New joint inspection reports for Moray & Aberdeenshire published

The first two reports have been published following a pioneering new approach to inspecting health and social care services for older people in Scotland.

Joint inspection teams from Scotland’s social care scrutiny and improvement body, the Care Inspectorate, and the scrutiny and improvement body for healthcare providers, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, have finished two extensive inspections of services in Moray and Aberdeenshire.

Both inspections were carried out over a 24 week period and looked at a wide range services for older people. They have identified strengths in service provision in both areas and also made recommendations for improvement.

Annette Bruton, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: “These new inspections are crucial in ensuring that services for older people are operating at the high standard which people have a right to expect.

“We look at how well different agencies are working together to improve the outcomes experienced by older people in each area.

“We also examine if the care of older people living in their own homes is of a high standard, and we look at whether older people are getting the right kind of care at the right time and in the right place.

“The inspections are also designed to support improvement where services are not operating at a sufficient standard.

“As we move towards much closer working between health and social care, it is important to ensure that everyone is working together to protect and support older people.”

Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland said: “The shift in the balance of care from hospital and residential care to community services has meant that a different approach to scrutiny and inspection has been needed and these pilot joint inspections conducted by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate are in direct response to that need.

“Crucially, the inspections have been designed to put people at the heart of our combined efforts and we have had inspection volunteers on each inspection. These are people who use care services themselves or are carers of people who use care services, and I would like to thank them for bringing an invaluable perspective to the inspection team.

“A key purpose of these reports is to support improvements in the services people receive. Both reports will be used by organisations who are delivering care to improve the services they provide, whether in a health or social care setting.”

Inspectors graded services in each geographical area across 10 quality indicators. In Aberdeenshire inspectors found that eight quality indicators were good, while two were adequate.

In Moray, one quality indicator was found to be very good, five were good and four were adequate.

The inspection reports for Aberdeenshire and Moray can be found here:

Moray report: http://cinsp.in/1BxZufo
Aberdeenshire report: http://cinsp.in/1BxZGLC