Council adult social care service 'inadequate'

Blackpool has the lowest life expectancy of anywhere in England

A watchdog has found Blackpool Council's adult social care services to be inadequate.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) gave the authority the lowest rating after an inspection in March.

Its report highlighted weaknesses in dealing with mental health and substance abuse, saying "the authority had fragmented plans to tackle these issues and need a more strategic joined up approach".

Blackpool Council said it was disappointed and that work to "address the findings and conduct rapid improvements" had already begun.

Inspectors looked at nine areas of the service and gave them a score out of four - with one being where "the evidence showed significant shortfalls", and four where it "showed an exceptional standard".

Blackpool Council scored one in six of the areas and two in the remaining three.

'Unexpected'

The watchdog noted that people who identified as LGBTQIA+ "received a different standard of care and support compared to people with less bespoke needs".

Councillor Neal Brookes, deputy leader of Blackpool Council and cabinet member for adult social care, said he was shocked by these findings.

He said: "Up until the CQC report landed, we worked on the national metric, [and] in two thirds of them we were good or above average.

"We don't accept that things ever stand still, but we didn't expect inadequate."

He added there was no evidence of adults being unsafe.

James Bullion, the CQC's chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said there needed to be stronger leadership.

Brookes added: "We've already moved to bring in new people, because we need an outside perspective. We need to collect what's being done well elsewhere.

"Obviously in any change programme there are consequences. It's too early to say what those are."