CQC Inspection

Lancashire County Council (LCC) was notified on Monday, 7 October 2024 by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of an upcoming assessment of its Adult Social Care Services. The assessment, called a Local Authority Assessment, consisted of two phases, a submission of information phase and a site visit.

The CQC gave a three-week deadline for the submission of information, of 28 October 2024, while the site visit took place on the week commencing Monday 24 February at Mill 14 in Lancaster.

On 15 August 2025, the CQC released its assessment report and LCC received a rating of 'Requires Improvement'.

You can read the full report on the CQC website.

The result is disappointing. The people of Lancashire deserve the best. However, we are already making improvements and good progress is being made.

The report highlighted both positive aspects of our Adult Social Care Services and areas we need to address.

Some positives from the report include:

  • The dedication of our caring, compassionate and competent workforce.
  • Listening to and supporting people and their carers.
  • Conducting strength-based social care assessments that empower individuals to focus on their abilities.
  • Offering timely advocacy to those who have difficulties accessing support.
  • Ensuring safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.
  • Identifying unmet care and support needs and helping people find alternative options.
  • Effectively managing our in-house services, many of which are rated Good or Outstanding in individual inspections.

Some areas for improvement are:

  • Addressing inequities in service experience across different areas to ensure consistency and fairness.
  • Improving workforce recruitment and retention to create stability within teams.
  • Reducing waiting times for assessments to ensure timely access to services.
  • Enhancing communication systems to support clearer, more effective interactions within our services and with our partners.

With the right leadership, focus and collaboration we are confident we can move towards being consistently excellent.​

We will work together to support people to live in their own homes for longer, building on our unwavering commitment to providing safe, compassionate and individual care.