Care for vulnerable adults in Torbay has been given a ‘good’ rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) but inspectors said “significant waiting times” for care plan reviews need to be tackled.
The CQC said the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust provided “joined up” services and partnership with the community and voluntary sector.
CQC inspector, Chris Badger, said staff were “committed to early intervention” to avoid unnecessary care home admissions and help people be independent at home.
Anna Coles, director of adult and community services for Torbay Council, said the rating was “testament to everyone’s hard work”, adding: “We know we have more to do.”
The NHS trust provides adult social care on behalf of Torbay Council as part of an integrated care partnership.
Across nine areas, Torbay was rated as showing a ‘good’ standard six times and ‘shows some shortfalls’ three times, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The authority said it was reducing the backlog for care plan reviews as the CQC said only 44% of people received them in a timely way.
Ms Coles said: “The CQC praised the support we give unpaid carers, work on our emergency duty services, the support we give people with mental health challenges and our integrated care services.”
She went on to say they there was more work to do “including some challenges with waiting lists and times and reviewing the needs of people as often as we would like to.”
Joe Teape, chief executive of the healthcare trust, said: “I am so pleased that our work to reduce avoidable hospital admissions and to get people discharged and back home quickly was described as excellent.”
