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Agenda item

Regional Population Needs Assessment - Social Services and Wellbeing Act

Minutes:

Invitees:

Phil Diamond – Service Manager – Gwent Regional Partnership Board

Sally Jenkins – Strategic Director – Social Services

Mary Ryan – Head of Adult Services

 

The Service Manager provided an overview to the Committee, despite it being different from the Well-being Assessment, the partner highlighted that there are touching points between the two and ensured there would be no duplication. Members were informed that this assessment is set in the statute by the Well-being Act for Social Care and it is focused on three particular areas. It was highlighted that children looked after in terms of the population needs assessment remains a high importance across the local authorities as those children have the most complex circumstances. Welsh Government prioritises that area and it has had grant funding.

 

The Committee were provided with examples of joint collaborative solutions from Newport such as the Mental Health Service Team whose role is to support others and children with emotional or mental health circumstances. There is a multi-agency panel which work together with the families to support the children. There has been work done for emergency accommodation; some children in crisis point where they have to look out of county to keep children safe. The officers also covered the work gone into the Carers’ UK survey which has found issues have exacerbated for local carers.

 

The third theme was the Population Needs Assessment on Dementia. They predict to see a large number of those with dementia. With an aging population will come with different opportunities and challenges. Within the Population Needs Assessment, it was highlighted that the aging population is a theme that is discussed often.

 

Committee asked the following:

·         A Member asked about legislation around Health and Social Services, as this type of work is always changing and adapting through data monitoring changes; how the council could  catch up with the information they have now against what the Government might do.

 

The Strategic Director responded, that it is entering a new programme with the Welsh Government on their aims and prioritisation areas. They have previously mentioned the commitment within the programme to eliminate profit from children in care and that will be for the next 5 years. In terms of the planning within their Population Needs Assessment (PNA), the council are in quite a good place to do it as it is right at the start of the government programme. Considerable work has been done with members and the PSB and other boards. Members were assured they are very in tune as there is consultation in Risca for a Regulatory Inspection Framework. The PNA is rooted in that knowledge that the Welsh Government has a long term priority for dementia, looked after children and carers.

 

·         A Committee Member asked for confirmation on the situation with education on it all in other local authorities and if they will experience policy conflicts due to differing priorities; and if so, what the remedy would be.

 

In response, the Strategic Director clarified that with children and adult services, they have been working for a considerable amount of time with five other local authorities and have good working relationships in the social care area. There is a very effective partnership board; there may be policy differences but some are due to the difference in demographics. There are sometimes times of grit but major conflicts are very unlikely. Plenty of joint working examples mentioned such as MIST and children’s services have taken a pragmatic approach.

The Service Manager added that the regional partnership board was made to avoid those types of situations, the local authority and the health board were previously not under legislation to work together. They naturally did it and are producing a joint needs assessment plan and the Joint Action Plan which will be a similar plan to the well-being plan that the Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager outlined prior to this agenda item. It was noted there was a regional children and families board established well before the health and social care colleagues came together. There are differences but they work through them.

 

·         A Member expressed concern for those impacted by long COVID; for instance, they knew people have had to leave employment because of it. Although hopefully the community are starting to see the end of the pandemic, it was noted that they still have individuals that will need to be cared for in a different way and asked if the report could consider how to help and support those people.

 

The Service Manager confirmed that the impact of COVID is of huge importance to the Regional Partnership Board. There was a mental health survey completed across Wales during the first and second wave (June 2020 and March 2021). The respondents in Gwent were the highest across Wales with 33% of the people responding from the Gwent region. From that, they gathered there is a lot of psychological distress. Most of Gwent saw an increase in that which has to be addressed. During the last year, when they missed the annual report they had to produce a preliminary penalty on the impact of COVID as well. There was a huge amount of research as the reference.  It was recognised that the impact of COVID-19 cannot be ignored as it will heavily impact on not just mental health. It will be well documented access to services and he backlog is going to be an increasing priority for the health and social care sector.  The partner agreed to circulating the information provided that was referred to, so Members can have sight of the same.

 

·         The Member went on to ask the partners what kind of organisations or communities do the teams speak with to help look at the reports and if they incorporate any of the other bodies and with that, what kind of things may have been adopted because of that.

 

The Service Manager confirmed that the voices of the citizens are paramount. Without the whole process, they have set up a number of reference groups and citizen panels since the start of the original partnership. They were the first RPB to set up a citizen panel and the chair of the panel actually attend the AARP to issue the voices of citizens as a standard item in each meeting. They link in the Youth Council and have a regional carers’ board. The carers sit on the board and feedback their voices. One group the partners have been thinking about is the parents of children with autism. They are feeding in this group so it will be wide and varied to hear their voices. This has been highlighted by the Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager that this and the Well-being Assessment will demonstrate clearly with the voices of the people included to influence the design.

 

On the theme of dementia, one of the services developed from the last time was a peer to peer support for people with dementia, retired people and what their carers were telling the partners, to access that information and support. They met with people with a recent diagnosis of dementia with a carer and they were able to speak to that person taking on the care responsibilities. It is a difficult diagnosis and they have to go speak to people from all walks of life to show the voice of the person most affected to influence the design of the services.

As mentioned before, they have some power with the citizen panel chair as they attend every AARP holding them to account to ensure the voices will be featured in every meeting.

 

·         Discussion ensued on the importance of people and families having information on how to fully understand dementia as it affects lots of families.  A Member asked if there has been any further help from medical professionals on the diseases.

 

The Service Manager explained how there is a large amount of research around dementia and in terms of pharmaceuticals being developed; they know it will slow down the symptoms of dementia. But the understanding study was done and over in the Caerphilly Borough where 200 – 300 ex-miners were involved and they worked with them for over a ten year period. Their findings showed that there are public health messages on how they can protect themselves from potentially living with dementia and similar messages of health life styles.

One of the interesting messages was about social contact which is useful for those with dementia as the approach could help those diagnosed with dementia, as they could continue walking their dog, going to the library etc. That is part of a dementia friendly city approach and they have worked with many businesses so that people with dementia can feel supported to carry on doing that’s which are important to them.

The Gwent Police have developed the Herbert Protocol to identify those with dementia who go missing and could go somewhere where they have worked in the past. They have delivered dementia awareness to schools also to support grandchildren as the most important factor is understanding. The partner highlighted that they developed Dementia Friends Awareness for elected Members and members of staff as well. It was agreed that the officer could point the members in the right direction if they would like to find out more information and complete a 45 minute awareness course which was recommended to all of the Committee.

 

Members confirmed they would be interested and asked for the information and the course to be passed on to the Committee for information.

 

·         A Committee Member commended the partners on the work they have done so far and asked if they have any real concerns.

 

The Strategic Director confirmed that the single issue that she has is the unknown impact of Covid and how it will impact the population. Life experience could impact all of the society and they can see the immediate impact in social care and adult mental health services. They are conscious that the impact goes across the Members and officers so hopes that the partnerships going forward will be able to give support and meaningful change going forward in the face of the impact from the pandemic.

 

·         A Member asked the partners on where they see the challenges and where elected Members could support on that. It was noted that the report is looking at crossovers identified with the access to needs and children and young people and not in education but employment training. The Member then went on to query if there are any other places that the partners think there will be a natural crossover or if there will be any potential new ones incorporated from their findings.

 

The Service Manager stressed they would like to see a societal change on how health and social care workers are viewed. They have worked above and beyond during the pandemic, and that goes for all members from medical settings. And unfortunately the domiciliary staff are some of the lowest paid workers within society. There was an AP meeting prior to this committee from a college where they were looking at 700 health and well-being students looking at how to use their experience as currency. This is being led by a GP within the health board who is concerned at the lack of number of applicants from Wales and South Wales valleys, this is not good to link for the well-being for future generations act. The focus

 

The Committee thanked the partners and officers for their time and for the presentations, they appreciated the work that has been done so far and asked for them to take their teams on behalf of the Committee.

 

 

Conclusions

 

Members noted the content of the Regional Population Needs Assessment and wished to make the following comments and recommendations:

 

-       The Committee again wish to praise the officers and their teams for the level of detail and information in the report. The Committee were pleased with the information provided, and were also happy to see the clear overlap in their work. Members are interested in seeing how the assessment progresses.

 

-       Members would like to have more inclusion of those who have Covid and are still suffering from Long-Covid, as their quality of life has been diminished and are not economically active.

 

-       Members requested to have the details of the 40 minute Dementia information to be passed onto them.

 

Supporting documents: