Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 5 November 2015

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 November 2015 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest

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

There were no declarations of party whip

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note: in order for officers to undertake and background research, it would be helpful if members of the public notified the Scrutiny Officer listed at the foot of the Agenda at least one working day before the meeting with brief details of the matter to be covered.

Ms Kate Sibthorp spoke in relation to Item 6 of the Committee’s Agenda. As the parent and carer of a adult daughter with learning difficulties she was concerned about the proposed fee rates for personal assistants which she purchased at an hourly rate using direct payments. She stated that there had not been a rise in fees paid to personal assistants for six years and that the proposed increase in the report by Red Quadrant was too low. She suggested that the process used to come up with the fees had been flawed and should have included more research on the role of personal assistants and more consultation with service users groups should have taken place. She offered to provide a hard copy of her comments to the Committee and Officers and the Chairman requested that Ms Sibthorp be provided with a response.

To consider a report of the Director of Adult Social Care and Independent Living and to consider any advice for Cabinet

To advise the Director of Adult Social Care and Independent Living whether members of the Committee wish to be involved in the process of co-design of the new service and delivery models of care detailed in the report

The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health in the Community provided an overview of the report on Implementing the Care Act. Due to the introduction of the Care Act 2014 the Council was required to change the way some services were provided. There were two phases to the Act, the first phase of which had started to be implemented from April 2015 and the second phase which had been delayed until 2019. The elements of the Act which the Council had implemented so far were working well however further implementation was required.

The Committee was requested to provide comments to be considered by Cabinet which was due to consider the report on 8 December 2015. Members asked questions and the following points arose:

·         Members wanted to ensure that services continued to remain safe for users and employees as changes to the delivery of Care4CE were implemented.

·         Members wanted to ensure that education and training was in place for all employees of private services providers. The Council may wish to measure the levels of training as part of its contractual arrangements with commissioned providers.

·         Members were pleased that there would be investment in Community Agents to support and advise users in their decisions about purchasing services and that social workers would continue to provide advice and support about the services that users would find useful.

·         Members sought to ensure good information about providers was available for services users to help them make informed decisions. A directory of services had been developed and the intension was to build on this.

·         Members supported means to ensure that future services and ways of working helped to reduce social isolation. It was suggested that enabling people to choose their own packages and providing access to more local support would help to reduce isolation.

·         Members believed that the Council needed to ensure that people acted in their own best interests when considering whether or not to purchase services.

·         Members agreed that the implementation of the Integrated Care Teams was an essential part of the way services would be delivered in future. It was expected that the teams would be in place by April 2016.

The Committee was requested to consider whether or not members should take part in the process to co-design the new service and delivery models of care as detailed in the report. Members expressed an interest in being involved in the piece of work and more detail on members’ role would be developed in a scoping exercise.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the report be noted

(b)  That the minutes of this meeting be submitted to Cabinet for consideration with the report on 8 December 2015.

(c)  That a scoping exercise take place to define the role which members of the Committee will play in the co-design of the new service and delivery models of care.

To consider the report of the Director of Adult Social Care and Independent Living and consider comments to be submitted to Cabinet.

To advise the Director of Adult Social Care and Independent Living whether members of the Committee wish to be involved in the review of the delivery models of domiciliary care and residential care.

(Report to Follow)

The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health in the Community provided an overview of report on Adult Social Care Fee Rates. The Council had operated the same fee structure for adult social care external providers since 2009 and it was considered necessary to review the fees paid in future. Red Quadrant, a consultancy firm, had been commissioned to conduct an independent review of the adult social care fee structure which began in May 2015. Two reports were provided by Red Quadrant on Home Care costs and Care Home costs which were appended to the report.

A report was due to be considered by Cabinet on 8 December 2015 which recommended the adoption of the fee rates proposed by Red Quadrant. The Committee was requested to provide comments to be considered by Cabinet. Members asked questions and the following points arose:

·         Members expressed concern about the delivery of 15 minute care visits and whether providers would be willing to provide 15 minute slots. Some providers were not geared up to provide personalised care packages. Changes in fees needed to come with changes in practices and attitudes.

·         Members wanted to ensure that the Council had capacity to be agile to the changing needs of service user to ensure financial assessments were completed and fees were paid. 16 additional social workers had been employed in 2014 to increase the Council’s capacity to deal with assessments.

·         Members were concerned about whether self funders were in effect subsidising Council customers based of the fees they were paying for residential care. This was something that needed to be considered in future.

The Committee was requested to consider whether or not members wished to be involved in the review of the delivery models of domiciliary care and residential care. Members expressed an interest in being involved in the piece of work and more detail on members’ role would be developed in a scoping exercise.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the report be noted

(b)  That the minutes of this meeting be submitted to Cabinet for consideration with the report on 8 December 2015

(c)  That a scoping exercise take place to define the role which members of the Committee will play in the review of the delivery models of domiciliary care and residential care

To review the current Work Programme

The Committee gave consideration to the work programme.

RESOLVED – That the work programme be noted