In the recently published report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the borough comes under the spotlight in relation to the overall CQC ratings of care providers in the town as of 31^st July 2017.

The CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It monitors, inspects and regulates services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and publish what they find to help people to choose care.

The CQC makes sure that health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care, and they encourage care services to improve.

Ratings are based on a combination of inspection findings including what patients tell the CQC. On making inspections the CQC asks five key questions of service providers, as follows: are they Safe, Effective, Caring and Responsive to people’s needs and Well-led. They rate each of the five key questions and aggregate them to give an overall rating.

In Bury, of the 76 Adult Social Care services rated:

• 66 (equating to 87%) were rated as ‘Good’ which is better than the national average (78%)
• One was rated as ‘Outstanding’
• None of the Adult Social Care services were rated as ‘Inadequate’
• And only 9 (equating to 12%) were rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ which was better (less) than the national average (19%)

Of the 30 GP Practices in Bury that were rated:

• 27 (equates to 90%) were rated as ‘Good’ which is just above the national average (89%)
• One was rated as ‘Outstanding’
• None of the GP Practices in Bury were rated as ‘Inadequate’
• Whilst two Practices were rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ this was similar to the national proportion. There was intensive support in place for the two Practices to ensure a positive re-inspection. They have both since been re-inspected with one now rated as ‘Good’, the second re-inspection outcome will be announced very soon.

Catherine Jackson Executive Nurse for NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which commissions GP services in Bury, said: “The overall picture for Bury demonstrates the safe, effective and caring services we have in place. The picture tells us that the vast majority of local services are both well led and responsive to individual’s needs. Whilst some services do have areas identified for improvement, when looking at the picture nationally, a higher proportion of services in Bury are rated as ‘Good’. There is always more to do and of course we need to ensure our service providers are supported to continue the excellent work they are doing. We are very proud to have in place services that strive for excellence and improvement for the benefit of our local communities.”

Pat Jones-Greenhalgh, Interim Chief Executive of Bury Council, added: “The combined proportion of Adult Social Care services in Bury that are rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC is higher than the picture nationally, and with no services rated as inadequate, this positive picture is a testament to the excellence local services strive for. This outcome also reflects the commitment demonstrated by our excellent staff. We are not complacent though, and will continue to support local services to be the best that they can be, ensuring the focus remains on them being safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led for the benefit of our local community.”