Blackpool Council is committed to improving adult social care.
The council’s plan aims to create stronger communities in Blackpool and increase resilience.
In 2025, the Care Quality Commission assessed the council’s adult social care service on how well it carried out duties related to the Care Act 2014. Its assessment gave the quality of Blackpool Council an overall rating of inadequate.
Improvement Board
The council has set up an Improvement Board. This involves the council and councillors, government, Local Government Association and other partners who deliver services for adults across the town. It also includes an Improvement Advisor from the Department of Health and Social Care.
The board is independently chaired by Deb Butcher, a former executive director of adult social care, health & wellbeing plus NHS director. It also includes:
Improvement Plan
An Improvement Plan has been sent to the Department of Health and Social Care. This plan includes the steps Blackpool Council has taken so far to improve adult services. This also includes targets and milestones to show continued improvement.
The plan centres around four main themes: working with people, providing support, safety and leadership.
Some of the key performance indicators include:
- Reducing the percentage of people with an overdue review
- Increasing the percentage of people who report having control over their daily life
- The percentage of people receiving long term services in the community
- The percentage of people who had their preferred safeguarding outcomes met
- New ways of hearing the voice of both adults who use social care services, and staff, to shape the vision and plan for improvement
IIt also includes improvements in waiting times for referrals, time taken for assessments, planned and unplanned reviews, and the time taken for safeguarding reviews to take place.
Led by you – the way forward
Our improvement plan and progress is led by people who use adult social care. A co-production board has been set up with people who have experience of adult social care. Those people are helping design new services and supports.
This is mirrored by the voice of our workforce. Staff who work across all every area of adult social care are involved in designing new services and sharing their experience of what will work best for everybody, local people, families, partners and staff.
Progress
Since the Improvement Board was created, a number of improvements have been made.
- A new vision for adult social care is being co-produced by people who draw on adult services
- The percentage of people who received a short term support and didn’t require additional support has increased.
- The number of people with an overdue review has fallen.
- More people are supported in the community
- The percentage of people provided with information, advice and guidance at first point of contact has increased
- The percentage of people who report their preferred safeguarding outcome had been met has increased
- The maximum referral waiting time has fallen across three main areas: community and hospital, learning disability and mental health
- The maximum time for assessments has fallen
Adult Services is moving in the right direction, with clearer operational control, improved responsiveness, and stronger outcomes.