing population (21.09% 65+ vs 18.69% England; +27% by 2042) adds pressure. Key findings 🔎 People’s experience: “People could not always access care when, where and how they needed it.” Yet, “Most people reported positive interactions with supportive and competent practitioners.” 🔎 Access and waits: 2,089 awaiting Care Act assessments (median 27 days; max 226). 3,815 awaiting annual reviews (median 441 days; some >7 years). OT waits up to 262 days. 🔎 Safeguarding: 2,643 awaiting DoLS (median 86 days vs 21-day target). 🔎 Hospital discharge: mixed. Some trusts report “good, formalised operational relationships”; others cite “complex, reactive pathways”. NHS colleagues highlight limited homecare capacity as a cause of delay; in some trusts up to 15% of beds were occupied by patients with no criteria to reside. Funding disputes (Section 117/CHC) added friction. 🔎 Provider market: 900+ commissioned providers, including 220+ homecare providers. Oversupply of standard residential care; shortages in homecare, nursing and specialist dementia. Gaps in homecare capacity delayed discharge and left people without timely support at home; some packages were closed after short hospital stays, slowing restarts. Framework reprocured at a fixed rate; providers welcomed stability but flagged rising complexity/costs and rural travel time. Workforce pressures persist and availability varies by locality. Average paid homecare rate is below £22.71, our Homecare Association calculation of direct employment costs at National Living Wage, including contact, travel and training time, placing Lancashire among the ~27% of council homecare contracts paying below basic employment costs, before including other running costs. Providers have capacity but they need costs covered. Let’s be honest about what this means: ➡️ For people: too many are stuck in queues — battling phone systems, waiting for an assessment, a safe discharge, an hour of help that doesn’t arrive on time, or at all. ➡️ For unpaid carers: the backstop — about 14,000 supported in 2023/24 — carrying emotional, physical and financial load when formal support is delayed. ➡️ For care workers: essential work in a fee environment that prevents pay for all working time, with knock-on effects for retention and continuity of care. The government says Baroness Casey will sort it all out. Do you think she will? You can read CQC’s report here: https://lnkd.in/ex3u-e2z #AdultSocialCare #CQC #Lancashire #LocalAuthority #HomeCare #NHS #Hospital #UnpaidCarers #Commissioning

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