Next week, Cabinet members will be asked to review our Adult Social Care Local Account for 2022/23, highlighting some of the great things our services have achieved over the past year.

Our annual Local Account helps to tell the story of Adult Social Care in Barnsley, outlining how our services are performing and how we plan to continue improving our support.

This year, we have worked closely with our Think Local Act Personal group to co-produce our Local Account, helping us place people’s voices at the heart of our work.

We have worked closely with the group, which is made up of residents with lived experience of Adult Social Care, to develop this year’s Local Account. Their insights throughout the process have helped us make sure we’re focusing on what’s important to local people.

Over the past year, there’s been a lot to celebrate in Adult Social Care, including our double Council of the Year award win. Highlights in this year’s Local Account include:

• We’re ranked top nationally for local people saying that when they come to us for support, our services make them feel safe and secure.
• We’re ranked second nationally for people’s overall satisfaction with the care and support they receive.
• Our Front Door team is helping us make sure more people get the right care at the right time, improving partnership working and safeguarding concerns.

An area we wanted to improve in last year’s Local Account was supporting people with learning disabilities into employment. We’re delighted to share that our Supported Employment team is helping more adults with additional needs into paid work.

In the past year, it’s been great to see the service being recognised nationally, recently being rated ‘Excellent’ and nominated for this year’s LGC Awards.

Our Local Account also helps us set out our plans and priorities for the future. Our Think Local Act Personal group has helped us identify areas to improve in the year ahead, including:

• Helping more people benefit from reablement, whether you live in the community or you need to recover after a spell in hospital.
• Improving our approach to self-directed support, making it easier for people to organise their own care and support.
• Making sure that people have access to good information and advice, developing creative approaches to make sure everyone can easily find the support they need.

Councillor Jo Newing, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place Health and Adult Social Care, said: “In Barnsley, we’re committed to making sure everyone gets the right support to live happier, healthier, longer lives. Lots of great work is happening in Adult Social Care to make this possible, so it’s great to see just some of the brilliant things our teams have achieved over the past year highlighted in our Local Account.

“It’s been great to work alongside our Think Local Act Personal group to develop this year’s report, showing our commitment to listening to local people to improve the way we work. They have helped us focus on what’s important to local people and challenged us to be even better. Their insights have been invaluable, and I thank them for joining us on this journey.”

You can read more about our Adult Social Care Local Account in our Cabinet papers.

The full report, as well as a summary of what we’ve achieved and where we want to improve, will be published on the Barnsley Council website once it’s been reviewed at Cabinet.

We hope you find this year’s Local Account useful and would love to hear what you think to help us continue improving our services. Email ASCQualityAssurance@barnsley.gov.uk to tell us what you think and share any suggestions you have with us.

We’re committed to improving how we work alongside people in Barnsley with lived experience and we want people to feel their voice is heard and valued.

There are lots of opportunities to get involved in co-production in Barnsley – email communityengagementandconsultation@barnsley.gov.uk for more information.