Inexperienced inspectors were the reason why Bath and North East Somerset was rated “requires improvement” for how it meets its care responsibilities, council care chiefs have said.

The Care Quality Commission inspected the council between April and September 2024 and in January published a rating of “requires improvement.”

But now the council has insisted that it was the quality of the inspection which was poor — not its care services.

Suzanne Westhead, the council’s director of adult social care, told the council’s health scrutiny panel on April 14 that of the nine inspectors sent by the CQC, only one had experience with adult social care. She said: “We needed to explain everything to them because they didn’t understand how adult social care worked.”

A paper which went before the committee she had written twice to the CQC’s chief inspector over the “poor inspection process and inexperienced inspectors.” The council said the CQC had made 75 factual errors in its report — 56 of which it agreed to change. But it refused to change the “requires improvement” rating.

Council cabinet member for adult services, Alison Born, told the panel: “We were disappointed that the corrections to the narrative had very little impact on the scoring or our rating of “requires improvement.” We remain concerned that some significant inaccuracies remain in the published report.”

Ms Westhead said she had asked the CQC for a review, but was told it could only be done on certain grounds. Inspectors are expected to be back again next year. Ms Westhead said: “That’s why we are working so hard to improve our performance.”

Assessments of how local authorities meet their care duties is a new responsibility of the CQC and Bath and North East Somerset Council was one of the first councils inspected.