Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

No disclosures of interest were received.

No declarations were made.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record.

Panel agreed the Minutes of the meeting on 31 October 2023 as an accurate record of the meeting.

Questions must be submitted in writing, no later than noon on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must relate to items on the agenda. Questions will be dealt with in a 10-minute period.

No questions were received.

Amy Hawkins, Head of Adult Services and Tackling Poverty

Helen St John, Head of Integrated Community Services

Cabinet Member for Care Services, Director of Social Services and relevant Heads of Service attended to brief the Panel on the Performance Monitoring Report for October 2023 and stated it shows a mixed picture.

Discussion Points:

·       Increase in number of safeguarding consultations again in October.  Number of professional concerns and from which sector now included in report, as requested by the Panel.

·       Panel praised Bonymaen House and feel it is working very well. 

·       Panel feels Court of Protection work is very complex and queried how social workers are managing to do this work on top of their already onerous jobs.  Officers agreed it is very complex work, but staff are being supported with it and it is part of their role. 

·       Lega Services was considered at previous meeting in terms of increasing legal support capacity either in-house or regionally.  Panel queried if any more thought had been given to ways this could be done.  Informed the preferred model currently for legal support is in-house model. 

·       Panel asked if it is likely the Council will join forces with other Authorities to do in-house work. Informed there is a regional arrangement for some legal work, however, there are reservations about going back to a fully regional arrangement.

·       Panel queried if discharge arrangements from hospital match or better the performance of other Authorities with regards their hospital capacity. Officers believe Swansea is pretty hight up in the table for comparable Authorities and arrangements are quite robust. 

Amy Hawkins, Head of Adult Services and Tackling Poverty

Helen StJohn, Head of Integrated Community Services

Head of Adult Services and Tackling Poverty and Head of Integrated Services attended to brief the Panel on dementia care including regional priorities, social work support, examples of commissioned and internal dementia services and also provide some case studies, as requested by the Panel. They emphasized that in addition a lot of work is being done by partners, particularly in the Third Sector.

Discussion Points:

·       Panel feels the Service has come a long way towards supporting people with dementia.

·       In terms of Preventative Strategies, Panel asked for feedback on how these Strategies are doing.  It was agreed further information be provided to the Panel on local work around Dementia Early Help and Prevention and regional work.

·       Panel queried if Marie Curie has broadened its scope to help with this aspect of illness.  Informed in terms of particular projects, the Marie Curie Project is a respite project funded via the Regional Partnership under the Dementia Fund. Agreed to provide further information to the Panel. 

·       Panel asked if the job description for the Dementia Connector role can be shared with the Panel.  Heard this role is linked in with the Dementia Hub and is a Third Sector run project.  The Council does not have any influence directly on the job description.

·       Panel asked about the increase in Direct Payments being provided to people with dementia and the impact on the Council’s spending. Heard there is an increase in Direct Payments expenditure across the board aligned with the Council’s expenditure. Also heard the particular care needs of this cohort of people is quite individual and there is some recourse to direct payments to get more bespoke arrangements.

Actions:

·       Further information on Dementia Early Help and Prevention and regional work to be provided to Panel.

·       Further information to be provided to Panel on Marie Curie Project.

Panel considered the work plan and noted items for the next meeting.