86% of residents think Renfrewshire is a good place to live. 
Social Work
Home > About Renfrewshire > About the Council > External Audit > Best Value Audit
“The service has a clear vision for how services need to improve and how it will respond to projected shifts in the demand for its services”
The Audit of Best Value and Community Planning looks closely at our social work services as another important area of the Council’s work with vulnerable people. Our Social Work department provides services for older people, community care services for those with learning disabilities, physical disabilities or mental health issues, children’s services and criminal justice services.
The audit notes that the Council is making progress towards joint working arrangements with the new NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board and that the new Community Health Partnership (CHP) involving the Council and the health board will deliver benefits to users of community care services when fully operational by the end of 2006.
Already, joint working arrangements such as the single shared assessment tool for social work services and the NHS are delivering benefits, for example, the number of delayed discharges from hospital has dropped by 69% from 119 to 37 in the three years to April 2006.
For older people, the audit notes that the Council is making positive moves towards meeting the National Care Standards by developing three new purpose built residential care homes which will provide single room, en-suite accommodation for the elderly.
An area of difficulty for the Council in providing children’s services has been providing a balance of care between residential care and care provided by foster carers. With an increasing demand for the services of foster carers to look after children in a family environment, the Council has made an investment to increase the number of foster carers in Renfrewshire and improve the support available to carers.
