Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Strategic Director of Children, Families and Adults (to follow).

Alison McCudden, Commissioning Manager (Income Maximisation), attended to provide the Committee with an update on the Review of Adult Services Transport.

Alison outlined the key messages of the review as thus:

·         Adult Services had worked closely with the Places Directorate

·         The Portfolio Holder had been constantly briefed on the progress of the review

·         Only a small number of issues had emerged from the changes with feedback from the completed area (Crewe & Nantwich) being positive.

Alison noted that it had been recognised by the service that there might be a need to retain a small element of strategically commissioned transport for those individuals who could not be supported to travel through alternative transport options. It was indicated how many service users were still in receipt of a commissioned service (60) and how many of these remained with fleet vehicles (38). Those using a fleet vehicle had indicated that they wanted to start travelling with Dial-a-ride which the service was working on achieving. The other 22 people were using a commissioned taxi service and it was explained that these people had complex needs. The service was reviewing whether it had the resources to retain this and if not those people would be provided with a personal budget top up to support their transport needs.  Alison reassured the Committee that the implications and success of the changes would continue to be monitored going forward.

A number of questions were asked about the future of Dial-a-ride/Shopmobility in Macclesfield. It was stated that staff at the organisation had been told that their contracts would cease on 31 March and no assurances had been given about the retention of their services post this date. Alison reported that this issue was being dealt with by the Places Directorate and that she would feed this comment back to the Transport Manager to ask him to clarify the position with the Committee.

Barrie Towse drew attention to comments that the LINk had received regarding the high cost of the Dial-a-ride service in the Crewe and Nantwich area. Alison confirmed that she would feed this back to the Transport Manager.

RESOLVED –

a)    That the Committee note the progress on implementing the transport review.

b)    That Alison McCudden feed back the Committee’s comments regarding the future of Dial-a-ride/Shopmobility in Macclesfield and the high cost of Dial-a-ride in Crewe and Nantwich to the Transport Manager.