Bracknell

Bracknell Forest's adult social care services have made important improvements over the past year but progress needs to be made at a faster pace, according to inspectors.

A report by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) found Bracknell Council was serving some people well with a promising capacity to improve. It awarded the Council a rating of one star out of a possible three.

Inspectors praised a number of the Council's services in the report including dementia care which is supporting more people at home, targeted training for support staff working with residents who have HIV or Aids, intensive home care treatment so older people do not have to go into residential homes and an increase in direct payment take-up.

However they said some areas needed greater improvement and highlighted that the Council's adult social care services were not reaching or actively enough seeking to reach people of a black or ethnic minority background.

Although there has been a marked increase in the take up of Direct Payments, whereby users are enabled to purchase their own packages, inspectors would like to see even greater take up in Bracknell Forest, as evidence the borough is taking a modern approach to services for older people. However, most Council services show an improvement on last year and are offering a better service.

The report said: "Overall the Council has made some sound and important improvement in its performance compared to last year, and the challenge for the Council's leaders is now to accelerate the pace of improvement and modernisation."

Daphne Obang, Director of Bracknell Social Services and Housing, said: "The inspectors recognised a lot of work has gone on in the department over the last year and that we have plans in place to make sure these improvements continue.

"We know we have to make more improvements and as a Council we are committed to modernising adult social care services. We had already identified key issues raised in the report and have plans and strategies in place to deal with many of them."

Cllr Dale Birch, Executive Member for Adult Services, Health Commissioning and Housing, added: I am pleased the inspectors found we had made sound and important improvements in providing modern adult social care services this year

"We know we face a challenge to modernise all services given current funding regimes and increases in demand. It is impossible to change these services over-night as they are delivered to some of our most vulnerable residents and their carers. It is important to recognise that we have a dedicated team of staff who work hard to provide a good service to all our residents.

"We are committed to modernising these services even further if that modernisation is in the best interests of our clients and their carers."

Bracknell Forest Borough Council