Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - County Hall. View directions

Contact: Liz Patterson  Email: elizabeth.patterson@powys.gov.uk

Note: 01597 826980 

Items
No. Item

8.

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors Ms A Jenner, Ms M Mackenzie, Ms C Mills, Mr P Pritchard, Ms K Roberts-Jones, Mr E Vaughan, Ms A Williams and Mr M Williams.

 

In attendance:

County Councillor Ms R Powell (Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services)

Mr D Johnston (Interim Head of Children’s Services), Mr S Howell (Area Manager), Ms A-M Davies (Professional Lead – Business Support Resources) and Ms L Patterson (Scrutiny Officer)

9.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of interest from Members.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

10.

Declarations of Party Whips

To receive disclosures of prohibited party whips which a Member has been given in relation to the meeting in accordance with Section 78(3) of the Local Government Measure 2011.

 

(NB: Members are reminded that under Section 78 Members having been given a prohibited party whip cannot vote on a matter before the Committee.)

Minutes:

No declarations of party whips were received.

11.

Chair's Briefing

To receive a verbal update from the Chair of the Health, Care and Housing Scrutiny Committee.

Minutes:

The Chair explained that this meeting would focus on Children’s Services performance as the Adult Social Care performance reports were at an earlier stage of preparation and needed further work before they could be shared with scrutiny.  The Complaints report again only relates to Children’s Service as this was requested by the pre-May 2018 Children’s Services Scrutiny Group.

12.

Children's Services Performance Reports pdf icon PDF 898 KB

To receive the Children’s Services Performance Report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Documents considered:

·         Children’s Services Performance Report – May 2018

 

Discussion:

 

·         There are no minutes of the twice weekly team manager performance meetings (Executive summary – point 2), but there are action points arising from matters raised at the meeting.  Audits have been undertaken and will be made available to the Improvement and Assurance Board.  These could be provided to scrutiny. (Outcome 1)

·         There has been a considerable increase in approaches to the service during May and these have been referred to the locality teams rather than being referred to the Team around the Family (TAF).  There has been no increase in workforce and therefore this will impact on performance over the coming months

·         There is no lack of capacity in TAF but Powys People Direct (PPD) are not referring cases to TAF and Social Workers are not stepping down cases to TAF where appropriate.  A review of PPD is being undertaken at present.  TAF comes under the Start Well programme (previously known as the Children and Young Peoples Partnership (CYPP)). 

·         Start Well is co-chaired by the Director of Education and Senior Manager of the Health Board and includes senior officers from health, public health and housing.  A report on the Start Well programme could be brought to scrutiny. (Outcome 2)

·         The biggest increase in referrals has come from the Police and secondly from individuals.  Usually referrals come from schools, health colleagues and then individuals. 

·         The increase is due to domestic violence cases and child sexual exploitation cases which are very serious and time consuming.  Some teams are showing the strain and are reporting heavy workloads and increased sickness absence

·         The increase in cases has meant the planned reduction in agency staff has had to be reconsidered and the Head of Service has met with the Finance Director and Chief Executive.  Staffing will not drop below safe levels.

·         In the short term there will be financial pressures which will be addressed by focussing on

o   appointing permanent staff rather than agency staff (who cost 30-35% more)

o   looking to appropriately reduce expensive residential placements – the Resource Panel is examining expensive placements to see if they are still meeting the need of the child or if different provision would be more appropriate.  A report is being prepared for the Improvement and Assurance Board which could be shared with scrutiny (Outcome 3)

·         Overall performance in May has held up with some small dips but not so far as to cause concern

·         The improving trend has been affected by the increase in demand and it may be necessary to move people between teams to meet demand

·         Fluctuations in demand are to be expected until the workforce is stabilised.  A new Director is in post and a new Head of Service due to be appointed shortly who will address the workforce issue

·         There are six children not included within the Looked After Children statistics due to the high level of protection needed in these cases.  Members should be assured that they are receiving all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

13.

Children's Services Inspection Report pdf icon PDF 279 KB

To receive the Children’s Services Inspection Report for Bannau/Camlas and the Powys Fostering Services.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Documents considered:

·         CIW Inspection Report on Golwg Camlas/Bannau May 2018

·         Bannau/Camlas Action Plan 5th June 2018

·         CIW Inspection Report on Powys County Council Fostering Service

 

Bannau/Camlas

 

Discussion:

·         CIW made an unannounced visit in January 2018 to Golwg Camlas/Bannau.  Bannau cares for pupils with autism and Camlas offers short break respite care for children with complex disabilities

·         There are approximately 100 regulations to comply with and the inspection also looks at living conditions, care and staff meetings

·         No compliance notices were made after the inspection and the findings that were made were those the service already knew about

·         The service are on track with the timescales within the action plan except for those that relate to staffing and senior managers are having to cover some shifts.

·         The Inspection found that there were still found to be short falls in the system for recording medication which had been raised at a previous inspection.  Officers confirmed that medication was taken seriously and it was thought that it related to infrequent occasions where a second staff member had failed to sign the medication register.  A move to an electronic medication record is being investigated which would alert the shift leader to recording omissions

·         It is on occasion necessary to close Camlas but this is a difficult decision to take as it is acknowledged that routine for young people is important as is respite for carers.  It is essential that the correct level of staffing is available and as young people are resident in Bannau full time it is on occasion necessary to move staff to ensure Bannau is fully staffed.  If it is necessary to close Camlas alternative support or respite is offered

·         Recent staffing changes have resulted in five members of staff leaving and eight joining.  A recent recruitment event in Ystradgynlais was not as successful as had been hoped and it had been necessary to rearrange an event in Merthyr

·         There have been retention issues with staff wanting more hours but to enable sufficient cover for shift patters it has been necessary to offer a mixture of 16, 22 and 37 hour patterns.  Some staff find other hours elsewhere and may end up leaving the unit to concentrate on their other job

·         The Senior Manager visits the unit regularly and whilst there is a positive feeling there is a level of frustration and tiredness as staff have to work additional hours

·         Although the service have insufficient qualified staff to meet the requirements of the regulation those staff who are unqualified are all working towards qualification

·         Although not all staff are registered with Social Care Wales this is because they are working through a comprehensive induction programme prior to registration

Cllr Jon Williams left 3.45pm

·         The Portfolio Holder advised she regularly visited Bannau/Camlas and invited Members to accompany her on a visit

·         It was acknowledged that the unit was unable to offer care through the medium of Welsh but noted that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

14.

Complaints Report - Children's Services pdf icon PDF 97 KB

This item has been prepared at the request of the previous Children’s Services Scrutiny Group which now falls under the remit of the Health, Care and Housing Scrutiny Committee.

Minutes:

Documents considered:

·         Children’s Services Complaints, Compliments and Representations

 

Discussion:

·         The number of complaints has increased significantly in Powys but remain low in comparison to other authorities

·         Communication remains a theme in complaints across all teams

·         Complaints are accepted in hard copy, online or by telephone and Social Workers all carry complaints leaflets

·         There are no targets in relation to complaints as complaints are viewed positively as an opportunity for learning

·         A second complaints officer has been appointed and surgeries are being held across Powys and management teams are attended to go through learning from complaints.  The complaints officer works with operational managers and Quality Assurance Manager to check actions identified during the complaints process are undertaken

·         The unit has a busy caseload but it is manageable.  There is one permanent and one fixed term complaints officer.  The workload will be monitored

 

Outcomes:

·      That an Annual Complaints Report is brought to scrutiny which covers Adults and Children’s Social Care

 

15.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 48 KB

To consider the scrutiny work programme.

Minutes:

The next meeting of Health, Care and Housing Scrutiny Committee is scheduled for the 20th July 2018 where Access Arrangements will be subject to pre-Cabinet scrutiny.

16.

Exempt Items

The Monitoring Officer has determined that category 3 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules applies to the following items. His view on the public interest test (having taken account of the provisions of Rule 14.8 of the Council's Access to Information Rules) was that to make this information public would disclose information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

These factors in his view outweigh the public interest in disclosing this information.

 

Members are asked to consider these factors when determining the public interest test, which they must decide when considering excluding the public from this part of the meeting.

Minutes:

RESOLVED to exclude the public for the following item of

business on the grounds that there would be disclosure to them of

exempt information under category 3 of The Local Authorities

(Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007).

17.

Improvement and Assurance Board Notes

To receive the notes of the Improvement and Assurance Board May 2018.

Minutes:

The notes of the meeting of the Improvement and Assurance Board for May 2018 were received.