Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

Disclosure of interests – Chris Holley and Alyson Pugh.

To receive the notes of the previous meeting and agree as an accurate record.

Panel agreed one amendment to the notes of the previous meeting – Item 3, Discussion Points, final bullet point to read:  ‘As part of the budget proposals, Cabinet is proposing an additional investment of £3.5million in Social Services to take account of inevitable budget pressures.  This is welcomed but the Department will still struggle to meet its obligations.’

Notes agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

Update from Department about additional money available to the region through the Health Board to deal with winter pressures (£1.7million approximately).  The proposals are being worked up currently, with Council involvement, to go back to the Welsh Government.  Amounts for social care still to be decided.

Actions:

·         Department to provide Panel with final proposal which goes to Welsh Government.

Questions must relate to matters on the Agenda and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

Dave Howes, Chief Social Services Officer and Alex Williams, Head of Adult Services responded verbally to questions from the public which will be included in the convener’s letter to the Cabinet Member requesting a written response provided directly to the member of the public.

Questions from the public:

1.    Does the Authority realise already that opposition is mounting at the excessive charges being proposed?

2.    Do the Council realise because other Authorities have adopted new strategies that it doesn’t make it right?

3.    Have they questioned service users and what suits their needs?

4.    Have the Council thought that they minority will be paying for the majority.  If the majority are going to be exempt?

5.    Does the Council realise that day centres will close if such charges of £40 per day and £70 per 2 days (not per week) take place?

6.    Is this in the best interests of the clients attending the day centres?

7.    By default the day centres will close – isn’t this how the Council will shelve their responsibilities, isn’t this what they intend?

Alex Williams, Head of Adult Services

Alex Williams went through the reports highlighting a number of points.  A number of comments were raised.

Discussion points:

·         Summary report page 4 – Long term domiciliary care.  Changes at the Common Access Point and the continuing programme of reassessing care packages have had a significant impact on reducing delayed transfers of care. 

·         Summary report page 4 – Residential care.  Number of people in care homes appears to be going up.  Department confirmed total bed capacity is approximately 1600.  Vacancy rate is not very high.  It is a relatively stable sector in Swansea. 

·         Summary report page 5 – Delayed transfers of care.  Delays due to Social Services reasons have significantly reduced.  Panel pleased that real progress has been made.

·         Summary report page 5 – Review of allocated clients.  Issue with Learning Disability service reviewing its clients.  Department has set targets for improvement.  Panel would like to see the trends on this presented in the next performance monitoring report.

·         Summary report page 6 – Residential reablement.  Increase in the length of stay may reflect issues in the domiciliary care market.  The Panel will monitor this going forward.

·         Summary report page 7 – Timeliness of response to safeguarding issues.  Percentage within 24 hours and 7 days is improving.  Panel is pleased to see this.  Department looking at changes to processes to improve consistency of approach in relation to thresholding.  Need to ensure everything is recorded on PARIS to improve reporting.

·         Summary report page 7 – Timeliness of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard assessments.  There is an issue with timeliness of assessments.  Department is pressing ahead with setting up a dedicated team.  Posts are out to advert.

·         Main report page 10 – Local area coordination.  Issues with recording of data.  Work has commenced on a new system.

·         Main report appendices page 48 – Performance indicators Measure 19: Delayed transfers per 1,000 people aged 75+.  Panel concerned with the figure as the Department is far from meeting the target. However performance has improved during the year.

Dave Howes, Chief Social Services Officer

Dave Howes, went through the report, which is currently out for consultation as part of the wider budget proposals, highlighting the main points and answering questions.

Main proposals are:

·         Introduction of a charge for day services for older people

·         Introduction of a charge for day services for younger adults

·         Introduction of a charge for respite care at home

·         Increased charge for domiciliary care

·         Inflationary uplift for all other social care charges. 

Discussion points:

·         Raft of changes within Social Services proposed as part of the budget with an overall target of £1million additional income to the Council.

·         Setting of the charge for day services based on unit cost of providing the service.  It bears no resemblance to what an individual will pay as this is capped by Welsh Government.

·         Individuals will be means tested to confirm their ability to pay the charges.  This is based purely on an individual financial assessment and is prescribed by Welsh Government.

·         Department confirmed demand is not as high as it used to be for older peoples day services. 

·         Department expects the outcomes of the commissioning review will lead to a redesign of services.  Panel feels that as part of the commissioning review it is important to look at loneliness and ensure people are not more isolated.

·         Informal feedback from users of older peoples’ day services suggests users would rather pay for the service than lose it.

·         Department encourages public to respond to the formal consultation especially to include their views in the narrative.

·         Information packs have been handed out to day centre users to encourage them to participate in the consultation and feed in their views.

·         In terms of budget consultation with hard to reach groups, the Panel would like there to be more face-to-face consultation with users of day centres etc.

·         Panel concerned charging for services could reduce use and eventually lead to day centre closures.  Department thinks charging will have an impact on use but more important is remodelling of services to meet the needs of more complex individuals and to be fit for purpose for the future. The proposals are not about the closure of day services.  Council will definitely need to have a day service for people with complex needs but don’t know how big this offering will be in future.

Alex Williams, Head of Adult Services

Simon Jones, Performance and Improvement Officer, Social Services

Simon Jones, Performance and Improvement Manager attended to give a presentation, highlighting the main issues and answering questions. 

Main points:

·         The system is owned by the Local Government Data Unit

·         National launch around July 2018

·         It is a wellbeing information system for the Council not Social Services.

·         There should be a direct access element to it.

·         It has a built in review process and editorial control.

·         Swansea has 100 resources on it currently.  The aim is for it to be around 1000.

·         There is a phased approach to its implementation in Swansea

·         Work is being carried out on a national level to link the different information systems.

Work programme received and considered by the Panel.

Actions:

·         Add 3 items to the future work programme:

-       Adult Services complaints annual report 2016/17 (date to be arranged)

-       Presentation on Social work practice framework (date to be arranged)

-       Explanation of budget outputs (May 2018)

·         Send letter to the Cabinet Member following the meeting for information. 

a) Convener’s letter to Cabinet Member (10 October 2017 meeting)

Comments in the convener’s letter from 10 October 2017 meeting were considered when looking at the recent performance monitoring report.