A joint inspection of East Ayrshire health and social care partnership has found clear strengths in services for adults with learning disabilities, with some areas for improvement.  

Overall, inspectors found that people experienced good, person-centred care and were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.

There was a wide range of care and support available to people, depending on their wishes and needs. Staff worked well together to creatively support solutions to complex care and housing issues.

There was strong joint working with well-developed relationships between staff working in different organisations. This was enhanced by co-location. Senior managers and leaders worked well together in an integrated manner. This positively modelled the benefits of integration to others.

The work of the Community Learning Disability Team demonstrated a strong person-led and outcome-focused approach.

The partnership had effective and robust systems and processes to support the work it did with people. This included the implementation of self-directed support and effective, person-centred approaches in relation to the Adults with Incapacity legislation.

However, inspectors also recommended that the partnership relaunch its programme of annual health checks, which provide effective routes to early intervention and prevention as well as addressing health inequalities.

The partnership should also accelerate the delivery of future care and emergency plans, including adult carer support plans as they are a critical means of ensuring the continuity of care.

The partnership should engage with frontline staff to ensure they feel adequately supported around assessment, re-assessment and review of packages of support at resource allocation meetings. This is particularly where staff have to communicate difficult or challenging news to people experiencing care who are awaiting funding decisions.

The partnership should seek to gather and analyse the outcome-based data it produces from its work with people. This would support strategic planning and more positive decision-making for people with a learning disability.

Jackie Irvine, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: “The partnership demonstrated a number of key strengths across the range of its activity. These good results were achieved despite the challenges posed by the financial climate, demography and the increasing complexity of support required by people.

“It was also important to recognise that at the time of inspection there had been significant change in the leadership team of the local authority and the partnership, with a number of people leaving their roles.

“Overall we were assured that the partnership was well-set to fulfil its vision for learning disability services. This meant the partnership would not just maintain these positive results but have the foundation and the means to improve even further.”

Robbie Pearson, Chief Executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, added: "It was encouraging to see strong evidence of joined-up working across health and social care services in East Ayrshire, resulting in good person-centred support for adults with learning disabilities.

“The partnership has established solid foundations for improving health and wellbeing, particularly through the work of its Community Learning Disability Team.

“By restarting annual health checks and progressing future care planning, it can further strengthen early intervention and prevention, improve outcomes and reduce inequalities for people with learning disabilities."

Read the full report.