Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 9 May 2012.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 May 2012 be approved as a correct record.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests in relation to any item on the agenda.

None noted.

To provide an opportunity for Members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.

None noted.

Charlotte Peters Rock attended to address the Committee with regard to item 6: Carers Strategy and Implementation Plan Update report. She asserted that without adequate local care services, the work outlined in the carers strategy would fall short. Particular reference was made to the offer of respite holidays for family carers. Mrs Peters Rock contended that providing respite in isolation and in the absence of local services would not produce the outcomes desired by the Council or indeed service users.

She asserted that what was needed was a comprehensive health and social care strategy which would cover basic health needs and also make best use of community assets and support to provide added benefits.

Mrs Peters Rock also called on the Council to work closer with the NHS, Cheshire West and Chester Council and other abutting authorities.

The Chairman thanked Mrs Peters Rock for attending and her comments were noted.

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

Lucia Scally and Rob Walker attended to present the Carers Strategy and Implementation Plan Update report. Rob Walker explained that the purpose of the report was to inform Members of the progress of the Carer’s Strategy and Work Plan since the ratification by Cabinet on 3 October 2011. He noted that the report also indentified some additional areas for inclusion in the Carers’ Implementation Plan.

Lucia Scally acknowledged that the Carers’ Strategy for Cheshire East had been developed in partnership with a number of agencies. With this in mind, she introduced Sue McDowell (Head of Involvement and Patient Experience and PCT Lead for Carers), Ed Beckett (Chairman, Carers Reference Group), David Harvey (Chief Executive, Cheshire Carers Centre) and Victoria Worthington, SMART team manager.

Rob Walker continued to provide a summary on the four key areas where significant progress had been made:

1)    Young Carers – Rob Walker explained that this work was in an embryonic stage but that it had been aided by the merging of the children’s and adult’s directorates. Rob Walker reported that this work stream was necessary as the needs of young carers differed considerably from adult carers.

2)    Carers’ Needs Assessments – Victoria Worthington noted that during 2011/12, the Council completed 2910 carers’ assessments out of 8176 (35.6% completion rate). This was in contrast to 2010/11 in which 1023 assessments were completed. She noted that the National Indicator target for carers assessments was 28%. Despite being pleased to such an improvement, Victoria added that the service was working to improve not only the number of completions but also the quality of them.

3)    Carer Development Link Worker/Trusted Assessors – As part of the work to improve the quality of carers’ assessments, Rob Walker explained that the service had made successful use of Trusted Assessors to undertake carers’ needs assessments for those service users with mental health issues. This had been developed in conjunction with Making Space and further analysis was required to see if it could be rolled out to other client groups across the Borough.

4)    Carers into Employment – Rob Walker explained that this was a very important issue and that the Council had already done some successful work to support Council employees that were in a caring role.

Rob Walker also outlined a number of strategic priorities relating to the Carers Strategy:

1)    LINKs Respite Report – Rob Walker noted that the emerging concerns from this report had been added to the implementation plan.

2)    Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – This was ongoing work to help CCGs to develop joint commissioning intentions to support carers. Sue McDowell noted that within GP Practices there were already identified Carers’ Leads.

3)    Carers Support ‘Map’ – This had been developed by the Carer’s team to support Carers in accessing the right information, advice and support to aid them in their caring roles.

4)    Carers’ Needs Assessment Pilot – Rob Walker reported that part of this work stream was to develop a ‘Carer’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider a report of the Strategic Director of Children, Familes and Adults.

Lynn Glendenning, Commissioning Manager - SP & Contracts, attended to present to the Committee a proposal for the development of a respite service in the Crewe and Nantwich area. Explaining the background to the proposal, Lynn Glendenning, reported that Queens Drive in Nantwich was due to close following the Adult Social Care Services Review as the facility had been deemed not fit for purpose and too costly to adapt. A consultation was held to find a suitable alternative. It had been suggested to offer provision at Mountview in Congleton but some service users had noted this could generate issues around transport.

Following the consultation process, a proposal was put before Cabinet on 5 March 2012 to offer alternative respite provision at a modified self contained unit at Lincoln House, Crewe in addition to Mountview. This proposal was endorsed.

Lynn Glendenning continued to report that after the Cabinet decision, some members of the public had continued to maintain that Lincoln House and Mountview were inadequate alternatives. In respect of Lincoln House, the objections were based upon the idea, perceived by some, that it was a centre for older people and therefore inappropriate for younger service users.

On the 13 May 2012, the service had received a letter from a company called 3L Care who wished to lease an empty property in Haslington to provide respite care. This property had previously been used by Cheshire and Wirral PCT for short term health respite for people with a learning disability and was owned by Cheshire East Council.

A number of discussions were held between the Council and 3L Care regarding the proposal but after it had become clear that the Council would have to tender for the lease to the property, 3L Care decided to seek and source an alternative building in the private sector, which Lynn Glendenning noted they had now done so.

Lucia Scally outlined the next steps in the proposal. She reported that the Council had invited the families that had received services at Queens Drive to meet with 3L Care and then Council officers would have a private discussion with families on their preferences. The result of this process would feed into the final report which was scheduled to go to Cabinet on 20 August 2012.

Councillor Janet Clowes added that the proposal was a good example of carers having a degree of autonomy but the Council needed to be sure that the offer was robust and sustainably financially and most importantly that it would offer high quality care for the service users.

It was queried whether 3L Care had experience of delivering respite care and if so, whether they had been inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Lucia Scally noted that they were a relatively new company but that they did have a site in Cheshire West and Chester which had been cleared by their robust approval framework. It was added that this site was to be expected by the CQC on 1 August 2012.

It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To consider a report of the Residential Provision Task and Finish Group.

The Committee gave consideration to the report of the Task and Finish Group which looked at Residential Provision in Cheshire East. As Chairman of the review, Councillor Frank Keegan provided a quick précis of the main themes in the report. He described that as a totality the recommendations were an attempt to try and establish the principle of the Electorate assuming responsibility for their own care and that the Council’s role within this was to help and facilitate. This would hopefully have the effect of helping people to stay in their own homes for longer rather than entering expensive residential care. Explaining the rationale behind the principle Councillor Keegan noted that firstly, it was what people wanted and secondly, carrying on with a ‘business as usual approach’ would be unaffordable and unsustainable in an increasingly pressured funding environment. The Group had also been influenced by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need, particularly in the way it emphasised a holistic approach to people’s needs. Councillor Keegan explained that the Group had reached the conclusion that the upper echelons of the hierarchy could be better achieved by older people remaining in their own homes and being part of the community.

Moving on to detail how this principle might be achieved, Councillor Keegan asserted that the Council needed to be pro-active and think creatively about how it might offer services in a different way. Outlining a proposal in the report, Councillor Keegan explained the idea of ‘social care hubs’ which would be locally defined entities co-ordinating partnership working and funding whilst hosting a variety of recreational and social activities. Councillor Keegan acknowledged that the detail of how the hubs would function was not yet finalised but suggested a role for the Scrutiny Committee in scoping out their remit in subsequent meetings.

Other Members of the task group highlighted the following issues in the report:

·         That the co-ordination of services across the Council required improvement

·         That the Council needed to explore providing additional sheltered accommodation in the North of the Borough

·         That the Council’s planning service needed to become more involved with the care of the elderly

·         That support for carers was vital to helping people to remain in their own homes and independent.

Councillor Janet Clowes welcomed the report and confirmed that it had reaffirmed some areas of work that were already ongoing whilst providing some new ideas which would need further thought.

The Chairman thanked Councillors Frank Keegan, Laura Jeuda, Irene Faseyi, Shirley Jones and Janet Jackson for all their hard work in putting together the report.

RESOLVED

a)    That the report of the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group be approved

b)    That the recommendations of the Group be endorsed, and referred to the Cabinet for consideration and necessary action, and that Cabinet be invited initially to comment on the details of the recommendations.

c)    That the Cabinet response be included on the Committee’s work programme to possibly inform further action.

To consider the work programme.

The Committee considered the work programme. Reference was made to a potential training session on learning difficulties. Lucia Scally mentioned that the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee was also interested in training on the same issue and therefore it was suggested that a joint event be arranged.

RESOLVED –

a)    That the work programme be noted

b)    That the Scrutiny Officer arrange a joint training event with the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on learning disabilities and the pressure that they bring on the adult services budget.