Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - County Hall. View directions

Contact: Lisa Richards 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of interest from Members.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.  Two Members, County Councillors S McNicholas and J M Williams, informed the Committee that they had a Powys owned residential care home in their ward.

3.

Disclosure 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:

There were no disclosures of party whips.

4.

Election of Vice Chair

To elect a Vice Chair for the period to the AGM in May 2019.

Minutes:

In the absence of the Chair, the Committee agreed to take this item first and whoever was appointed Vice Chair would Chair the meeting.

 

            RESOLVED that County Councillor J Charlton be elected Vice Chair for the remainder of the year.

 

 

5.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 105 KB

To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Health, Care and Housing Committee on 4 February 2019 as a correct record.

Minutes:

The Chair was authorised to sign the Minutes of the last meeting of the Health, Care and Housing Committee on 4 February 2019 as a correct record.

6.

Performance Reports

7.

Children's Services pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To consider the Performance report as at 31 December 2018 for Children’s Services.

Minutes:

Documents:

·         Performance Report – December 2018

 

Discussion:

·         The presentation of the document had been revised to provide the narrative at the beginning

·         Assessments – there had been a dip in performance in November due to outstanding assessments being cleared.  Performance had increased to 94% in December.

·         The Committee were pleased to note that seven children who had had three or more placements were now settled in permanent arrangements

·         Performance for Looked After Children had improved for the third consecutive month

·         The Committee were concerned that Performance data was not up to date – January data was available but had not yet been considered by the Improvement and Assurance Board.  It would be useful if the most up to date information was provided for Committee.

·         An issue relating to staffing in one team which had affected performance was highlighted.  An Agency manager had been put in place to resolve the issue.

·         Sickness levels were much improved for permanent staff

·         The number of agency staff had increased to 43.  A restructure would be implemented in April which would address the issue.  Members asked if greater detail could be provided, for example, long or short term, persistent short term absences and comparators with other local authorities.  Members asked how managers were kept informed of sickness absence – within Adult Services, a sickness report was received from HR which provided monthly comparisons and trends.  There was a significant level of absence within domiciliary care staff.  Children’s Services Management Team also received a monthly report and greater detail has been requested.

·         The HR recording system, TRENT, was unable to discount missed supervision sessions if an employee was absent on long term sick leave which did have an impact on performance recording.  However, 95% of supervisions are on time.  Front line child care teams have the highest levels of supervision

·         The introduction of data quality clerks has also had a positive impact

·         Early help provision is key but is not yet well enough developed.  Communication across all services is essential to ensure preventative action across the Authority.  This will be demonstrable through the Children’s Services Improvement Plan.

·         Long term trends were important to recognise.  Whilst it could be expected that there would be an increase in the numbers of looked after children following a critical inspection, the quality of intervention must be measured to develop longer term indicators.

·         There remained a significant number of children referred to assessment teams but this had fallen from 70% to 58%.  All children subject to Care Orders have been reviewed.

·         A high number of staff left in December – this could be due to the Christmas break

·         The Head of Service was asked if feedback was provided to an Agency regarding the quality of work – this does happen but there is room for improvement

·         It had been reported that there were 14 children without care plans – care plans had been completed and were being worked to, but they had not been signed off

·         Stabilizing the workforce was key  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Adult Services pdf icon PDF 695 KB

To consider the Performance report as a 31 December 2019 for Adult Services.

Minutes:

Documents:

·         Adults’ Performance Report, December 2018

 

Discussion

·         90% of safeguarding enquiries are responded to in 7 days – this was lower than had been achieved, but the Head of Transformation was pleased to report that this had improved to 100% during January.

·         Supervisions remain high and although there had been a drop over the Christmas period, the January report shows this is at 96%

·         PPD has been significantly more effective with 92% of calls answered.  The service is to be rebranded ASSIST and relaunched in late March. There will be a new means of access for health professionals

·         Technology Enabled Care has become a significant service following considerable development

·         A major challenge is the availability of domiciliary care – recruitment and retention remains a challenge across the County.  Twenty clients have no care but many are waiting for increased levels of care.  This is also impacting on Delayed Transfers of Care.  It is hoped in the longer term that this can be managed by community care, technology enabled care and sheltered housing, but in the short term there are issues.  The average number of days waiting for care is now 30 days.

·         The financial position for 2019/20 will be challenging – the service will have to find £1M of savings and further pressures have been identified of £9M.  There is limited ability to increase funding to domiciliary care providers – one provider has declared bankruptcy and clients have been returned to the Authority.  The market is particularly vulnerable. A Dynamic Purchasing scheme has been piloted in the Ystradgynlais area.

·         The Portfolio Holder reiterated the challenge in providing domiciliary care.  As a society care workers are poorly rewarded.  He had heard of cases where supermarkets were actively approaching workers to offer better terms.  It was a national issue which was slow to be addressed.  Wales was to gain tax raising powers and consideration may be given to a social care levy. The new First Minister was outlining his priorities and he was keen on a mixed provision.  The Committee noted that under new management arrangements the current Head of Transformation would become the Head of Commissioning for both adults and children’s services and there may be an opportunity to approach the matter in a more business-like manner.  The Committee also noted that currently approximately 11000 hours of care were being provided successfully each week.

·         Those carers employed in-house would receive better terms and conditions and cost significantly more.  Increasing the in-house service was not a viable option under current funding levels.  The only long term solution is to deliver a different type of service.  Statistics show that the population will not continue to increase after 2035.

·         An in-house domiciliary care service was provided in the north of the County and Members asked for clarity on this provision – Reablement was offered and a service of last resort where no private contractor was available.  A bridging service was also provided where a private contractor would become available within six weeks.

·         The Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Access to Information

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).

 

10.

Management of Powys Owned Residential Homes

To receive an oral progress report by the Head of Transformation.

Minutes:

The Portfolio Holder briefed the Committee on the background to the issue.  Continuity of care for individuals was essential.  Twelve residential care homes and one intermediate care facility would now be managed by Shaw Healthcare and this had been reported in the press.  The contract would be for three years to allow for the transfer of provision in the short term but to allow a transformational approach to be taken for the future.  The current provision of conventional residential care might no longer be appropriate in the longer term.

 

This had been a new process and a learning curve for the Authority.  The lessons learned must be shared across the Authority.  The Chair thanked the officers for their work during the process.

 

County Councillor J M Williams left the meeting at 13.00.

 

11.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 78 KB

To note the scrutiny forward work programme.

Minutes:

Documents:

·         Scrutiny work programme

 

Discussion:

·         The Committee hoped to have more control of the work programme

12.

Social Care Working Group

To appoint two Members to a Social Care Working Group.

Minutes:

The Committee were asked to nominate two Members to sit on a Social Care Working Group alongside the Chair of the Committee and two non-scrutiny Members who had already been appointed.

 

As the full membership was no longer present, it was agreed to email the Committee asking for expressions of interest to join the Working Group.

13.

Correspondence

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

Minutes:

There were no items of correspondence.