Agenda and minutes

None noted.

There were no members of the public who wished to address the Committee.

Mark Grimshaw presented a report that asked Members to consider the proposed terms of reference of the Committee, to note the Membership and to give consideration to meeting times/dates.

In noting the Membership of the Committee it was queried why there were only 11 Members and not 12 as in other Scrutiny Committees. It was confirmed that this place would be filled following the result of the by election held on 16 June 2011.

In discussing the proposed terms of reference, a number of suggestions were made:

·         That the Committee regularly review the Adult Social Care budget in order to fully appreciate the challenges of the Directorate.

·         That the Committee reviews performance in addition to reviewing the performance management arrangements of the Directorate.

·         That all the terms of reference give consideration to an ‘overview’ or ‘scrutiny’ element.

·         That the Committee continue to liaise with appropriate regional and national bodies.

In response to the points raised by the Committee, Phil Lloyd explained that the Directorate had added a number of suggested amendments to those presented in Appendix B of the report which largely reflected the aforementioned suggestions of the Committee.

With this in mind, the Chairman suggested a new draft terms of reference be produced incorporating the suggestions of the Committee and the Directorate. It was also put forward that this would then be distributed to Members for final approval before being sent to the Constitution Committee.

With regards to the future meeting times and dates, the Chairman suggested that 10.30am be kept as the preferable start time. It was also agreed that Westfields would be the preferred venue. In terms of the frequency of meetings, it was agreed that the Committee meet formally on a bi-monthly basis with possible interim meetings for briefings and updates. It was also agreed that this arrangement would be reviewed in six months in order to analyse how effective it had been.

RESOLVED -

a)    That the Membership of the Committee be noted

b)    That the new draft terms of reference incorporating the following comments of the Committee be distributed to Members for final approval before being sent to the Constitution Committee.

·         That the Committee regularly review the Adult Social Care budget in order to fully appreciate the challenges of the directorate.

·         That the Committee reviews performance in addition to reviewing the performance management arrangements of the directorate.

·         That all the terms of reference give consideration to an ‘overview’ or ‘scrutiny’ element.

·         That the Committee continue to liaise with appropriate regional and national bodies.

c)    That future Committee meetings be held at 10.30am, at Westfields on a formal bi-monthly basis with possible informal interim meetings in between.

d)    That the Committee meetings arrangement be reviewed in six months.

Phil Lloyd, Director of Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing, attended to provide an overview including the vision and transformation of the Directorate and an outline of current issues which faced it. He drew particular attention to the increasing numbers of people needing assessment and funded care in Cheshire East which had resulted in a programme of transformational work across the Directorate, of which personalisation and prevention were central themes. 

Phil Lloyd continued to explain that the Directorate was broken down into the following sections:

1.    Local Independent Living Team (LILT) – Aimed to get the greatest possible increase in independence for those adults, families carers and communities. This team ensured that the directorate was both local and personal.

2.    Strategic Commissioning – Aimed to build capacity in communities and harness local skills to increase independence. The aim was to improve value for money by ‘joining up’ services through commissioning practice.

3.    Care4CE – It was explained that this was the social care provider arm of the Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing Directorate. Care4CE worked with health and wellbeing colleagues to deliver the ‘lifestyle concept’ in which existing facilities such as libraries, leisure and green spaces would increasingly be utilised for the health and wellbeing of all residents with a focus on those who were already accessing or potentially would access social care services and funding.

Following the presentation Members made a number comments and queries regarding the work of the Directorate.

It was agreed that it was appropriate for the Ofsted findings for Children’s Services to be brought to the Committee. It was confirmed that such a practice would hold a lot of value considering that there were increasing overlaps in terms of work with families, safeguarding, young carers and in the transition between children’s to adult’s services. It was agreed that this should be put on the work programme.

It was queried when the Directorate plan would be reviewed. It was reported that as it was part of the corporate plan process it was reviewed quarterly.

Members indicated that keeping older people informed of services was important and officers indicated that there was a resource directory available on the Council’s website and that an information gateway was being developed. It was noted that the Committee would be interested to evaluate efficacy of this system and to discover whether anything more could be done to ensure information was available more widely than to those with access to computers. It was agreed that a demonstration of the information gateway could be added to the work programme.

A more general discussion was held regarding what constituted an ‘ageing society’ and where the ‘pressure points’ for the Directorate were located. Phil Lloyd explained that the sources of pressure were coming from a variety of directions. Firstly, he explained that there was awareness that the Directorate was providing services when perhaps other things could be done to remove dependency and improve independence. It was reported that work was being done to improve this. Secondly,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Members considered the work programme and put forward a number of issues as potential items for future consideration. It was agreed that the Chairman would review these items with support from senior officers and bring back an updated work programme for further consideration by the Committee. It was also suggested that the LINk representatives should be invited to attend the meetings of the Adult Social Care 

RESOLVED –

a)    That the following items be put on the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee work programme as items for future consideration:

§  Ofsted review results for Children’s Services

§  Review of information gateway/communication methods for services for older people, adults and links with Family Information Service.

§  Detailed review of a service area plan.

§  Review of Adult Social Care Budget

§  Review of the work of the LILTs and review of the work of safeguarding unit and LSAB.

§  Understanding the ‘lifestyle concept’

§  Understanding the personalisation agenda

§  Understanding the national ‘Think Local, Act Personal’ policy and its implications

§  Review of the efficiency of people who self fund social care

§  Review of the work of the Care Quality Commission

§  Finishing the Dementia Task and Finish Review.

b)    That an updated work programme be brought back to the next Committee following review by the Chairman and senior officers.

c)    That LINk representatives be invited to attend future meetings of the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee gave consideration to the extracts of the forward plan which fell within the remit of the Committee.

RESOLVED –

a)    That the forward plan be noted

b)    That the items regarding the Home Improvement Agency Review and the Think Local, Act Personal National Strategy be put on the agenda for the next meeting of the Committee.

There were no consultations from Cabinet.