CQC 2022-23 State of care report outlines turbulent year for health and social care

The report highlighted some key themes found across the state of adult social care in England during this time.

• Access to care – there are long waiting lists and delays, resulting in lack of capacity in adult social care.
• Quality of care: increased demand in care is taking toll on the mental wellbeing of staff, therefore affecting the quality of care they can deliver. Mental health services are an ongoing area of concern; recruitment and retention are one of the biggest challenges in this area.
• Inequalities: People from ethnic minorities face lack of support and are less engaged within maternity care and emergency departments.
• Deprivation of liberty safeguards: some providers have limited understanding of the DoLS framework, so staff don’t operate under this.
• The workforce: staff report being overworked and stressed, resulting in them leaving roles within adult social care. There are also difficulties in recruiting and attracting new staff, due to wages not being in line with inflation.

Adult social care continues to face high pressures, enduring funding challenges, and increased demand for support. Throughout this time, Shared Lives has remained stable but relatively small, therefore providing opportunity for many more people to live fulfilling lives by accessing person-centred care such as Shared Lives. In England during 2022-23, there were 8140 Shared Lives carers, supporting 8262 people from their own homes; enabling those who draw on care to thrive in their local communities.

Recent plans from Government to “put people at the heart of care” highlighted the best route to address rising demand within care homes, mental health hospitals and other ‘traditional’ routes of care, whilst tackling the changing needs of the population and supporting unpaid carers, was to make person-centred care such as Shared Lives, a reality for people who draw on care. It is reassuring that Government are taking the steps to scale-up these innovative forms of adult social care, to benefit the whole system.

Figures from England continue to show that Shared Lives remains the highest quality form of nationally available social care, with CQC rating 97% of schemes good or outstanding. The difference Shared Lives makes to people drawing upon support is still very high, results in 2022-23 showed:

• 97% people in Shared Lives felt they were part of the family most or all the time.
• 91% people in Shared Lives felt involved with their community.
• 83% felt their Shared Lives carer’s support helped them have more choice in their daily life.
• 80% of people felt their physical health had improved and 84% that their emotional health had improved.

It is clear from these figures that Shared Lives continues to deliver high quality support, for people living with long-term conditions.

Shared Lives Plus aims to continue growing Shared Lives across England and the rest of the UK. If you are interested in finding out more about our support offer to grow Shared Lives, contact us at consultancy@sharedlivesplus.org.uk