A JOINT inspection of adult services in Fife Health and Social Care Partnership found that some people and, particularly their carers, "had negative experiences”.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate said that staff had struggled to cope with increased demand, at a time when less support was available, and there had been "poorer outcomes" for a number of clients.

The joint inspection, between June and October, focused on the experiences of adults with physical disabilities and complex needs and while there were plenty of positives and the workforce was praised for their efforts, it was clear the impact of the pandemic was still being felt.

Robbie Pearson, chief executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, said: “The huge efforts of staff have enabled the partnership to continue to deliver good outcomes to most people that were broadly in line with performance across Scotland as a whole.

"At the same time, some people had poorer outcomes.

"Although we recognise the commitment and effort from the partnership and its staff, it’s important to acknowledge that some people, and particularly their carers, had negative experiences.”

The partnership relies on Fife Council and NHS Fife working together to integrate services that are provided by health boards and local authorities, such as social work, district nursing, physiotherapy, mental health, some housing services and children's community health.

Jackie Irvine, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: “New leadership arrangements were successfully introduced during the pandemic and the positive effects were evident across the partnership.

"However, the pandemic had significant impacts on people, carers and staff across all sectors.

"As a result, the partnership was experiencing both an increasing demand for support and a reduction in the availability of the support it could deliver.

"The inspection has identified areas for improvement to address these challenges.”

In particular, the partnership has been told to improve outcomes for people and carers and make sure it has an integrated approach to providing information and advice.

Processes for anticipatory care planning and how it responds, from the point of view of people and carers, have to get better and it must make sure it balances responding to local needs with monitoring performance.

Bosses should evaluate the effectiveness of organisational development across the wider workforce and the report said further progress was needed on integrated service delivery to ensure good outcomes and experiences for people.

Inspectors also found key strengths and said most people had positive experiences of health and social care, which supported an improved quality of life, and that people and carers they spoke to were listened to by workers who treated them with dignity, respect and kindness.

Almost all had support from a key worker during assessment, review and care planning processes, co-ordination was generally good and widespread adoption of collaborative approaches with external care providers improved the partnership’s ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic.

And most staff agreed that joint working was supported by line managers and leaders.