Council's adult safeguarding system 'does not work'

Warrington Council's adult social care services have been rated as requiring improvement by inspectors, with concerns raised around its "complex" safeguarding processes.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the authority's procedures "didn't structurally work to keep people safe", with its digital triage system on its online portal automatically closing some referrals without them being reviewed.

Inspectors said "rapid and widespread improvement" was needed in this area but there was also "positive work" being done by staff.

Warrington Council said it would act "swiftly and decisively" on the recommendations and that improvements were "already being made".

The report said the authority spent just over a quarter of its budget on adult social care last year, and that there were about 3,500 people accessing long-term adult social care support and about 2,000 using short-term support during the period.

The CQC said safeguarding processes were complex and a cause for concern.

It said the online portal for reporting safeguarding concerns had responses being triaged digitally depending on the answers given and could "result in some safeguarding concerns being closed inappropriately".

But in other areas, the report said, there had been a "clear culture shift" and the authority was working on a "prevention first" approach.

Although there was "mixed feedback" about peoples' experiences, many spoke positively about staff and described them as "caring, compassionate and helpful".

But some were frustrated by the length of time they had to wait for assessments, the report added.

James Bullion, CQC's chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said the authority had "passionate staff" who were doing "positive work"

"However, the local authority has a lot of work to do around how they were safeguarding residents, and this is the area we found needed rapid and widespread improvement," he said.

"Warrington Borough Council have some good foundations on which to build their improvements and continue to do the things they are doing well."

The watchdog said it would notify the health secretary and outline the area where improvement was needed.

Councillor Maureen McLaughlin, cabinet member for statutory health and adult social care, said: "I understand the concerns this may raise with residents.

"While there are clear areas of strength highlighted in the report, there are also areas where the council needs to do better.

"The council is acting swiftly and decisively on the recommendations outlined in the report - listening to the feedback provided by the assessors and working at pace to put the necessary changes and improvements in place."

Ministerial envoys are set to be sent into Warrington Council over concerns raised about its commercial programme and debts.

The council's children's services were last year rated as good overall, including outstanding in two areas.

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