Darlington Borough Council: local authority assessment

The governance, management, accountability, risk management and escalation arrangements in the local authority were generally clear. We heard consistently from people, staff, leaders and partners about a culture of high support, high challenge and openness and transparency. Staff reported no concerns in speaking to senior managers, reporting very good relationships across the department. The validation forum, practice forums and general support available on complex cases was a strong feature in the local authority and they were appreciated and well used by staff.

Partners described regular meetings to discuss related operations, ensuring shared priorities were delivered and pressures were managed alongside strategic meetings. The local authority were found to be supportive and collaborative partners. Executive relationships across partners were described as responsive and measured when the partnership was challenged or in difficult circumstances.

Work had been undertaken by a partner, on behalf of the local authority, on the ageing population of carers of people with learning disabilities and on people's experiences of the timeliness of Care Act assessments and care packages. This demonstrated action on understanding the risks, from a person's point of view, on the delivery of social care services. There was clear methodology on governance issues and oversight and there were clear strategies and plans. The local authority highlighted their intention, in their self-assessment, to improve co-production and engagement.

There was a stable adult social care leadership team, with clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. At the time of the visit the Chief Executive Officer had been recently recruited to and plans were in place for the stability of leadership to continue. The joint role of Director of Adult Social Services and Director of Children Services was reflected in the joint role of the Principal Social Worker and the Joint Safeguarding Partnership Board. We found this to be a sustainable arrangement, allowing partners to attend meetings and support productivity in a small local authority. The adult social care focus was equal to the children's focus in these arrangements. The elected lead member and shadow member were briefed regularly with the DASS attending cabinet and joint briefings occurred.

Staff said there was a relational culture with people they worked with and internally between colleagues. There was clear performance data provided for managers on a weekly basis and cross-departmental teams provided challenge around performance. With effective reporting at all levels including Scrutiny Committee and Health and Well-being Board.

We heard staff completed audits as part of quality assurance processes and decisions were reviewed by senior practitioners and managers. Staff said support from management was available as and when required. Staff consistently said managers were nurturing and listened to workers and we heard workloads were changed if they had feedback around caseloads. Staff said there were many long-serving members of staff and staff well-being was prioritised.

Place arrangements between the local authority and the ICB worked well despite the very large geographical nature of the ICB. Leaders and partners described tailored partnership arrangements that worked for the particular issues being described. For example, policing partnerships arrangements differed to the local health and social care arrangements and there was also a 5-borough approach within the ICB.

Although partnerships worked well between the ICB and the local authority, improvements around data and information sharing between the teams was a general feature. For example, staff said sharing information effectively around people with frailty would be helpful. There were transformation plans around electronic recording in some services at the time of the assessment.

‘Think family’ was a priority for leaders and they felt the joint leadership arrangements between children's and adults allowed the think family approach to work well. We saw examples provided by the local authority after the assessment visit, such as a whole family being considered in a major adaptation proposal ensuring the adult requiring care could have adequate bathing, the carer’s needs were considered as were the effects of further space on children in the household.

The directorate vision for children and adults in the local authority was set out using the acronym, ‘THRIVE’, which stood for: together and inclusive, healthy and safe, resilient and strong, independent and innovative, valued and respected, and educated and aspirational. They also set out principles of personalisation within the strength-based practice framework and leaders consistently reflected the principles. Staff told us about many cases where support for people had been changed to become less restrictive or more person-centred following discussions with leaders or practice forum sessions.

Partners said they were consulted on the council plan 2024-2027 and mostly gave good feedback, although some partners said despite positive encouragement and good ideas from the local authority there was less tangible impact on the ground. Leaders and partners consistently described positive collaboration around strategic planning, including elected leaders. The vision and transformation plan 2023 to 2026 described success from the first stage of transformation (2016-2023). Noted successes included: an increase in the uptake of direct payments, a reduction in the delayed transfer of care from hospital and a marked decline in the population of people receiving care in residential settings. Current transformation themes were practice and workforce, market development and commissioning, ensuring safety and strategic leadership. The document also outlined governance arrangements and the management of engagement and co-production.

The local authority had commissioned a partner organisation to facilitate an autism working group which was joint funded with health partners. This new project involved the lived experience of autistic people and created an autism strategy using co-production principles. The local authority demonstrated an understanding of the needs of the community and the demographics of the population. There was a Commitment to Carers group which was facilitated by a commissioned carers organisation which involved carers and stakeholders. The group had co-produced the Commitment to Carers (carers strategy) and partners described this as a true partnership approach. As a result of this work, the local authority commissioned a part-time parent carer post. Work was also ongoing at the time of assessment to better meet the needs of people experiencing domestic abuse.

There was a quality assurance and improvement framework In April 2024. It described the role, purpose, context and outcomes of an integrated governance system, including audit schedules across all areas of adult social care work, with timelines and responsible officers. The annual risk management report 2023 to 2024 was the local authority’s strategic risk register. It noted 39 relevant risk categories across adult social care which were red, amber, green (RAG) rated, with the movement in status since the last review, also noted. 31 were rated green and 8 were rated red, and each risk had an action plan attached. Areas achieved included the recruitment and retention of staff and the management of deprivation of liberty safeguards (DoLS) referrals. We also saw a risk management strategy that defined the context of risk and adult social care on the objectives and expected outcomes of its management, with clear roles and responsibilities of those involved. We found risk management was comprehensive and effective and supported the planning of improvement work.

There were measures in place to protect the integrity and confidentiality of data records and data management systems. Staff said there were measures they could take to restrict access to records and the system was well protected by the use of passwords. We heard about the confidentiality statement on the front of each person's record and how the person was made aware of their rights around consent of sharing their information. Staff said there were number of different measures they had to ensure information security including completed data protection training sensitivity labels on emails, secure e-mail systems and password-protecting documents.