COVID-19 and Adult Social Care
We could not write a Local Account reflecting back on 2020/21 without mentioning the impact Coronavirus (COVID-19) has had on the work of Adult Social Care and how it has dominated our work during this year. It has been a year unlike any previously experienced and as such this Local Account needs to be viewed through the lens of a year unlike any other.
When the pandemic commenced, Adult Social Care needed to adapt quickly to continue to deliver most of our responsibilities for assessment and safeguarding through digital means while ensuring we continued to undertake face to face work where this was required. As we progress through continuing to live with COVID-19, we will increasingly blend the use of technology with face-to-face work. This blended approach has proved successful in a number of cases and is an approach we will continue to refine. We did, however, have significant challenges in respect of care capacity during the first wave of the pandemic and were one of only six local authorities nationally to activate the Care Act Easements due to a shortage of care and support staff early in the pandemic and the resulting need to prioritise our work. This required us to temporarily reduce our approach to Promoting Independence and simply ‘get care to people’, reassigning staff from day centre activity to other services.
Although the pandemic has impacted significantly on Adult Social Care it has not changed the essence of what we do, which continues to be supporting people to live as independently as possible within their communities. During 2020/21 demand for social care has not been like a usual year, as a result of; furlough, stay at home guidance, the requirement to limit face to face contact with people outside of your household or bubble, there was an increased tendency to not seek care and support services. In addition, the group most impacted by the pandemic were those with vulnerabilities. These factors combined meant that demand for Adult Social Care and the number of people supported reduced. However, as we moved into 2021/22 we started to see demand for Adult Social Care increase and the indication of a return to pre-pandemic levels. Indications are however that alongside the support with activities of daily living that make up most of our referrals, more people are presenting with a combination of issues associated with the detrimental impact of social isolation on mental health, wellbeing and social skills. People are also now approaching social care at a later stage in their care journey than would normally have been the case, with higher levels of need. Unpaid carers have also seen their caring roles intensify and have been placed under increased pressures during 2020/21. This will have had an impact on the emotional and physical health of carers across the city which again is placing demand on Adult Social Care.