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Bank holiday information - Easter

Bank holiday information for our services, including opening times and emergency contacts. All recycling collections will take place on the usual days.

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Remotely via Microsoft Teams. View directions

Contact: Liz Jordan 01792 637314 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Confirmation of Convener

Minutes:

Susan Jones was confirmed as Convener of the Adult Services Panel.

2.

Disclosure of Personal and Prejudicial Interests

Minutes:

Chris Holley declared a personal interest.

3.

Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips

Minutes:

No declarations were made.

4.

Minutes of Previous Meeting(s) pdf icon PDF 320 KB

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

Minutes:

The Panel agreed the minutes of the meeting on 20 April 2021 as an accurate record of the meeting.

5.

Public Question Time

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.

Minutes:

No questions were submitted.

6.

Update on Adult Services Transformation Programme pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Amy Hawkins, Interim Head of Adult Services

Helen St John, Interim Head of Integrated Community Services

Lucy Friday, Principal Officer Transformation

 

Minutes:

Amy Hawkins, Interim Head of Adult Services and Lucy Friday, Principal Officer Transformation attended to present this item and stated that it is not a usual year and as such the Programme is looking at living with Covid, including contingency and recovery but it is also aspirational. 

 

Discussion Points:

·         Panel queried what developments / changes / additions have occurred in relation to assistive technology, what further possibilities are emerging, and what volume of items are currently in play.  Officers responded that assistive technology plans are still in development and a briefing will be brought to Panel later in the year.  There has been significant investment to date. 

·         Panel queried what the co-budget savings are.  Informed they have been identified and taken into consideration in the budget this year.  Officers agreed to provide more information.

·         Panel queried what proportion of direct payment come directly to the Authority.  Informed direct payments are used by individuals to purchase day provision from the private sector, or to employ someone independently for provision, or to use the Third Sector for provision.  If someone wants to use the Authority’s in-house provision, they do not need to use direct payments as they can access the service directly through the Authority.

·         Panel asked about domiciliary care in rural areas, problems associated with this and development of social enterprises.  Officers confirmed the re-commissioning of domiciliary care in 2019/20 improved expansion and coverage in rural areas.  Use of in-house reablement service and in-house long-term care service improved coverage in rural areas to deal with issue.  A number of new providers taken on during lockdown and this has improved coverage even in rural areas.  Alongside this trying to support development of appropriate social enterprise models or other approaches. 

·         Panel queried if in addition to hospital to home discharge schemes there is scope for proactive inter agency assessments of people still living at home that might prevent the use of emergency admission hospital facilities in the first place and supply residents with the services they might get after a period of care in hospital.  Officers gave reassurance that a lot of the Directorate’s work has a multi-disciplinary team focus in the community, for example, the front door to Social Services and the mental health single point of access. 

·         Panel queried if there was any data available on how many referrals have been prevented by anticipatory care.  Informed difficult to answer as anything preventative, by definition, does not touch the Service’s formal recording system.  However there are figures on sign posting.

·         Panel raised a query about the complaints process, asking if there is any independent input into it. Panel requested to see a report showing a recent summary of the number and type of complaint received and action taken. Officers agreed to share information and links outside of the meeting.

 

Actions:

·         Panel to receive information on co-budget savings.

·         Information and links on complaints process to be shared with the Panel.

7.

Actions from WAO report - Front door to Adult Social Care - Recommendation: Impact of Preventative Services pdf icon PDF 605 KB

Amy Hawkins, Interim Head of Adult Services

Helen St John, Interim Head of Integrated Community Services

Lucy Friday, Principal Officer Transformation

Minutes:

Lucy Friday, Principal Officer Transformation presented this item and stated that the audit was conducted on a Wales-wide basis.  Swansea was not one of the Authorities who received a visit, but did provide some information.  The recommendations are broad and apply to the whole of Wales.  Key recommendations from the audit report are being taken forward as part of the Transformation Programme. 

 

Discussion Points:

·         Panel informed work around all areas highlighted to the Panel in March 2020 have progressed significantly or been completed.  In addition, further development of preventative services and access to the Service’s own ‘front door’ have been expanded in response to the Covid pandemic.  This has presented further opportunities for change and improvement particularly in respect of the Services carer’s information, access and support. 

·         Panel queried what connection the Authority has with the Third Sector/SCVS, if it is contractual and if it is funded.  Informed there are a couple of funding avenues to SCVS including a number of external grants and the Authority gives SCVS core funding in terms of the volunteering service aspect and also for core work SCVS undertakes under the Compact Agreement.  The Authority also has other projects with them. 

·         Panel wanted to know how the Advocacy Service is operating, how this professional service works and to receive feedback on how it performs.  Officers confirmed the independent advocacy service is available to any person or carer where there is a barrier to them receiving the support they need.  Officers agreed to provide more information on this to the Panel.  

 

Actions:

·         Further information on the Advocacy Service to be provided to the Panel.

 

8.

Director's Annual Review of Charges (Social Services) 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 761 KB

David Howes, Director of Social Services

Minutes:

David Howes, Director of Social Services attended to update the Panel.

 

Discussion Points:

·         Director’s recommendation to Cabinet was that new charges should not be introduced, but an inflationary uplift to existing charges of 1.75% (advisory figure from Welsh Government) should be applied.  Director’s recommendations were accepted by Cabinet.

·         Subsequent to report going to Cabinet, the Service looked at learning from a test case and have undertaken a review to ensure the Authority’s charging regime is not discriminatory.  Officers are confident the Authority is fully compliant. 

·         It has highlighted that the Service could do further work around transparency, in particular the mechanics of how financial assessments are carried out.  Panel requested to see the information around this.  Director agreed to bring further update when the work is finished. They will share what they intend to publish.

 

Actions:

·         Further update on work around transparency and what will be published to be provided to the Panel once complete.

9.

Work Programme Timetable

Items for next meeting:

 

·         Performance Monitoring

·         Briefing on Isolation of Elderly People

·         Options Appraisal for Assistive Technology and Community Alarms

·         Draft Work Programme 2021-22

 

Minutes:

Care Inspectorate Wales undertaking Local Authority Assurance Review.  It is covid related.  Will be taking place on 07 June 2021.  Therefore following items to be added to work programme:

 

·         Initial Feedback from CIW Assurance Visit – 14 July 2021 meeting

·         CIW Assurance Visit Full Report – provisionally October 2021 meeting

 

Also to be added:

 

·         Feedback on inspection of Domiciliary Care Services – provisionally October 2021 meeting.

 

Item ‘Outcomes Budgeting progress update’ proposed for future work programme.  Director to discuss with Cabinet Member and Heads of Service what it is possible to provide this year and inform Panel.

 

 

 

 

Letter to Cabinet Member (02 June 2021 meeting) pdf icon PDF 286 KB

Response from Cabinet Member (02 June 2021 meeting) pdf icon PDF 498 KB