Lancashire's adult social care service 'requires improvement' as inspectors uncover delays and staff struggles

Lancashire County Council's adult social care services have been ordered to improve after an inspection found residents left waiting for support and staff struggling under the weight of "unsustainable workloads".

- by Paul Faulkner

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessed the authority's performance in relation to its duty to help those in need of assistance with their day-to-day lives.

While inspectors from the regulator praised several

The county council scored two out of a maximum four points across all nine categories under which it was assessed

Inspectors reported that they met “many well-established staff with many combined years of experience and an in-depth understanding of the needs of Lancashire people” during their visit.

"Many had worked at the local authority for a long time and felt a strong sense of pride, loyalty and determination to keep going and deliver services for people they support.

"Practitioners were supportive of each other...[but] many staff, however, reported low morale, feeling demoralised and overwhelmed by their workloads,” the CQC report noted.

It went on to highlight how “major system changes, increased demand, high vacancy levels, plus changes in senior leadership had negatively impacted staff trust, morale and confidence”.

"Senior leaders acknowledged the need to improve this.”

of many of those receiving support - they found sufficient evidence of “shortfalls” to give the county council a 50 percent overall score and a 'requires improvement' rating.

The county council - whose patch excludes Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen - provided long-term support to almost 23,000 people during 2023/24, while more than 5,500 required shorter term help. The cost of the service that year stood at £496m - around 45 percent of the authority's net annual budget.