ADULT social care services provided by Dorset County Council are ‘adequate’, the Government says.

The findings for the year to March 2008 were also said to show promising prospects for improvement.

The authority believes the comments reflect the challenges faced in funding and managing adult social care.

However, it added that it was disappointed that, despite a range of significant service improvements, the report failed to improve its one-star rating awarded this time last year.

It said that major successes since changes were brought in after the 2006-2007 report included reducing waiting times for assessments and care packages, increasing the number of people in receipt of direct payments, carrying out more reviews of individual care packages and increasing the number of staff working in the independent sector who tackle training in safeguarding adults.

Cabinet adult social care spokesman Coun Andrew Cattaway said: “We welcome the annual performance rating as it helps us identify where we are doing well and where we need to improve but, considering the progress we have made, it is disappointing that the overall judgement for 2007-2008 has not achieved a two-star rating.

“This has been largely influenced by the drop in the number of people – particularly older people – receiving services to help them live independently in their own homes. Unfortunately the council, like 75 per cent of authorities across the country, has had to introduce a higher eligibility threshold for services in order to manage within its budget.”

He added that the report highlighted a number of strengths including an increase in partnership working particularly with NHS colleagues, the introduction of a brokerage service to increase the efficiency of buying services for people and improved budget management.

Other plus points include improved engagement with adult social care service users, the development of schemes such as the Partnerships for Older People Project and good procedures for safeguarding vulnerable adults.

Mr Cattaway acknowledged some service issues remained.

He added: “We had already put measures in place to address the problems identified by last year’s judgement, but some improvements will take longer to achieve.

“For example, we carried out a review of our care management systems and are now introducing measures to make our assessment processes and response times more efficient.

“Overall, people will start to see a real difference in adult social care services over the current and coming year and I’m confident this will be reflected in future assessments.”