Bexley Labour Group notes Bexley Council has been awarded a judgement of ‘requires improvement’ following the recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) Adult Social Care and Health services inspection in October 2025. The inspection found some strengths but there were some areas requiring improvement.
This is the first Adult Social care inspection since 2012 when this requirement was scrapped by the Conservative government at the time.
Bexley Labour group would like to thank all the staff in the Adult Social care team for their hard work and dedication in preparing for this inspection, and that directorate has already addressed or is working to make improvements identified in the report.
The CQC’s inspection was based around four themes including how the authority works with people and leadership. Among its findings was that while there was effective reablement and good carer involvement, people did not always have access to a diverse range of options to meet their care and support needs. The assessment found there was strong community engagement, and residents could access care and support services in a variety of ways.
The CQC reported mixed feedback from unpaid carers around completion of carers’ assessments with some saying they had received one, while others were unclear or unable to recall whether an assessment had been offered to them or completed.
Key priority areas for development:
- Supporting people to access services
- Timeliness of reviews
- Building on the effective safeguarding systems, processes, and practices already in place
- Bringing everyone’s satisfaction feedback up to the level felt by most
- Local care market capacity, especially dementia, respite, and supported accommodation
- Supporting people to take direct payments
Cllr. Larry Ferguson, Shadow Spokesperson for Adult Social Carer and Health said:
‘It is disappointing the council fell narrowly short of its services being designated as good.
Staff work so hard to provide people in the borough with the care and health services they need.
There is clearly some work to be done, and the Bexley Labour Group stands ready to help the borough’s Conservative administration, officers, and staff to deliver the service our residents deserve.
‘The recent CQC inspection highlights some key areas to focus on to improve the service to Bexley residents receiving social care, and it is clear that there is a need to improve the completion of carers assessments and the backlog of care reviews with 281 people with outstanding review of care plans.
‘We urge the Conservative council to provide more support to our hardworking staff and to deal with this backlog in particular as some staff highlighted increased demand and how heavy workloads had contributed to staff experiencing stress.’