Agenda and minutes

http://www.swansea.gov.uk/DisclosuresofInterests

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea, no interests were declared.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the previous Prevention and Social Care Cabinet Advisory Committee meeting.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 21 March 2016 be agreed as a correct record.

The Chair presented the Commissioning Gateway Review Report Stage 2 – Older People Day Services Review and the Commissioning Gateway Review Report Stage 2 – Domiciliary Care Review.  She added that it was important that Members had direct input concerning the issues being discussed.

The Committee discussed the reports in groups and provided feedback to the Chair.  Discussions centred around the following: -

·         Older People Day Services and why the service model had not changed to take account of change in level of needs;

·         Ensuring that accessible day opportunities models did not replace day services and the need to be very cautious;

·         Developing the range of opportunities available for carers;

·         Concentrating on staff, the services provided, staff morale, service user morale and wellbeing;

·         Internal provision and the drop in usage despite there being a waiting list of 112 people, which was supported by figures provided and appeared as if the service was being deliberately run down;

·         People remaining on waiting lists despite services being closed down;

·         Safeguarding vulnerable people;

·         The positive effect day centres can have upon older people and the need for older people to have choices available;

·         Overlap between the work of Community Connectors and Local Area

Co-ordinators (LAC’s) and the high work load of LAC’s;

·         Transport issues and poor availability of public transport to communities;

·         The fact that service users were prepared to pay for day services in order to prevent them closing;

·         Establishing why Elected Members no longer went on rota visits;

·         Taking away services without careful consideration was short sighted and a quick fix;

·         The demand upon future services by the projected percentage population increase of 45% of people aged 85+;

·         The risk of losing experienced staff due to job uncertainty;

·         The need to listen to service users;

·         Lack of IT skills possessed by older people;

·         The current service not being evenly positioned across the county geographically which effects access to service users by family and friends;

·         The importance of keeping people within their communities;

·         Ethical Care Charter;

·         The reasons why referrals were not being made;

·         The implications of the living wage;

·         Managing expectations of service users / providers;

·         Risk of a major provider of health care services pulling out of their contract with the Authority;

·         Issues relating to the provision of domiciliary care, particularly staff travelling, parking near service users property and time slots within which staff must complete their duties;

·         The importance of service level agreement details being clear during the tendering process;

·         Scrutiny at Home report.

The Chair stated that further discussions were required at the next Committee meeting.

RESOLVED that an update be provided regarding the Commissioning Review of Older People Day Services and Commissioning Review of Domiciliary Care be provided at the next scheduled meeting.

RESOLVED that feedback be provided at the next scheduled meeting.

RESOLVED that feedback be provided at the next scheduled meeting.

RESOLVED that in the absence of the Social Services Officer, the item be deferred to the next scheduled meeting.

The Chair presented an updated Work Programme 2015/16.

She emphasised that it was important that the Committee had input into the Commissioning Reviews and Members had an opportunity to discuss the issues and directly contribute.

RESOLVED that: -

1)    The contents of the report be noted;

2)    A Commissioning Review of Day Centres update be provided at the next scheduled meeting;

3)    A Commissioning Review of Domiciliary Care update be provided at the next scheduled meeting;

4)    An update regarding the Finance Policy relating the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 be provided at the next scheduled meeting;

5)    Feedback on current position regarding the Commissioning Review of Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Physical Disabilities be provided at the next scheduled meeting;

6)    Feedback on current position regarding the Commissioning Review of Residential Care be provided at the next scheduled meeting.