Our achievements

Care Quality Commission Annual Performance Assessment judges Salford's adult social care as excellent.

Once again, the Care Quality Commission (the Ofsted of health and social care) has rated Salford’s adult social care as excellent and one of the top ten in England.

The council has been rated as performing excellently in six out of seven measures and performing well in the other. This year, the council’s performance on maintaining dignity and respect has also improved, particularly because of improvements to adult safeguarding.

Outcome	Performance
Improved health and well-being	Excellent
Improved quality of life	Well
Making a positive contribution	Excellent
Increased choice and control	Excellent
Freedom from discrimination and harassment	Excellent
Economic well-being	Excellent
Maintaining personal dignity and respect	Excellent

What does excellent adult social care mean for Salford citizens?

A citizen and some staff tell us their stories below. You can also read more citizens' stories on our My life, my support, my choice pages.

Paula on the telephone at work Paula

For the first time in her life, 46 year old Paula is living independently and says that she couldn’t be happier.

Paula lives with her life long friend Joan, has a part time job, loves watching films and having a few drinks on ‘girl’s nights in’ on Saturdays. Paula also has Down's syndrome.

Following the death of her mother Elsie, in January 2010, Paula, her family and her social worker agreed that she should live in a supported tenancy. Her brother and sister are amazed by the development they are seeing in Paula’s self-help skills and confidence since she moved. They are reassured by the quality of Paula’s care and the focus this has upon developing her independence.

Paula says she has never been happier. 'I love having my own room, my own space. I can chill out and watch my favourite tv programme - Midsomer Murders. The staff who support me have helped me become more independent and I can now wash and blow dry my hair by myself.'

She is also busy making her own sandwiches for lunch and enjoys attending the Links social club, clothes shopping and visiting friends. Paula is also an active member of the DIY drama group.

Earlier in the year, CQC inspectors found that the council’s performance in maintaining personal dignity and respect, including safeguarding adults, had improved to the highest level.

Over the last few years, social care staff have become more aware of adult safeguarding issues. The council and its partners have always done our best in terms of trying to protect vulnerable adults. Better training, procedures and partnership working means we are now doing it even better and protecting more people.

Debbie, social worker

When you go to visit someone in the community, sometimes, things just don’t add up. You get a ‘sixth sense’ that something isn’t right. For example, the person may be badly dressed, there isn’t much food in the home, or the heating is turned off. Our job is to unpick and uncover what exactly is going on - is the person short of money? Who is looking after their money?

We work closely with colleagues in the NHS and in the Police to get results and make Salford a safer place for vulnerable people.

It’s great when we do get results! You’ve helped someone out of a terrible situation and the message is going out to perpetrators that there is zero tolerance of any sort of abuse in Salford.

Simon, social worker

Adult safeguarding is one of the most challenging areas of social work. You have to be able to ask the right questions and make life-changing decisions about when to act.

It’s important to focus on positive outcomes of the safeguarding investigation - making peoples' lives better - rather than on the negative side of how neglectful or abusive people can be to each other.

The Mental Capacity Act means we now have further powers to tackle abuse, with abuse of a person who lacks capacity becoming a specific criminal offence.

Louise, newly qualified social worker

I recently dealt with was a lady whose relative had moved into her property with his family. The property was overcrowded and the lady was being verbally and physically abused by a family member.

One time, the family member locked the victim out of her own home - she was found wandering the streets, too scared to go back into her own home and ask her family to leave.

We arranged for the victim to stay in a safe place temporarily and worked with the Police and the Housing Association to formally evict her family. This enabled the lady to move back into her property and live a safer life.

The support I have had from colleagues in the Adult Protection Unit, the Police and from my manager allowed us to achieve a positive outcome for the service user.

If you are affected by abuse or neglect, report it by telephoning 0161 909 6517 or telling a social worker.