Quality of social care 'remains very variable across Wales', says Welsh care regulator

The quality of social care and social services 'remains very variable across Wales’, according to the Welsh care regulator.

The Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales's (CSSIW) annual report, showed the vast majority of local authorities are improving in the safeguarding of vulnerable adults.

It also found both councils and providers are becoming more accountable for services provided, services are responding better to urgent cases, and skills and qualifications of carers are improving.

However inspectors are concerned that ‘the quality of social care and social services remains very variable across Wales’, with the performance of those authorities failing to show effective improvement set to come under increasing scrutiny.

The report set out its aims ‘for a three year programme of work within our engagement strategy consultation’.

This programme will include the establishment of quality panels committed to informing and shaping sound regulation, a five-year plan to completely modernise the services of the regulator, commissioning strategies for people with dementia, as well as efforts to secure a better continuity of staff.

The Inspectorate also welcomed proposals from the Welsh Government to establish a ‘national outcomes framework’, further to its ‘Sustainable Social Services for Wales: A Framework for Action’, upon which much of the regulator’s current direction has been based.