Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors J Charlton, J Gibson-Watt and S Hayes (Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care).

In attendance:

D Owen (Head of Transformation for Adult Services), H Jukes (Senior Manager – Social Care Delivery) and E Patterson (Scrutiny Officer).

To receive declarations of interest from Members.

Councillor D Rowlands declared a personal but not prejudicial interest in the review of Daytime Activities for Older People.

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.)

No declarations of party whips were received.

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.

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).

To consider the report of the Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care.

The Head of Adult Services gave a short history to this item.  Some years ago it had been decided to reduce the funding for daytime activities for older people from £1.6million/year to £300k/year.  By 2016 little progress had been made in identifying how this would be saved and the service embarked on a consultation period where it was looking to close the day centres.  The results of the consultation found that the service was thought to be good by those who attended even if they had not enjoyed attending at first, and it was seen as a valuable opportunity for respite by carers.  Cabinet decided to re-invest £1.1million in older people’s daycentre provision albeit with a reduced budget.  Cabinet asked for an update in two years and it is this paper that is being considered.

There has been a decrease in the number of people attending daycentres partly due to a change in expectations with older people choosing not to attend daycentres and partly due to social workers offering alternative options.

The savings required in the first two years have been achieved:

• 2017-2018:      £150k target   – achieved
• 2018-2019:      £50k target     – achieved

For 2019-20 the savings target is £150k of which £117k has been found and work is ongoing to identify the remaining £33k.

Tanant Valley

This is a once a week day/luncheon club originally arranged by contract with the Royal Voluntary Service.  The contract was too restrictive as only people with assessed needs could access the service and therefore the funding model was changed to grant funding.  There is a review of grant funding but the Head of Service had requested that funding for this project was not included as it provide a service.  This service cost £12k a year and is excellent value for money.

A short film on this service can be found at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfnsPfXyayc

Ann Holloway Day Centre Welshpool

When the initial decision was taken to reduce funding of day centres the Council invited interested parties to express an interest in taking them over.  Welshpool Town Council entered into a contract with the local authority to run the daycentre whereby the authority block purchase a certain number of places for people from Welshpool and the surrounding area with assessed needs.  This costs £75k/year on top of which are transport costs in the region of £46k/year.  The contract runs from 2015 to 2025 and whilst there is no review date it does contain an uplift for inflation.

Machynlleth Day Centre

This daycentre is run by Crossroads under a contract which has been extended to March 2020.  Machynlleth also has a group (Dolen) which carers can attend.  The funding for this contract has been confirmed until March 2020 at £75k/year which although less than a few years ago remains the same as the 2017/18 and 2018/19.

Park Centre Newtown

Consideration is being given to co-locating the daycentre in Newtown with the Library.  Savings of £13,580 have been in 2018/90 now Meals on Wheels are no longer provided by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To consider the scrutiny work programme.

10^th December 2018

Update on Bannau/Camlas

Social Care Performance Reports

Crime and Disorder Report

To consider any items of correspondence which, in the opinion of the Chair, are of sufficient urgency to warrant consideration.

No correspondence had been received.