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Social care services for older people are improving across the UK as councils work towards implementing government guidelines on modernising social services, the Social Services Inspectorate has concluded, writes Gideon Burrows.

The SSI inspected domiciliary, residential and nursing care provided for older people in 21 councils between October 1999 and November 2000. Their findings were published this week.

“The national picture was that these services were beginning to make an important difference for the better,” the report said, but it warned that standards in domiciliary care were a widespread problem.

Services were praised for improvement in cultural responsiveness, and modernisation led by Best Value reviews. Joint work between social services and NHS was also found to further modernisation of services.

But, inspectors said that management infrastructure and direction in older people’s services were being “over influenced by the priorities of the council’s in-house services”.

“Best Value reviews led too much from the perspective of the priorities of the council’s in-house services,” said the report.

Inspectors also said there was a lack of attention to service users with mental health problems and sensory loss.

SSI chief inspector, Denise Platt, said the report showed the emergence of new and innovative services making a real difference to people’s lives.

“We can be cautiously optimistic about progress being made by most councils to implement the modernising agenda for older people’s social care services and ensure that care is person centred,” she said.

In 1998, a new national agenda for improving older people’s care was set out for councils in the government white paper ‘Modernising Social Services’. Key aspects included promoting the independence of older people, and better joint working between health and social services to help people get the services they need.