Oldham Adult Social Care Rated Good by CQC in 2026

Oldham's Adult Social Care has been judged Good by the Care Quality Commission, the first clean rating since the watchdog began inspecting council-run care in 2014. Inspectors spent two weeks in late 2025 shadowing home-care teams, speaking with 73 residents and reviewing 40 case files before signing off on the verdict.

They found safeguarding alerts closed within 24 hours, finance officers giving same-day benefit advice, and care plans rewritten in plain English after user complaints. One 78-year-old woman told them the new approach meant she could keep her cat and stay in her Fitton Hill bungalow instead of moving to a home.

Staff were singled out for answering the phone until 8 p.m. and for running drop-in sessions at Chadderton and Oldham libraries where people can sort power-of-attorney forms without an appointment. The report notes that only three of the 73 people interviewed said they waited more than a week for an assessment, down from 19 in the 2023 local survey.

Health workers at Royal Oldham Hospital now sit in the same office as council social workers, a move that has cut delayed discharges by 11% since April. The CQC credits this joint desk, plus shared IT, for stopping 42 people from staying in hospital beds longer than needed last winter.

Councillor Barbara Brownridge admitted budgets are still shrinking, with £2.4 million shaved from learning-disability contracts this year, but said the Good rating protects the department from further government intervention. She has asked finance chiefs to find £600,000 for staff retention bonuses before the next inspection in 2028.