Herefordshire Joint Review

What is a Joint Review?
It is a thorough and comprehensive review of a Local Authority’s delivery of its social services and responsibilities. A joint team, made up of the Social Services Inspectorate and the Audit Commission, carries out the review.

Joint Reviews provide an independent assessment of how well the public is being served by Social Services locally. The reviews identify what authorities do well, and highlight those areas that could be improved.

Social Services Inspectorate and the Audit Commission.

The Review Programme and Timescale
Social Services submitted a Position Statement to the Joint Review Team in July 2002. This Position Statement is a large self-assessment document showing where the service was at, at a given point in time, and within which the Local Authority answered questions asked of it by the Joint Review Team. Statistical graphs and charts, to support the assertions made, were included.

The next stage of the Review process was case file analysis. 80 files across the service were scrutinised. Fieldwork Inspection took place between September and December 2002, when the reviewers visited various Social Services teams and agencies.

Who Does it Involve?
Everyone! Reviewers met members, senior managers, and groups of team managers, social workers, residential and day care staff, and home care workers. They also met with agencies, clients, user groups and other stakeholders.

What is Reviewed?
Reviews start from the experience of people who use services. While retaining the user focus throughout reviews also analyse the practice and management of the authorities delivering those services and assess whether they represent value for money. Their foundation is the understanding that local people will only get a good deal from their social services when:

• Authorities fit services to people rather than fit people into services.
• Councils can learn what works well now and reshape their services to meet needs better in future.
• Social services have clearer standards and make sure they are met.
• Every pound spent is directed at a specific purpose and costs are kept under constant scrutiny.

Social Services Inspectorate and the Audit Commission.

From this quote it can be seen that practically everything that Social Services does comes within the remit of the Review; from assessments to case recording; from partnerships with clients to partnerships with other agencies; from charting unmet need to charting unit costs of services provided.


What Happens To The Results?
The Joint Review Team made a judgement as to where the Authority lies in a matrix, below, which measures how well people are being served at present and what the prospects are for improvement in the future.

This judgement and a report detailing their findings was presented to members (councillors) on 10th July 2003, at which point the report became a public document. The Authority has written and submitted an action plan addressing any concerns or areas for improvement.

The report summary and a full version of the report are available by clicking on the link in the Resources box below.

If you have any questions regarding Herefordshire’s Joint Review, please email ssh_business@herefordshire.gov.uk

More information on Joint Reviews in general can be obtained from the Joint Review Website by clicking on the link in the External Links box below.