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Croydon's adult social care and health department asked the Local Government Association (LGA) to host a peer challenge. This is part of our ongoing improvement work, and preparation for an assessment by the Care Quality Commission.

What is a peer challenge

A peer challenge is managed by a team of staff from other councils. They review the work we do to support improvements to our service. The aim of a peer challenge is to be a critical friend to encourage improvements to the services we offer.
 

Public health peer review 

Our public health team had their peer review from 12 to 14 March 2024. The review explored how the role and function of public health might be maximised in line with the Mayor's business plan.

The Mayor's business plan sets out a vision for a future Croydon that focuses on:

• opportunities for all
• better health
• cleaner and safer communities
• enabling children and young people to thrive
• financial sustainability

Prevention and public health approaches are also core to the programme of transformation. To tackle inequalities and reduce the burden of ill health.

Peer review feedback report

The feedback report shares the findings from the public health peer review, including a summary of further actions.

It highlighted several strengths and areas for potential development. These range from opportunities for systemwide change to more operational improvements.

Read the public health peer review feedback report (PDF,426 KB).
 

Adult social care and health areas of focus

The peer review team were also with our adult social care and health department from 21 to 23 November 2023. We asked the peer challenge team to focus on 3 main areas:

• the resident journey
• assurance, strategy and improvement approach
• partnership working

The results of the challenge:

• 48 items of data and 300 documents being reviewed, including a self-assessment
• 12 case file audits
• the re-audit of 5 cases using the customer journey case tracking audit tool
• lived experience and carers interviews
• 34 focus groups and interviews with at least 140 different people
• 184 hours in total spent on the challenge, the equivalent of 24.5 working days

We are grateful for the report received which highlighted our strengths and areas for improvement.

Further information

• Read the peer challenge report
• Download our adult social care and health assurance improvement plan, which connects to our overarching Future Croydon transformation plan