Agenda item

To consider a report of the Director of Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing – to follow.

Phil Lloyd, Director of Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing attended to present a report on the Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) strategy. It was explained that TLAP was a national strategy which built on the principles of the ‘Putting People First’ agenda, first initiated by Government in 2007. This agenda articulated the ambition of making sure that the individual was at the centre of service delivery, helping them to retain independence, well-being and dignity. Attention was drawn to the fact that Cheshire East had been committed to this approach since Local Government Reorganisation and that this could be demonstrated by a recently won ‘Personalisation and Choice Achievement of the Year’ title in the 2011 MJ Awards.

It was reported that as well as increased personalisation of services, the paper emphasised the fact that prevention was a key theme in the development of an affordable social care system. It was explained that it was desirable to keep people out of social care for as long as possible as this often created better outcomes for Cheshire East residents and also relieved pressure on an increasingly stretched budget. Phil Lloyd reported that as most people accessing care in the geographical area of Cheshire East were not funded by the Council, it was necessary to develop a ‘whole system response’ and strategy to provide support to the wider public, including self funders and their carers, to maximise their independence and reduce reliance on Council funded care. It was noted that this was not only the responsibility of the Adult Social Care Directorate as other Cheshire East services and Council partners also had an important role. Phil Lloyd explained that the challenge was making sure that this co-operation was achieved.  

In providing a summary, Phil Lloyd outlined that the key issues of the paper were ‘personalisation’ and ‘prevention’ and that the paper was asking the Council to support this policy.

Prior to opening the floor to questions, the Chairman congratulated the Adult Social Care Directorate on winning the ‘Personalisation and Choice Achievement of the Year’ title in the 2011 MJ Awards.

A number of comments were made regarding the development of an on-line citizen portal. Whilst it was recognised that it was important that Cheshire East provided such a facility to disseminate information about services to the public, it was asserted that other alternative mediums needed to be sought alongside it as a large number of Cheshire East’s older population were not comfortable using the internet. It was agreed that this suggestion be recommended to the Director of Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing.

It was suggested that the Committee continue to monitor the personalisation agenda so that the effectiveness of the policy for vulnerable people could be assessed.

Attention was drawn to the graph on page 6 of the report which gave a financial analysis of Adult Social Care Costs in Cheshire East. It was asserted, that from the evidence in the graph, there appeared to be an approximate £6m gap between demand and budget which the service had to control and mitigate. It was contended that it was this figure which the Committee needed to be interested in. In sum, it was suggested that the Committee receive regular updates on how much service was budgeted for, how much it was spending and how this was affecting service users.

A final query was made with regard to the loss of the Independent Living Fund and how this would potentially affect service users. Phil Lloyd explained that the loss of the fund would cost Cheshire East £1.6m but that this would not absolve the authority of the statutory responsibility to provide certain services. It was reported that Cheshire East would have to find other ways to fund these services through different and more improved ways of working mainly based around the principles of personalisation and prevention.

RESOLVED –

a)    That the report be noted.

b)    That it be recommended to the Director of Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing that alternative means be sought in terms of communicating information about Adult Social Care services to the public alongside the on-line citizen portal.

c)    That the Committee continue to monitor the personalisation agenda to assess its effectiveness for vulnerable people.

d)    That the Committee receive regular updates on the Adult Social Care service, including allocated budget, spend and impact on service users.