In May this year, Adult Social Care commissioned a Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review as a ‘mock inspection’ to support us to further prepare for CQC assurance.

The scope of this Peer Review was to feedback on our self-assessment and consider any further areas of development against our Care Act duties.

The Peer Review scope also included a particular focus on our Adult Social Care pathways model (which delegates some of our care act assessments and reviews to the voluntary sector) and how we assure ourselves in relation to the delivery of our Care Act duties within this model.

The LGA Peer Reviews do not give ratings but focus on constructive feedback to assist Local Authorities to identify areas of good practice and areas of development.

The key findings from the Peer Review are summarised below.

We have noted all of the feedback in the Peer Review Report, and these areas were either already being addressed or are now being addressed in priority action plans.

The strengths and positives highlighted by the Peer Review Team included:

• Bexley’s approach to partnership was recognised as a strength as evidenced through the health and care integration (Bexley Care) and with the voluntary sector through our Pathways model (One Bexley). This was described as a model of best practice by the Peer Review
• the Safeguarding Adults Board was noted as a particular strength, particularly that they go above and beyond their basic statutory duties to really make a difference to people’s lives in the borough
• the existing partnership boards (Autism partnership board, Learning Disability partnership board and the Carers partnership) were praised as they had significant presence of people with lived experience on them and were co-developing strategies such as the Autism Strategy
• it was recognised that our waiting times for assessment and reviews was better than other local authorities nationally

The Peer Team also highlighted several areas for learning and development.

• the key area they highlighted for significant learning was in relation to strength-based practice. The Peer Team found that strength-based practice was not reflected in our assessments, articulated well by staff or grounded in a formal practice model. This also extended to how far Making Safeguarding Personal was embedded in practice and the length of time some safeguarding cases are open
• coproduction was identified as an area that needs developing further, in particular developing a coproduction strategy and to ensure that there is coproduction or partnership boards with older people and people with physical disabilities and sensory impairments
• there may need to be a review of demand, capacity and skill mix across teams as there are pressures within some teams
• for Preparing for Adulthood/ Transitions, the LGA Peer Team noted that there are opportunities to improve pathways into adulthood by earlier and more open sharing of information. This links with the findings of the Autism and SEND/PFA Strategy consultations
• operational service improvement in reablement to maximise people’s independence and developments in complex care particularly in relation to cross working with mental health services were identified as areas of focus
• the Peer Team recommended some more work to develop plans to support the changing demographics in Bexley
• there were also areas already identified as Commissioning priorities which were also noted by the peer reviewers - Extra Care Housing, Dementia Nursing Care, Home Care Transformation and Individual Service Fund Model expansion (expansion to Older People). These are already within existing plans in Adult Social Care

Since this peer review, we have developed a detailed priority action plan to address all the areas highlighted for development. The priority action plan is overseen by the Director of Adult Social Care and Health and the Deputy Director of Adult Social Care and progress on the action plan is reported publicly to the Adult’s Services and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on a quarterly basis. Find out more information about the LGA Peer Review

The full report from the LGA Peer Review in Bexley