'Good' CQC rating for children's community services

Children and young people in Wiltshire benefit from safe, effective and caring community services that are well-led and responsive to people's needs.

That's the message from the Care Quality Commission, which has awarded an overall 'good' rating, including areas of 'outstanding' practice, to the services that are delivered by HCRG Care Group on behalf of the NHS and Wiltshire Council. The team also delivers a school-aged immunisations service across the BSW (Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire) footprint and in Devon.

Val Scrase, Regional Director at HCRG Care Group, said: "We have a fantastic team delivering high quality care to children and young people across the south west. This report recognises the incredible work they do day in day out, and the positive difference that they have made within our local communities. We will continue to work closely with our commissioners to build on the innovative work we have done in transforming services to change people's lives."

Cllr Ian Blair Pilling, Cabinet Member for Public Health at Wiltshire Council, said: "There is much good, often innovative work happening in Wiltshire that is having a profound and positive impact for our children and young people. This independent validation is appreciated, but we are never complacent and alongside our partners we will always strive to achieve yet more."

Cllr Laura Mayes, Cabinet Member for Children's Services at Wiltshire Council said: "Our aim is to ensure our children can have the best start in life as that is a fundamental part of improving long-term life chances and the best opportunity to live long, full, healthy and enriched lives.  We welcome this report which highlights actions to achieve this including Our Dads Matter Too programme which is strengthening the bonds between father and child and helping dads receive targeted support where needed."

The report recognises how services are tailored to meet the needs of children and young people, the kind and compassionate staff who are committed to continually learning and improving services, and the way the team works with other organisations to make sure the needs of service users are met in a joined-up way.

It also highlighted the following areas of 'outstanding' practice:

• The team works closely with the Ministry of Defence to support military personnel moving in to Wiltshire from some UK and overseas locations.  This includes a designated immunisation term visiting military families across Wiltshire to make sure children and young people are kept up to date with their vaccinations
• Specialist bladder and bowel nurses have developed a training package for GP usage, so they are better equipped with the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of  bladder and bowel problems in children.
• The team has adopted an app to support fathers in parenting, provide engagement and support sessions and engaged with dads as part of the Dads Matter Too initiative to help support dads with mental health issues.
• Speech and language therapy staff worked with partners to create a film, This is me and DLD,  raising awareness of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) which was publicised on social media.

The report is listed as Technology House in Salisbury as the registered location. It can be viewed online (opens new window).