Items
No. |
Item |
1. |
Apologies
To receive apologies for absence.
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from
County Councillor Liz Rijnenberg, County Councillor Chris Walsh and
Lynette Lovell Director of Education and Children.
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2. |
Declarations of Interest
To receive declarations of interest from
Members.
Minutes:
The Committee
received the following Declarations of Interest from Members
relating to items to be considered on the agenda:
Relationship
between Llais and Powys County Council
·
County Councillor Edwin Roderick declared a personal interest due
to being a member of Llais.
·
County Councillor Heulwen Hulme declared a personal interest due to
being a member of Llais.
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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:
The
Committee did not receive any disclosures of prohibited party whips
which a Member had been given in relation to the meeting in
accordance with Section 78(3) of the Local Government Measure
2011.
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4. |
Relationship between Llais and Powys County Council PDF 176 KB
To receive a presentation from Katie
Blackburn, Regional Director, Llais.
Minutes:
Documents Considered:
- Relationship between Llais and Powys County Council Presentation
07-07-2023
Background:
- Previously the Community
Health Council had a remit solely regarding health
services.
- Llais’ remit now includes both health and social care
services, not just health services provided by Powys Teaching
Health Board.
- Going forward, Llais will still retain a strong relationship
with Powys Teaching Health Board, and the Regional Director sits as
an observer at Board meetings and meets on a fortnightly
basis.
- Llais would like to develop a relationship between Councils and
Scrutiny Committees.
- On
1 April 2023, the Act establishing Llais replaced the Community
Health Councils.
- Llais is an independent statutory body, established by the Welsh
Government.
- The
body’s legal name is “Citizen Voice Body for Health and
Social Care, Wales”, operating as
“Llais”.
- Llais is divided into 11 localities throughout
Powys.
- Llais have two offices in Powys - Brecon and
Newtown.
- Llais will no longer have nominated volunteers (i.e., from Welsh
Government, County Councils, Third Sector), all members are
volunteers in their own right.
- The
new volunteering strategy for Llais offers flexibility, diversity,
accessibility, and inclusivity, as well as learning
support.
- Commitment to be flexible, allowing people to volunteer who
previously may not have been able to under the Community Health
Council model.
- Three core areas of activity:
- Engage and gather people’s views.
- Work with decision makers at a local, regional and national
level through making representations.
- Provide health and social services complaints
advocacy.
- Llais meets with Health Board and Local Authority complaint
teams on a weekly basis.
- Part 4 – Section 17 of the Health and Social Care (Quality
and Engagement) (Wales) Act 2020 imposes a duty on the NHS and
Local Authorities to promote awareness of Llais’
activities.
- The
legislation applies to all organisations who provide health and
social care services to service users.
- Requests for Llais to access health and social care services and
engage with individuals will be made in line with the Welsh
Government Code of Practice.
- Representations will be addressed according to the Statutory
Guidance on representations made by the Citizen Voice Body –
Llais.
- Llais will work with people and make decisions according to the
following:
- Collaborating and partnering with the public, health and social
care sector and the voluntary and community sectors.
- Independence in acting on behalf of the people of
Wales.
- Accessibility and inclusion, ensuring the needs of the diverse
population of Wales are represented and that no-one is
excluded.
- Influence and advocacy for person-centred health and social care
services in Wales.
- Good governance so that resources are used for the greatest
impact, with clear plans and priorities, transparency and
accountability.
- Llais would like to ask the Authority to:
- Raise awareness within the organisation and the communities
served so that everyone knows about Llais’ role.
- Work with Llais to develop their ways of working to establish
effective partnerships, ensuring the voice of communities are
heard.
- Help Llais to understand the key priorities and challenges for
health and social care services in Powys.
Issues Raised by the ...
view the full minutes text for item 4.
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5. |
Social Services Compliments,Comments and Complaints Report 2022 - 2023 PDF 333 KB
To receive and consider the Social Services
Compliments, Comments and Complaints Report 2022 – 2023.
Minutes:
Documents Considered:
- Social Services
Compliments, Comments and Complaints Report 2022 - 2023
Background:
- Powys County
Council has a statutory duty to have a complaints procedure in
place.
- It is also a
statutory requirement to produce an annual social services
complaints report which is the report considered.
- The approach is
based on “getting it right first time, and if we cannot, then
putting it right as soon as possible”.
- Many comments are
regarding financial aspects of providing care to individuals or
issues with receiving Direct Payments.
- There has been a
reduction in compliments, although this may be due to post-pandemic
working arrangements.
- Analysis of
complaints received:
- Complaints have
reduced since 2017.
- Most complaints
are handled at Stage 1 (the informal stage) rather than Stage
2.
- Complaints are
sorted into the following primary element categories:
- Standard of work
done.
- Communication
- Quality of service
provided.
- Provider
Complaint.
- Failure to adhere
to policy/procedure.
- Failure to carry
out agreed actions.
- Complaint
outcomes:
- Every complaint is
given an outcome of either “upheld”, “partially
upheld” or “not upheld”.
- The majority of
complaint outcomes for Childrens Services were partially
upheld.
- A new system for
managing complaints will be in place from 1 August 2023.
- Social Services
Complaints Procedure (Regulations) Wales 2014 state that a
complaint must be acknowledged within 2 days.
- This target is
difficult to meet due to limited resources.
- A
receipt/acknowledgement cannot be sent until the details are known
regarding how the complaint will be investigated, and who will
investigate the complaint.
- It is therefore
difficult to meet the 2-day requirement, due to officer leave for
example.
- The Regulation
timescales for complaint resolution differ to those of the NHS.
Officers are discussing these issues at the All-Wales Complaints
Officers Group with Welsh Government, and understand that a review
of the Regulations is likely to happen at some point in the
future.
- Stage 2 complaints
usually take 20-25 working days to investigate, once drafted the
complaint report is checked for quality, and then forwarded to the
Director of Social Services for sign-off, which can take an
additional 20 working days.
- The time taken to
issue a complaint report is being actioned, and the Director for
Social Services has dedicated time to review and sign the complaint
reports.
- Complaint handling
improvement:
- Services have been
reminded to be aware of potential complaints, and to forward the
complaints onto the Feedback Team as soon as possible.
- The Feedback Team
keep a log of actions that are agreed in monthly Quality Assurance
meetings with representatives from both Children’s and
Adult’s Services.
- Actions are being
undertaken to record all comments, compliments and complaints.
- Internal
resolution process established to ensure service providers resolve
their complaints more quickly.
Issues Raised by the
Committee and Responses Received:
Issues
Raised by the Committee:
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Responses
Received:
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Could you go into the reasons why compliments and complaints
might have been missed? Is the issue to do with how complaints are
reported?
Do
social workers have any quick methods of reporting complaints? Is
there an app system or document ...
view the full minutes text for item 5.
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6. |
Annual Report of the Director of Social Services PDF 496 KB
To receive and consider the Annual Report of
the Director of Social Services.
Minutes:
Documents Considered:
- Annual Report of the Director of Social Services
Background:
- Social Services
and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 requires the Director of Social
Services to produce the annual report.
- The Director of
Social Services is required to present the annual report to the
Council.
- The report will
also be available to the Welsh Ministers and on the public PCC
website.
- The report is
produced so that it can be easily read and understood by a range of
audiences, guidance suggests the report should be no more than 25
pages.
- The annual report
is not a performance report, the guidance states that recital of
data is unhelpful.
- This report is not
a standalone exercise, it is an overview, monthly data analysis and
performance reporting is undertaken behind the scenes.
- Welsh Government
are consulting on the Rebalancing Care Programme, in addition to
the template of the annual report. The template will likely be
formatted differently next year.
- The draft report
is presented to Committee for information and will be formally
presented to the next meeting of Full Council.
- Challenges in
Social Care:
- There are
recruitment and retention issues challenging the workforce across
the Service including reliance on agency staff.
- A key achievement
is working with corporate colleagues in improving recruitment by
utilising recruitment events and a quick application process for
social care roles.
- Issues in meeting
statutory duties in Adult Services, in terms of reviews and
establishing POC, in addition to court cases.
- Issues with
equipment availability and ongoing unpredictability in the provider
market in terms of commissioning.
- Adult and
Children’s Services:
- Children’s
Services have a new participation officer, which is outlined in the
report.
- Regular staff
surveys and roadshows with officers within the service.
- Ongoing work with
the third sector.
- Powys Older
People’s Forum has been expanded, with an age-friendly action
plan in development.
- Work underway for
a Citizen’s Charter regarding disabilities.
- Compliments and
complaints are used to understand lessons learnt to improve
services.
- Integrated Family
Centre in Welshpool has been open since October 2022.
- Work underway on
the Closer to Home strategy.
- Commissioning and
Partnerships:
- Unpredictability
in the provider market, impact on capacity.
- Assurance that
Commissioning are working with PTHB to put solutions in place.
- Children’s
Services challenges:
- Budget deficit has
been lowered, although work is still ongoing to further reduce the
deficit.
- Costs associated
with the two managed social worker teams have produced a saving as
they are no longer needed.
- Grow our Own
project – 10 newly qualified social workers who will be
qualifying over the summer months.
- National shortage
of placements.
- Development of
residential provision.
- Strengthening the
16+ provision.
Issues Raised by the
Committee and Responses Received:
None
Actions:
None
Observations and
Recommendations:
- Further items to
be considered by the Committee:
- Children’s
Services budget situation.
- Joint meeting with
Health in December:
- The transition
between CAMHS and Adult Mental Health Services/therapeutic CAMHS
threshold. To seek assurance on how situations can be resolved
before pre-crisis point.
- Pre-birth support
as compared to services available in other regions.
- Unaccompanied
Asylum Seeking ...
view the full minutes text for item 6.
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7. |
Closer to Home, Residential Homes and 16+ Accomodation
To receive and consider a presentation by the
Head of Children’s Services.
Minutes:
County
Councillor Benjamin Breeze proposed the resolution for the
Committee to move into a confidential session to consider the
remaining agenda items, and was subsequently seconded by County
Councillor Josie Ewing.
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.
The Health and Care
Scrutiny Committee received and considered a confidential
presentation regarding Closer to Home, Residential Homes and 16+
Accommodation, by the Head of Children’s Services.
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8. |
Extra Care Strategy
To receive a presentation by the Head of
Commissioning and Partnerships.
Minutes:
The Health and Care
Scrutiny Committee received and considered a confidential
presentation regarding the Extra Care Strategy, by the Head of
Commissioning and Partnerships.
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9. |
Work Programme PDF 58 KB
To note the scrutiny forward work
programme.
Minutes:
Documents Considered:
·
Health and Care Scrutiny Committee Work Programme.
Actions:
·
To add the following items to the Committee’s work
programme:
·
22 September 2023 meeting:
o
If the Direct Payments paper is not available, Adult Services will
instead be asked for a paper on services available for adults with
disabilities.
o
Q1 Performance review to include staff sickness trends.
·
3 November 2023 meeting:
o
Update on Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children – to
cover:
§
Location of placements,
§
Types of support needed by the children according to their
experiences,
§
Budgets,
§
Costs to the Council,
§
Intelligence from other Local Authorities.
o
Extra Care Strategy update for the 18 July 2024 meeting.
o
Budget updates if Q2 not available, item on efficiency savings
instead – confidential session.
·
1 December 2023 meeting:
o
Therapeutic Attachment Team work relating to Children’s
Services.
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