Issue - meetings

The Board received an update on the quality of provision within the care home and domiciliary care market in Halton.

It was reported that it was a key priority for Halton Borough Council to ensure the provision of a range of good quality services to support adults requiring support in the Borough.  The Care Act had put this on a statutory footing through new duties regarding the promotion of effective and efficient operation of the care market in which there must be a choice of diverse high quality services that promoted wellbeing.

It was noted that in Halton there were 27 registered care homes that provided 788 beds operated by 16 different providers.  The capacity within the care homes ranged from homes with 66 beds to small independent providers with 6 beds.  There were 9 domiciliary care providers within this number supporting 610 service users across the Borough.

The report went on to discuss quality monitoring and assurance and the quarter one position.  Additionally, appended to the report were the key challenges within care homes in Halton, which were noted by Members.

Following the update and Members’ queries, the following points were made:

·       The category of the care home mentioned by Councillor Parker which was in his Ward would be confirmed;

·       With regard to the CQC’s definition of ‘harm’ this was usually relating to falls and missing of a dose of medication;

·       With regard to the CQC’s definition of ‘other’ this was varied and could relate to for example environmental issues, safety procedures, fire certificates etc;

·       Care home providers were encouraged to report any incident no matter how small.

RESOLVED:  That the Board notes the report and the challenges identified in Appendix 1.