Lancashire County Council’s hard work supporting the local care market throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has been recognised with a national award.

The council has been presented with a Collaboration Award by the Institute for Improvement in Public Services ICiPS.

This award was for partnership working to develop the Lancashire Care Capacity Tracker, a system to gather daily information from providers to show the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on their services.

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The tracker has allowed the county council to quickly provide support with issues such as staffing, testing and providing personal protective equipment.

County Councillor Graham Gooch, acting cabinet member for adult social care, said: “This award is tremendous news.

“Covid-19 posed an unprecedented challenge to us all and we needed something to help us keep track of how the social care system is affected by issues relating to the pandemic as they arise. By working very quickly in collaboration with agencies such as the NHS, independent care providers and other councils, our superb team was able to do that.

“They established our Lancashire Care Capacity Tracker, which means we can quickly gather data to keep people safe and well.

“Congratulations to everyone involved, this award is a superb achievement and a fitting recognition for everyone’s hard work.”

The ICiPS awards recognise organisations that achieve success by making continuous improvement part of their culture.

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Ian Crabtree, director of adult and disability care services for Lancashire County Council, added: “We needed a way of working with the 700 care providers across Lancashire to gather information so we could put the best type of support in place to keep people safe and well. We redeployed a significant number of staff from other duties to make daily calls in order to support the adult social care system at such a critical time.

“The team worked tirelessly, coming up with innovative ideas and involving a range of partners to establish and run Lancashire’s Care Capacity Tracker.

“Everyone has put in an incredible amount of effort on this system since March 2020.

“I’m so proud of the team and they deserve this award. Well done to everyone involved.”

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For more information about the ICiPS awards, visit here.

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