At last, good news for social care in Sefton

Plus: Borough's climate action assessed and your What's On guide to the week ahead

Jun 22, 2025

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Hello and welcome to the 46th edition of The Southport Lead.

We’ve a Sefton Council-heavy edition today as we focus on two assessments of very differents aspects of its performance. First up, the Care Quality Commission have been inspecting adult social care services and found plenty of room for positivity.

The inspection is completely separate to child social services which remain a major issue in terms of performance and resources but it is important to focus on where things are going right as well as when they don’t.

We also take a look at an independent assessment of the council’s efforts to take action on climate issues - with improvement seen but not enough to reach the average levels seen across the UK.

And for paying subscribers, you can enjoy Andrew Brown’s What’s On guide to the week ahead (and thankfully it seems conditions will cool down from what we’ve seen in recent days).

Praise for adult social care as ‘tireless work’ of staff recognised

By Elliot Jessett

Sefton Council landed one of the top marks in the North West for its Adult Social Care service with inspectors praising its staff for being ‘knowledgeable, compassionate and caring’.

The authority, which has more than 7,000 residents accessing Adult Social Care services, received a ‘good’ rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in its report published today.

The CQC looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well the authority is meeting their responsibilities, including its effectiveness in assessing people’s needs, care provision, governance and innovation.

Particular praise was reserved for Sefton Council’s mental health recovery team which provided 12-week, intensive reablement interventions to encourage people’s independence, support hospital discharge and promote recovery.

The local authority’s work to tackle inequalities was also noted, including positive feedback on its ‘Living Well Sefton’ service offering support for weight management, healthy eating, financial support, smoking cessation, and isolation.

James Bullion, CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said: “At our assessment of Sefton Council’s adult social care services, we were pleased to find people were receiving positive, person-centred support designed to promote their independence and support their health and well-being.

“Behind this success, the authority had strong leaders, who were working well with partners to support people living in Sefton. For example, they had developed the Better at Home Programme, to give people more choice and control of their lives. The aim was to reduce the use of residential and nursing care for people who wanted to remain at home and live as independently as possible.

“We also heard about their partnership working to improve support for people with mental health needs or in substance use recovery. Someone who had been sleeping on the streets, was supported to register with a GP and to find accommodation. They then became a community volunteer to help other people who had been in the same position.”

The CQC praised Sefton’s partnership with NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, highlighting a place-based approach to joined-up working, as well as efforts to reshape the care market with a focus on helping people live independently for longer.

Councillor Ian Moncur, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said: “This is a fantastic recognition of the tireless work taking place every day across Adult Social Care in Sefton. It reflects our clear focus on improving lives and working hand in hand with our communities, partners and our incredible staff.

“The report shows that people not only value the support they receive, but also the culture of care, dignity and respect that underpins everything we do.”

Some areas of concern were noted by the CQC inspectors who received mixed feedback from unpaid carers who felt ‘unable to have a break from their caring role’ due to difficulties accessing respite placements in a planned way.

Inspectors also noted that people sometimes found it difficult to get through or speak to the right person when using the contact centre telephone number. However, the CQC report acknowledged the local authority is increasing the number of staff who triaged calls as well as the amount of social workers to help improve this.

The CQC’s chief inspector, Mr Bullion added: “The local authority was aware that waiting times for support, timeliness of care assessments and annual reviews, were an issue in some areas.

“Leaders were working with partners to address this, including introducing a mobile clinic which visited people at their homes, to provide them with basic equipment and assessments to help them remain independent and safe in their own homes.

“Sefton Council should be pleased with the many positive findings in our report and are already building on this with further improvement plans.”

Improvement seen but Sefton’s climate efforts still lagging below the UK average

By Jamie Lopez

Sefton Council has improved its climate action efforts but remains under-performing compared to the national average, according to new research.

Environmental charity Climate Action UK this week published the second edition of its Council Climate Action Scorecards, giving Sefton an overall score of 32%. This represents a two-point improvement compared to its 2023 score but lags behind the 38% countrywide average.

Meanwhile, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s 56% enabled it to be one of only 62 councils across the UK scoring 50% or more on climate action

For the analysis, Climate Emergency UK assessed all UK councils on the actions they’ve taken towards net zero. The 2025 Action Scorecard assessment consists of 93 questions or fewer, depending on council type, across seven different sections, created in consultation with over 90 different organisations and individuals.

The Scorecards are created by assessing councils according to a three stage marking process using primarily publicly available data from council websites, available before November 2024, as well as national data and Freedom Of Information responses from councils from Autumn 2024. Each council was marked against these criteria and given a right to reply before the scores underwent a final audit.

Sefton performed notably well in ‘buildings and heating’, the section which covers how local authorities are taking action to retrofit council buildings and social housing; work with others to improve the retrofit skills available in the local area; and provide funding and advice to residents on retrofitting.

This is the second time that Climate Emergency UK has undertaken this holistic assessment of what councils can do for climate action, what they can do to lower carbon emissions, cut residents' energy bills, protect and create more space for nature and provide better public transport, among other things.

Whilst average scores remain low, 80% of all UK councils saw an increase in their Scorecard results since 2023. This includes all councils in Merseyside.

Elena Evripidou, a volunteer with Climate Emergency UK from the Wirral said: “I’m pleased to see that all Merseyside councils have improved their Scorecard results since 2023”. This shows that, along with residents, councils want to prioritise climate action to improve their lives and communities.

"Yet the average overall score increase since 2023 was just 6 percentage points, and in Merseyside it was lower at 4 percentage points. This shows that councils across the UK are struggling to step up their climate action at the emergency pace needed because there are nationwide barriers making it harder for councils to deliver effective, high point scoring, work that would cut residents’ bills, make their homes warmer and raise funds for cash strapped local governments.

“These Scorecards provide proof of where councils need real investment from the national government so that every council can improve their score by 20 percentage points or more each time to make real progress towards cleaner, safer and more prosperous zero emission communities we need to thrive.”

Despite the small overall improvement, there are 58 councils across the UK that scored over 80% in one or more sections, such as Planning & Land Use, Buildings & Heating and Transport. Locally, the only council to score above 80% on any section was Wirral Borough Council for Collaboration & Engagement, followed closely by Liverpool City Region (CA) with 79% for Buildings & Heating & Green Skills. Two thirds of councils in Merseyside had a score of over 65% for Buildings & Heating.

Elena added: “The government may have a target for net zero by 2050, but these Scorecards results show that they are not doing enough to support communities and councils across the UK to decarbonise. With devolution set to change council structures in Merseyside, we want to see a legal duty to tackle climate change embedded in the new authorities created, as the Greater London Authority already has.

“Doing this would ensure councils have the funds and powers to protect residents from flooding, air pollution and rising energy prices that we know that residents care about, and allow councils to work beyond the next election cycle.”

What’s On This Week

By Andrew Brown

Art lovers can look forward to the official opening of not one, but three brand new exhibitions at The Atkinson in Southport, as the cultural centre on Lord Street celebrates its 150th birthday in style.

Discover fascinating Tolkien memorabilia with The Magic Of Middle-earth by Matt Fox; I Love You Southport by Chila Burman; and the 150th Anniversary Exhibition.

Next weekend get ready for the North West Armed Forces Festival in Southport, with lots to enjoy over Saturday and Sunday with a live music event headlined by The Quo Experience, parade, 1940s fashion show, military vehicles and more.

Here are some of the many great events you can enjoy in Southport between Sunday 22nd June and 29th June 2025:

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