Satisfaction with adult social care in Oxfordshire on the rise

Around two-thirds of users of social care for adults in Oxfordshire are “extremely or very satisfied” with the service they receive after determined efforts to make services more personal to individuals - including scrapping 15 minute visits for personal care in 2014.

An annual Department of Health report on satisfaction with care showed that 90 per cent of users were extremely/very or quite satisfied with care.

A total of 700 Oxfordshire care users responded out of the 6,000 recipients of care users in Oxfordshire.

The 66 per cent figure compares with a 61 per cent figure for 2015.

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for adult social care, said: “These are very encouraging results. Against a backdrop in which all councils in England are experiencing real funding issues we have improved satisfaction and very few people are dissatisfied with the service they receive.

“Our aim as a council in this difficult financial climate is to put our focus on our service users whether they be in adult social care or any other the 80 per cent of local government services provided to the people of Oxfordshire by the county council.”

“In recent times we have made great efforts to make services more personal to individual services users. We have worked with providers to improve standards - for example we stopped 15 minute visits in 2014 and implemented new service standards. I have no doubt these factors have influenced the upturn in satisfaction. My thanks go to all of our staff and people who work with our staff in adult social care settings in Oxfordshire.”

The full results of the Department of Health survey will be published by Central Government during the Autumn.