The Care Quality Commission’s first annual report on the state of health and adult social care in England is an invaluable source of information. The report can be downloaded at:

http://www.cqc.org.uk/_db/_documents/CQC_Complete_2009_18.pdf

It claims that the proportion of health and social care services, such as residential care and home care, rated good or excellent rose from 69% in 2008 to 77% in 2009 and that only 2% of adult social care services were rated as poor last year.

The CQC reports slow albeit significant progress in shifting the balance from residential care to home care: in 2009 2.1% of people aged 65 and over were publicly-funded residents in care homes, down from 2.5% five years ago. Last year 148,000 people were able to access preventive services, up from 80,000 in 2005.

The report emphasises the challenges facing services as the number of adults needing care and support almost doubles over the next two decades, amounting to 1.7 million more adults who need support just at the time when public finances are stretched almost to breaking point.

The most remarkable thing about the report is its failure to challenge the increasing levels at which local authorities now set eligibility thresholds with 72% setting them at critical or substantial, with two results. Firstly many people with desperate needs cannot access services at all,  whilst, of course, the delays in accessing services means preventative work is being cut still further.

Bizarrely, despite the CQC admitting that “as the population ages and financial pressures grow, we expect that access to publicly-funded care will become further restricted,” the CQC claims that nevertheless excellent-rated councils will provide good information to everyone – for example signposting them to voluntary sector services. Yet the latter are under immense budgetary pressures themselves facing cuts in numerous councils.

With jobs at risk in many councils, next year’s CQC annual report should make dismal reading.