Metropolitan Borough Council will meet next week to review the positive results of a Local Government Association review
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council is being proactive in ensuring that its adult social care provision is fit for purpose and in looking for ways to improve the service.
Photo by Tony
Last October, the region welcomed senior leaders from other councils to see what they made of what’s being done in Barnsley. This peer review initiative focused on three themes: working with people, providing support and leadership. In carrying out their assessment, the peer reviewer spoke to more than 100 people, including council teams, partners and local people with lived experience of adult social care.
In addition, the council invited Healthwatch Barnsley to run a mystery shopping exercise with the aim of better understanding people’s experiences when getting in touch with adult social care teams. The result of this exercise was that Barnsley’s service was rated ‘good’.
The peer review team also responded positively when it published its findings in December, highlighting innovative services, a strengths-based approach and strong partnerships as all having a positive impact on people’s health and well-being.
One aspect highlighted in the peer review report is the way Barnsley fosters close collaboration with health partners in Barnsley, which helps with timely hospital discharges and in enabling people to ‘get the right support, at the right time and in the right place.’ It also noted the efforts made in working together to develop new approaches, such as with an integrated out-of-hours service.
A new ‘Initial Response Team’ was commended for supporting people to get help early and to live independently, as well as supporting carers. The council’s ‘Preparing for Adulthood’ offer, developed in collaboration with Children’s Services, was also noted, as was the ‘Health on the High Street’ initiative – the later recognised as an example of the strength of leadership in adult social care in Barnsley.
The report also suggests room for improvement in how data is used within adult social care and in how commissioning is strategically delivered. Together, the peer review report and mystery shopping exercise will help the council improve the support being offered. Cabinet members will now consider how to learn from and respond to the feedback.
Cllr Jo Newing, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place Health and Adult Social Care at Barnsley Metropiltion Borough Council, says: ‘In adult social care, we’re committed to continually improving the way we work to offer the best support for our communities, putting our residents at the heart of everything we do. From the strengths-based approach of our social work teams to our Better Lives programme, we’re incredibly proud of the hard work, resilience and creativity our teams show day in, day out. It is fantastic to see all their hard work recognised in the excellent feedback from our recent LGA peer review, helping us to showcase how we’re doing things differently for our communities.
‘I want to thank our teams, our partners and the Barnsley residents who took part in our peer review, offering their honest, constructive feedback on the support we offer. We will make sure that we take time to learn from these findings and make positive changes for our residents.’
The findings of the adult social care peer review report will be discussed at a public meeting of the cabinet on January 22, 2025.
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