Skip to content

Welcome to ‘Making the Difference that matters’

This is our annual report for Adult Social Care. It gives an update on our performance over the last year, including feedback from people about our services, how we spent our budget, and celebrates our key achievements. It sets out where we are now against our ambitions and vision of where we would like to be. We also introduce our new Principal Social Worker and Principal Occupational Therapist.

We have many things to be thankful for in Gloucestershire: our skilled and dedicated workforce, excellent partners in the NHS, care providers and voluntary organisations, and a strong sense of community in all corners of our county.

We are committed to striving to ensure we can make the best possible support offer to those that need us. That means in terms of value for money, quality, effectiveness, and the most personal outcome focussed offer we can achieve.

In Gloucestershire we have a thriving, but ageing population and we need to be creative in how we meet the needs for people as they get older and need additional support from us. We acknowledge there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in our communities that will help us to deliver our priorities.

By working together more closely, we can empower people with lived experience, our staff, and partners to help us drive positive changes for the people that need Adult Social Care and ensure that their voices are heard by decision makers as we transform our services now and, in the future.

Sarah ScottReflections on this last year 

It has been a busy year as we prepared for a full assessment by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Inspectors visited in September 2024, and their report was published on January 31, 2025.

I am pleased that CQC recognised the significant progress we are making to transform adult social care. We are in the middle of a five-year transformation programme that is already having a positive impact on services.

The council is investing an additional £5.6 million into our transformation and improvement plans over the next two years, on top of the £224.264 million already committed to Adult Social Care overall in the 2025 budget. We also received £600k from the government’s Accelerated Reform Funding to enhance support for unpaid carers.

I am delighted that inspectors recognised our strong leadership and saw something I see every day – a passionate and committed workforce – which really shone through. They praised our partnership with health colleagues and the number of initiatives we have in place to help people in Gloucestershire stay healthy and independent.

Our focus now is to build on the service improvements we have made in areas like access to care, use of data, reducing waiting times, accessible information, quality assurance and involving members of our community in the development of services.

We know what action needs to be taken and this work is already well underway to achieve our vision for Gloucestershire’s Adult Social Care which is “We make the difference that matters.”

Sarah Scott
Executive Director of Adult Social Care, Wellbeing and Communities

  • We have developed an Older Persons prevention strategy that is designed to enable and support more older people to live longer with good health in the place they call home and spend less time in need of care and support.
  • We’re developing an all-age carers strategy to improve support for unpaid carers.
  • We're improving our reablement and intermediate care to support people being discharged from hospital.
  • We're implementing a new Technology Enabled Care service which will help keep people safe and well.
  • We published our Market Position Statement which provides an up-to-date picture of current and predicted number of people who need social care in Gloucestershire and what the county will need to support them over the next 20 years. This is useful for care providers to plan and be able to deliver that care now and in the future.
  • We are also developing a workforce strategy to address capacity issues and international recruitment challenges.

 

 

  • We have developed an Older Persons prevention strategy that is designed to enable and support more older people to live longer with good health in the place they call home and spend less time in need of care and support.
  • We’re developing an all-age carers strategy to improve support for unpaid carers.
  • We're improving our reablement and intermediate care to support people being discharged from hospital.
  • We're implementing a new Technology Enabled Care service which will help keep people safe and well.
  • We published our Market Position Statement which provides an up-to-date picture of current and predicted number of people who need social care in Gloucestershire and what the county will need to support them over the next 20 years. This is useful for care providers to plan and be able to deliver that care now and in the future.
  • We are also developing a workforce strategy to address capacity issues and international recruitment challenges.

 

 

  •      The number of people needing social care has increased both nationally and locally and is expected to grow over the next 25 years.
  • Care worker pay has increased from £8.82 an hour in 2015/16 to £10.11 in 2022/23, thanks to the National Living Wage.
  • The county council purchases 56% of all available care in Gloucestershire, including 52% for older people (over 65) and 63% for adults aged18-64. The other 44% is from people who self-fund their care and other local authorities buying care in Gloucestershire.
  • Our Market Position Statement highlights the significant challenges we face with an increasing older population and recruiting sufficient care staff.
  •      The number of people needing social care has increased both nationally and locally and is expected to grow over the next 25 years.
  • Care worker pay has increased from £8.82 an hour in 2015/16 to £10.11 in 2022/23, thanks to the National Living Wage.
  • The county council purchases 56% of all available care in Gloucestershire, including 52% for older people (over 65) and 63% for adults aged18-64. The other 44% is from people who self-fund their care and other local authorities buying care in Gloucestershire.
  • Our Market Position Statement highlights the significant challenges we face with an increasing older population and recruiting sufficient care staff.