Surrey adult social care is rated 'good' by the Care Quality Commission

Recognition for our work to help people stay living in their own homes

Our adult social care service has been rated 'good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), who praised our work to help people stay living independently in their own homes.

The service aims to help people stay independent, safe and well so they can live the lives they want to. This can include people who are:

• frail
• have physical or learning disabilities
• have mental health needs
• have any carers who look after them.

Inspectors from the CQC visited the council earlier this year to assess the standard of our adult social care provision. After holding interviews, meetings and drop-in sessions, and studying a sample of cases and various data sources, they found that 'evidence shows a good standard'. They gave us an overall score of 70 per cent.

Inspectors highlighted a number of strengths including the work we are doing to help people stay living independently for longer in their homes and local communities.

This includes our programme to increase the number of spaces in supported living accommodation, where trained staff support people to live as independently as possible, by at least 500 and our work to help people avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

The CQC also praised the passion and dedication of our staff who fed back that they were proud to work in Surrey and felt they made a positive difference to people's lives. Assessors found that staff displayed empathy, respect and a 'can-do' attitude when carrying out assessments and reviews of people's care and support needs.

The CQC found that people could easily access our care and support services through multiple channels. These include online and self-assessment options. There was also clear signposting to other community services when people first got in touch if this was more appropriate.

We also recognise that there are areas where we need to learn and develop. We are actively working to address all feedback from the CQC through comprehensive improvement plans, to further raise the bar for our residents. The full assessment report is available on the CQC website.

The CQC, as the independent regulator of health and social care in England, is responsible for assessing how well councils are meeting their social care duties and gathers feedback from residents, carers, staff, partners and care providers. In Surrey, more than 24,000 people are receiving some form of support from adult social care.

To find out about opportunities to work in adult social care in Surrey, visit the jobs section of our website.