How did we perform and how much did we spend in 2021-22

You can see how well we did as part of NHS Digital’s Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF). This measures how well we delivered care and support services against the things that matter most to people, all local councils must report on.

Here's a breakdown of our spending over the past year:

Working with people

Assessing needs, including for our unpaid carers

In 2021/22, 81.5% of adult social care assessments were finished within 28 days of first contact.

We want to finish at least 83% of assessments within 28 days in 2022/23. For people needing a face-to-face assessment, we'll continue to make sure they can get one quickly.

Visit our get a social care assessment to find out more about the help and support on offer.

We're committed to supporting our unpaid carers. Allowing them to balance their caring role and personal life. In 2021/2022:

• 2,000 carers assessments were finished.
• 609 carers accessed our Barnsley Carers Service.
• our Barnsley Carers Service got funding to buy phones and tablets to support our carers.
• our Barnsley Carers Service helped deliver £250,000 of Omicron Support Fund grants to the carers who needed it most in our communities.
• 443 of our carers’ had one-off payments. Hear how some of our carers used this money:

"I made the money work for me. I went for a holiday in Edinburgh. It also paid for the train fare. It was a massive weight off my shoulders and gave me a complete break knowing my dad was safe with carers. Just what I needed, a lovely break.’

‘‘We had a break away in a caravan to Mablethorpe and visited a garden centre. The money was a godsend. I cannot remember the last time we went away. I can now have ‘me time’ in the comfort of my garden with the small settee I have purchased. This has helped my mental health tremendously.’’

‘’I put the money towards a large fridge-freezer to prepare and freeze meals. This helps my mum and dad to be self-sufficient and takes the pressure off me having to cook every day. They can also choose what they would like to eat on that day.’’

Some areas for improvement were found in the Personal Social Services Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE) survey, including:

• increasing carers’ social contact time.
• increasing the satisfaction of carers with Adult Social Care.

You can read our new Carers' Strategy to see how we'll work to give better support for our carers.  

Supporting people to live healthier lives

We support people in Barnsley to be more independent. Live healthier lives and have more control over the care and support they receive.

We know we have a lot of people placed in residential or permanent care. We need to work smarter to help people stay at home for longer.

Our reablement service works with people who have been unwell or in hospital.  Those who need extra help to keep living independently with confidence. In 2021/22:

• 1,504 people accessed our reablement service.
• 443 people had no long term support needs following their time working with reablement.

Our employment and volunteering service supports adults with learning disabilities to develop their skills and help them succeed in the workplace. In 2021/22:

• 22 people got paid employment.
• 79 people volunteered.
• 4 people did a work placement.
• 12 people were supported through the internship programme.

Providing support 

Care provision, integration and continuity 

The Joint Commissioning (Adult Social Care and Health) team regularly review services to make sure they're of high quality and deliver the right results for people.

In 2021/2022 we:

• reintroduced 24-hour care back into two of the borough’s extra care schemes.
• supported providers to respond to the Covid pandemic. We did this by issuing grants, helping them manage Covid outbreaks and arranging vaccinations.

We want to carry on working with care providers. Making sure our services are good quality and are good value for money. By doing this, we'll help create a pathway of care for the people we support.

You can read more about the work we're doing in our market position statement 2021-2024.

Integrated care systems (ICSs)

These bring together organisations to plan and deliver joined up health and care services.  Improving the lives of people who live and work in their area.

Over the past year, we've continued to play an active role in fantastic partnership work across Barnsley.

A new governance model has been proposed for how we'll work with NHS South Yorkshire. Our aim is to understand how best to make this work for the people of Barnsley. Through our joint Health and Care Plan, we can carry on building community and neighbourhood models of support.

Partnerships and communities 

We work together closely with partners so that our services work seamlessly for people we support. We share information and learning with partners and work together to make things better. 

Wellbeing is at the core of our work. Our Health and Wellbeing Strategy sets out how we'll deal with local challenges in Barnsley. It'll look at helping people to start well, live well and age well.

Our Adult Social Care Public Health Team work to help services promote and improve the health, wellbeing and independence of people in Barnsley.

The team have continued to work towards the following:

• Falls prevention and frailty.
• Oral health.
• Supporting people with learning disabilities.
• Get more people to have annual health checks.

Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion 

We value diversity in our teams and work toward creating an inclusive and fair culture for the people who work for us. You can read more about our vision and values.

Our Proud to Care campaign tells the story of our care sector in Barnsley.  Encouraging people to think about a rewarding career working in care. There's a wide range of care roles on offer in Barnsley, allowing people to make a real difference in someone’s life.

Our Future Carers programme helps people to start a career in social care and access free training. The programme is perfect for people thinking about starting work in care. Also for those who've had a break in their care career and want to update their skills.

Ensuring safety 

Safeguarding 

We work with our partners on the Safeguarding Adults Board.  Making Barnsley a safe place to live and protect adults who may be at risk.

The Board produces an annual report. This sets out what they've done over the past year to prevent abuse and harm and protect adults who've been hurt or abused. The annual report includes the results from our annual survey of people using social care services.

You can read this year’s Safeguarding Adults Board annual report to find out more.  

Safe systems and continuity of care 

In September 2021, the government published People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform. It sets out a bold ten-year vision for how we'll change care and support with three key objectives:

• People have choice, control and support to live independent lives.
• People can access outstanding quality and tailored care and support.
• People find adult social care fair and accessible.

Leadership

Governance

Our Quality Assurance and Service Improvement team provide evidence about the quality of practice and services in adult social care.

They also help services and staff improve things for people. They do this through:

• Audits and service reviews.
• Reviewing performance data, compliments and complaints.
• Oversight of policies and procedures.
• Oversight and limited delivery of service improvement and developments.

In 2021/22, the team found a number of areas which are strong and others which needed improvement. These help to update our service improvement plans and projects within the Better Lives programme.

Learning, improvement and innovation 

It’s important to us that we understand what the people who use our services think about them.

In 2021/22, we received:

• 49 Adult Social Care complaints.
• 37 Adult Social Care compliments.

We must learn from these complaints. During 2021/22, we found opportunities to improve staff training, record keeping, communication and working together.

We're always interested in hearing your feedback, both positive and negative. It helps us improve how we work. There are many ways that people can give us feedback, most of which can be found on our complaints and compliments webpage.

The Better Lives programme focuses on wellbeing, independence and community resilience.  Supporting people to live independently in their own homes for as long as possible and ensuring those in need of our support have more say over their care.

In 2021/22, our adult social care integrated front door started a team to join up experienced staff with our Customer Access team. This gave us the chance to give early signposting, prevention and a better experience for the people we support. In the pilot we:

• Triaged approximately 1,000 contacts.
• Successfully closed 60% of these contacts at the front door.

This new approach allowed our social work teams to focus on people with more complex needs.  Helping those new to adult social care to look at their needs and support plans.

Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders

We've inclusive leaders at every level who understand how we deliver care, treatment and support.

In the Social Worker Health Check, we received an overall rating of Green across the Employer Standards.

These surveys found the major commitment of our staff and a desire to make sure they continued professionally throughout the pandemic. Some areas for improvement were identified:

• Safe workloads and case allocation.
• Continuing professional development (CPD).

Full local account report 2021-22

You can take a look at our full report for local account for 2021-22.

We're committed to reviewing and improving the support our Adult Social Care services offer. We'd love to hear your feedback on our Local Account.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please share them with us in our local account feedback survey.