Issue - meetings

To update Cabinet on the current and next stages in the Redesign of Adults Social Care Services, the achievability of the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) targets and the decisions now required to ensure these are met.

The Cabinet received an update on the current and next stages in the Redesign of Adults Social Care Services, the achievability of the Medium Term Financial Strategy targets, and the decisions required to ensure they were met.  The aim of the proposals was to improve the services offered to customers, to allow them real choice in how they spent their individual budgets  and to benefit from enhanced preventative and reablement services. 

RESOLVED

For the reasons set out in the report: -

That approval be given to

1. Focus the current in-house provision of routine domiciliary care services as this service can be provided at an acceptable quality and cost by the independent sector.
2. Redefine the primary function of the in-house domiciliary care service as a reablement service.
3. Review the provision of the Housing Network support for Adults with Disabilities and consider the business case for securing that service from an independent provider.
4. Undertake a fundamental review of use of buildings within Adult Services aiming to rationalise and localise functions across services and partners.
5. Agree to address the issues presented by the inherited provision of Community Support Centres looking at the rationalisation of the current stock of 5 centres being replaced by the enhanced facilities at Lincoln House (already agreed by Cabinet as part of the Dementia Strategy) and the creation in the future of a purpose built new facility, subject to a business case being made to Cabinet in future and taking into account the previous public consultation exercise.
6. Agree to consider how much directly provided service should continue (and how long for) in order to mitigate against market failure (or other emergency) and resolve in principle that the Council’s role in direct service provision should be to provide the most complex services of last resort.
7. Agree to explore the option for running existing in house provision as ‘arms length’ and/or jointly with health to exploit commercial benefits and freedoms from such models and maximise efficiencies.
8. Agree to review significantly the current service level and performance from the shared transport service jointly with the Head of Regeneration and Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust to identify what transport should be commissioned strategically.
9. Review the current provision of the hot meals service.
10. Approve and progress the list of specific joint commissioning and integrated service provision initiatives with Central and Eastern PCT.
11. Undertake a joint review with the Corporate Procurement service to identify savings to be achieved by more effective contracting arrangements.
12. Note the fact that this redesign constitutes a 3 to 5 year strategy to invest in front-end services and ultimately reduce the current level of care costs which will present budget pressures in the interim; and make provision corporately for contingency funding in respect of the required changes in Adults Social Care in order to mitigate the risk of too much change too quickly.