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Adult Social Care

Our Adult Social Care vision for Bexley:

Your life, your choice – Working together towards the life you want.
Our draft Adult Social Care Vision has been developed with input from our staff at all levels, partners and people who use services and their carers. It includes the following three priorities:

  • A gloriously ordinary life
  • To make a choice, you must have a choice
  • Better, stronger and wiser together

Adult social care is a term for the wide range of support we provide to adults and carers.

We want our residents to enjoy the best quality of life, based on choices that are important to them. While the vast majority of people in Bexley experience a good life without support from us, some people may need help during their lives due to disability, health problems, difficulties with their mental health, social isolation or frailty.

Our care and services play a crucial role in helping residents remain healthy and independent. The type and level of care can differ from person to person – it could include providing information and advice, universal or prevention services, or care and support for those with significant needs.

Find out more about the services we provide

This section uses the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) which is how the Council’s Adult Social Care service measures how well care and support services achieve the outcomes that matter to people.

The average for London is shown in ( ) to show how Bexley compares.

In 2022/23, of residents who used Adult services

73% told us that felt they had control over their daily life (72%)1

care

19%received direct payments, which helps residents have greater control over their own care and support needs (25%)

62% feel as safe as they would like (66%)

59% were satisfied overall with their care and support (60%)

67% found it easy to find information about support (65%)

39% reported that they had as much social contact as they would like. This dropped during the two pandemic years from 47% pre-pandemic (40%)

83% said that the services they used made them feel safe and secure (82%)1

The quality of Adult Social Care matters. It matters because people who use services should be able to expect person-centred care that is safe, effective and responsive.

While some of these figures are not where we would like them to be, our Adult Social Care services are constantly finding ways to improve.

We do this by:

  • developing skills and knowledge of everyone involved in care assessments
  • monitoring the experiences of people with assessed care and support needs
  • enabling a person’s care needs and support outcomes to be met
  • helping people who are supported to be independent and have choice and control
  • helping people to be safe
  • making sure we are working within our means as an organisation

Find out more about our Adult Social Care policies.

age 65 plus

Older People (aged 65+)

In 2022/23

  • there were 7,285 requests for Adult Social Care (ASC) support received from people aged 65 and over that had not previously been clients, this has increased from 5,675 in 2018/192
  • of those who went on to receive a service, the most common support included short-term care, universal services/signposting, and ongoing low-level support2
  • proportionately, more Bexley adults aged 65 and over had their long-term care needs met by admission to residential and nursing care homes than seen across London but less than nationally1
  • 4.4% of people aged 65 and over were discharged from hospital to their own home or a care home for rehabilitation services, with a view that all would move back to their own home if not already there, this is higher than England and lower than London1
  • 90% of people aged 65 and over who received support services after being discharged from hospital were still at home 91 days later, this is better than nationally and the same as London1

Residential Care

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. They make sure health and social care services provide people with compassionate, high-quality care and encourage services to improve. You can find out more about what they do

In July 2023, the Care Quality Commission rated residential care in the borough:3

  Outstanding Good Requires improvement Inadequate
All care homes 3% 83% 13% 0%
Older person's homes 6% 83% 11% 0%
Learning disability residential homes 0% 71% 29% 0%
Mental health residential homes 0% 100% 0% 0%

Carers

In 2021-22, carers in Bexley took part in the Survey of Adult Carers in England.

adult carers

64% of carers have been caring for over 5 years

27% of carers have been caring for over 20 years

  • 64% of carers reported that caring had caused them feelings of stress
  • 60% of carers said that their caring responsibilities caused them no financial difficulty. 8% said that caring caused them significant financial difficulty
  • 39% of carers who receive services are very or extremely satisfied with the support they had
  • 33% of carers were looking after someone aged 85+
  • 49% of carers were looking after someone with a physical disability
  • 41% of carers spend 100 hours or more per week looking after the person they care for, this increased from 25% and 26% in the previous two surveys4

Learning Disability

In 2019/20, 0.4% of adult residents had a learning disability5.

In 2021/22:

  • 81% of adults with a learning disability were living on their own or with family1
  • 16.4% of adults with a learning disability, receiving long-term support,were in paid employment1
learning disability
adult social care and mental health

Mental Health

In 2019/20:

  • there were 6,498 per 100,000 new referrals to secondary mental health services6
  • 24,935 per 100,000 people attended contacts with community and outpatient mental health services7

In 2021/22:

  • 0.82% of residents were registered as living with a mental health condition, this has increased over time but is the third best in London, and lower than both London and England8
  • 45 per 100,000 people were admitted to hospital with the main reason for mental and behavioural disorders due to the use of alcohol9

Out of adults 18 to 69 who were in contact with secondary mental health services:

  • 19% were living independently, with or without support1
  • 5% were in paid employment1

South East London Integrated Care Board provides talking therapies for Bexley residents. Data for these can be found in the psychological therapies within the mental health dashboards published by NHS Digital.

Bexley Care and other trusted partners

Bexley Care brings together the physical and mental health services provided by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and adult social care within the London Borough of Bexley, acting as a single integrated care provider to improve patient outcomes and experiences.

People receive care within their community from local teams known as Local Care Networks, including voluntary and individual assets to help people achieve independence, choice and wellbeing. Care plans are personalised for individual needs and services are developed locally to meet this individual need, while providing joined-up and proactive care.

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust is the main provider of Mental Health services in the borough. In 2019, Oxleas were rated as ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission as an organisation.

Each individual service provided by Oxleas have their own ratings.

  • Community-based mental health services for older people is rated as 'Good' (March 2019)
  • Community-based mental health services for adults of working age is rated as 'Requires improvement' (November 2022)10

Community Connect

We partner with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Bexley Voluntary Sector Council (BVSC) to link residents with support through ‘Community Connect’. This means GP’s can help residents choose non-medical options to improve their health and wellbeing alongside existing treatments.

Residents can access voluntary services for care and support with:

  • isolation and/or feeling lonely
  • financial or housing issues
  • being a carer for someone
  • a recent medical diagnosis
  • stress and anxiety
  • getting more involved in your community

If you are 18 and registered with a Bexley GP you can access the Community Connect service. You can get a referral from your GP practice or you can self-refer directly. Find out more.

Sources

  1. Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework, NHS Digital - 2022/23
  2. Adult Social Care Activity and Finance, NHS Digital - 2022/23
  3. CQC ratings, Care Quality Commission - July 2023
  4. Survey of Adult Carers in England, NHS Digital - 2021/22
  5. Learning Disability (all ages), Office for Health Improvement and Disparities - 2019/20
  6. New referrals to secondary mental health services, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities - 2019/20
  7. Attended contacts with community and outpatient mental health services, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities - 2019/20
  8. Mental Health QOF prevalence, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities - 2021/22
  9. Admission episodes for mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities - 2021/22
  10. Oxleas CQC ratings, Care Quality Commission - 2023