Coventry City Council’s commissioning approach to equity in access to Adult Social Care

Coventry’s approach

Adult Social Care uses various mechanisms for assessing how equity is realised.

1. Service user feedback.

Coventry’s Adult Social Care Department actively engages in a variety of mechanisms to assess and promote equity. These efforts include gathering direct feedback from service users and their families through the Adult Social Care Experience survey, regular engagement events, specific surveys on safeguarding and Direct Payments, Stakeholder Reference Group and Partnership Board meetings, and various bespoke activities linked to commissioning exercises. Additionally, the department collects compliments, complaints, and representations routed through the Council, as well as information provided by service providers and made available to quality assurance staff.

Despite the absence of formal complaints indicating inequity in support over recent years, it is noteworthy that the uptake of Direct Payments is higher among non-white individuals. This suggests that there may be a perception, whether accurate in all cases or not, that minority ethnic service users feel that contracted or directly provided services may not fully meet their specific cultural needs.

Throughout the year we have hosted or attended targeted events within communities, attended faith forums and community partnerships to understand more about people’s experience of utilising adult social care and provider services.

2. Quality assurance

Our goal is to ensure that all providers undergo a comprehensive annual review of their service quality. This process includes evaluating evidence of policies and procedures that promote equity in practice and verifying that care is person-centered and addresses needs in a manner that upholds equity. Recently, our quality assurance processes have been refined to consistently capture evidence in a systematic way.

3. Structure of the workforce          

Adult Social Care aims to ensure that the workforce in the city reflects the diversity of the customer base. However, the latest data from Skills for Care (October 2024) indicates discrepancies in representation among Direct Care staff. Specifically, there is an overrepresentation of minority ethnic staff, particularly Black staff, in direct care roles (39%) compared to the percentage of service users (15.5%). Additionally, while 42% of our customer base is male, only 20% of direct care staff are male. Although this does not imply that gender and culturally specific needs are not met or not met in the optimum way, a more balanced representation may enhance experience of service delivery.

Demographics

Strengths and opportunities 

It is advantageous that we have access to comprehensive and annually updated data on workforce demographics through Skills for Care, allowing us to make informed comparisons with our customer base.

However, the disparity in certain staff characteristics highlights potential challenges in delivering personalized support. We lack detailed information on the full range of protected characteristics of staff, which would enable us to make necessary adjustments and promote inclusive service delivery, and this is an area we continue to focus on.

Summary/key actions

Coventry City Council is committed to embedding the principles of equity and responsiveness in adult social care services through its commissioning practices. While progress has been made, the following key actions are essential to further integrate equity into our commissioning and procurement processes.