Agenda and minutes

None

The minutes of the meeting on 9 April 2019 were approved as a true and accurate record.

The Chair advised the Committee of correspondence that had been received from the Cabinet Member – Education and Skills regarding the Committees approved minutes of its meeting on 19 February 2019. The Cabinet Member was concerned that her contributions to the meeting had not been attributed directly to her. The Chair outlined to the Committee that the minutes had been checked and he was satisfied that the content was accurate, although the responses to not attributed to specific invitees. It had been agreed that in future comments made by the Cabinet Members would be attributed to them by title in the minutes.

Committee Members raised concerns that a change in the status quo should be more widely debated by the other Scrutiny Chairs / Committees. Members of the Committee commented that the purpose of the minutes was to evidence the debate and the assurances given by the invitees, and had comments not been attributed to individual members for this reason in the past.  It was noted that the Cabinet Member had contributed fully at the meeting on 19 February 2019.

The Committee endorsed the comments and the actions of the Chair in this matter, and agreed to attribute comments to Cabinet Members in the minutes where appropriate.

Attendees:

-       Councillor Paul Cockeram – Cabinet Member for Social Services

-       James Harris – Strategic Director – People

-       Chris Humphreys – Head of Adults and Community Services

The Cabinet Member for Social Services introduced the report and gave the Committee an overview of the key achievements within the Service Area. During the introduction, the Cabinet Member outlined the positive work that had been undertaken during very difficult financial times. The Cabinet Member drew the Committee’s attention to the Performance Indicator (PI) related to the Delayed Transfers of Care. It was explained that even though the PI was categorised as RED, the shift into RED had been later in the year. The six days was still a great achievement, when put in the context of what it was it has been over the past 5 years, the journey to achieving what it was this year was down to the way the service was managed and supported. The people that had caused the Delayed Transfer of Care figure to rise were not those in the acute hospital and wards, but those in the community hospitals with long term and debilitating issues. It was these people that require a lot more intervention and support to leave hospital, longer assessments to ensure that their best interested were catered for when devising their package of care.

The Head of Service provided detailed information on the challenges with targets within social services changing and evolving during the year, this had made a number of actions and PIs invalid. The definition of which people counted towards reablement figures was changed mid?year causing issues with end of year reporting.

The Strategic Director – People complimented the Cabinet Member and Officers for their management of the Adult and Community Services budget. A budget of over 40 million kept within one percent was a great achievement, especially if taken against the background of increasing demand and constant changes. The Cabinet Member explained that the Regional Partnership Board had been a massive help in allowing the Council to manage so well.

The Committee asked the following questions;

·                Had ‘Action 1.03 – Establish a joint health and social care IAA provider forum to share information and good practice’ started? The Officer informed the Committee that work towards completing this action had began.

·                The actions that are listed from pages 18 to 23 in the agenda pack were predominantly ‘In Progress’, with the exception of one, some of these Actions were for the five year life of the Corporate Plan. The Committee would like more information on how much progress has been completed for each of the Actions. The Head of Adults and Community Services explained that this was something that had been discussed with the Performance Team who produce the Service Plans. The Actions might change in the future to those that were a one off and not business as usual actions that would continue indefinitely.

The Member requested information on a number of programmes, projects and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.