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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - Civic Centre. View directions

Contact: Eleanor Mulligan  Democracy and Communications Manager

Items
No. Item

1.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None

 

2.

Proposal for Revising Member Oversight of Residential Homes Rota Visit Arrangements pdf icon PDF 100 KB

Minutes:

The Committee was requested to view the report proposing revisions to the process and the way in which residential homes for children and adults were monitored by Members. The report was presented by the Head of Adult and Community Services. 

It was explained that it was an arrangement for Members to undertake visits and consider the care provision provided. Previous rota visits undertaken by Members under the Childrens Act were now redundant and were no longer a statutory requirement.

Every organisation that provides care homes has a Responsible Individual (RI) and this responsible individual has the appropriate seniority and was approved by the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) across children and adults.  In Newport, Ms Lucy Jackson, Service Manager in Adult and Community Services is the RI for all of internally managed and regulated social care services.

It was mentioned how Operation Jasmine, a care home scandal of several years ago highlighted the lack of quality of care.

It was proposed that:

·         The annual Quality of Care review report goes to scrutiny committee and this would maintain a link between Members and care provision.

·         Three Members to be nominated by the normal Council appointment process to be invited to visit individual homes on an annual basis as an informal opportunity to visit establishments.

Discussion then ensued and a Member stipulated that it was people’s homes that members were visiting so assurance was wanted.

The Chair questioned as to whether Members were doing visits frequently and a report produced. It was confirmed that the frequency had reduced and the reports seen were quite short and were not reported formally.

A Member commented that on previous visits when engaging with the residents the children were normally out so there were no residents there when visiting. The Member referred to page 4 of the report; item 5 and stated that they were concerned about the 6 monthly reports and the length of time to go to scrutiny as it would be possibly difficult to put issues right.

It was confirmed that reports were written 6 monthly which would then go to the Director and the Head of Children and Young People’s Services. It was the Responsible Individual’s role to undertake inspections as visits were more technical in nature, lots of things needed to be looked at and the quality of care was very important.

It was commented that it was a huge responsibility on one person to do this role and there were concerns regarding the training of the person. It was reiterated that this was what the regulations and legislation required. 

Another Member stated that there had been changes which were probably correct and that residents expected them to take a conscientious look at how they were living. The Member stated that more older and frail people were being admitted to care homes, with the children’s crisis also becoming more extreme. There were pressures on the system with more vulnerable people being in care and care staff needed to be correct and were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Date of next Meeting

24 October 2019

Minutes:

24 Oct 2019 at 5pm