1. Inspection of Independence, Wellbeing and Choice Southend-on-Sea May 2008

2. CSCI Put the people who use social care first; Improve services and stamp out bad practice; Be an expert voice on social care; and Practise what we preach in our own organisation.

3. This inspection We looked at: adult safeguarding arrangements, delivery of personalised services for older people, access to preventative services for older people, and capacity for improvement in all above themes.

4. Inspection approach Postal survey of 150 people We read 14 individual case files We met: People who use services and carers Councillors, managers and staff Partners We visited 2 projects/schemes 2 inspectors (5 days), 1 expert by experience (2 days)

5. What we found Judgements (CSCI rates performance using 4 grades – poor, adequate, good, excellent.) Adequate adult safeguarding arrangements, Good delivery of personalised services for older people, Good access to preventative services for older people, and Promising capacity for improvement. We made 11 recommendations.

6. Adult safeguarding Vulnerable adults were being safeguarded; Action in place to support and develop practice. But Protection plans lacked sufficient detail; Safeguarding Board needed to be more strategic and joined-up.

7. Personalised services (older people) Broad range of services offering choice and promoting independence; Increasing use of direct payments and telecare to support people. But Assessment and care planning needed to be more person centred, including carers assessments; Independent advocacy services needed better support and promotion.

8. Preventative services (older people) High levels of satisfaction with the installation of major adaptations; Corporate council schemes that promoted health and wellbeing. But Need for better access to information; More community based staff needed safeguarding training.

9. Capacity for improvement Clear vision, strategic leadership, strong performance management and productive partnerships; Resources shifting to more person centred services. But Higher profile on equalities and diversity required including better engagement with diverse communities; Better promotion of complaints/ compliments to inform understanding of needs

10. Next steps Council action plan approved by CSCI CSCI monitoring implementation of action plan Review of improvement to outcomes in 6 months CSCI continues monitoring of overall performance of adult social care

11. Summary A positive direction of travel; evidence of good progress but with more to do.

12. Thank you And our thanks to everyone who was involved in the inspection, we couldn’t do it without you!