Council accused of 'lack of transparency' in commissioning social care

New report highlights inconsistent engagement, co-production and consultation, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

A report highlighting poor engagement with residents in Haringey Council’s adult social care commissioning process has sparked concerns from councillors.

The report states that there is “not consistent engagement, co-production and consultation of residents in Haringey” and reveals a need to make significant improvements across a range of key areas.

Commissioning is the process of identifying, buying in and monitoring social care services for residents, including home-based and residential care.

The council reviewed its commissioning process last year, gathering the views of professionals, providers, service users and voluntary organisations. The findings were presented to a meeting of the authority’s adults and health scrutiny panel on Thursday (22nd) as council officers prepare for an inspection of the adult social care department by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

According to feedback gathered as part of the review, some residents find commissioning to be a “mystery” and do not understand what is really involved in the process. Further comments state that there is “a lack of transparency”, and sometimes there is a “disconnect between what commissioners think is happening and what is happening on the ground”.

Speaking during Thursday’s committee meeting, Labour member Cathy Brennan raised concerns over the lack of communication with residents, warning relationships “are not positive”.

Cllr Brennan added: “I feel it is really, really important […] that the council is so much more transparent, that so much more communication goes on, because I just think that that is going to change everything.

“Once the council has an ethos of really communicating, it spreads outwards, and we will have the reputation – because at the moment we don’t have the reputation within the community of being outward-facing, and I want us to be that.”

The report recommends engaging with the local community across the commissioning cycle, ensuring this is well understood and implemented, and evaluating outcomes and satisfaction across several areas of work.

But Helena Kandia, a non-councillor member of the committee, described the recommendations as “really weak”.

Helena added: “It is not good enough just to engage with the local community. You should be consulting and co-producing with them. Where is the recommendation that you feed back to them? It’s not even there. I feel for the residents – that is my job – and I am disappointed.”

Vicky Murphy, the council’s service director for adult social services, said officers would “absolutely go away and strengthen that particular area to make sure it encompasses that comment”.

Liberal Democrat committee chair Pippa Connor said the council had received a “significantly low score across all the areas” under a rating system of its commissioning.

The council scored 30 out of 100 in a rating of “citizen-centred commissioning” and “putting people in charge of care”, highlighting that it needs to make improvements to counter risks.

Cllr Connor said: “For me, that’s the bit when I go to my carers’ coffee mornings, that sums it up – that they are engaging with the council, but the council hasn’t quite heard what they have asked for, and there is that miscommunication somewhere along the line of what they should be getting, they are not sure what they should be getting, there are challenges, there is upset.”

Asked how officers would improve the score, Alexandra Domingue, the council’s adult social care commissioning project manager, said the authority was looking at “different ways to engage and work with people”.

Alexandra added that the council wanted to get co-production and consultation right “across the whole cycle”, asking for feedback once a contract is in place and “keeping people involved throughout”. She revealed the council is planning to work with community interest company Public Voice to improve its engagement.

Officers aim to have made improvements and to be engaging with the public regularly in six months’ time so that the service is ready for an inspection by the CQC.

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