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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 5, Guildhall, Swansea. View directions

Contact: Liz Jordan 01792 637314 

Items
No. Item

1.

Disclosure of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

Minutes:

Disclosures of interest – Chris Holley and Alyson Pugh.

2.

Notes of meeting on 13 February 2018 pdf icon PDF 118 KB

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

Minutes:

The Panel agreed the notes as an accurate record of the meeting.

3.

Public Question Time

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

Minutes:

No public questions were asked.

4.

Adult Services Complaints Annual Report 2016-17 pdf icon PDF 56 KB

Andrew Taylor, Corporate Complaints Manager

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Andrew Taylor, Corporate Complaints Manager went through the report, highlighting the main issues and answering questions.

 

Discussion points:

 

·       It is a mandatory requirement for the Complaints Team to produce an annual report on its performance.

·       Positive that the rate of justified concerns has stayed steady

·       Huge drop in last few years in complaints progressing to stage 2

·       Significant learning this year from a complaint around community alarms.  This highlighted a problem and resulted in a lot of work to strengthen the process.

·       Also learning from compliments received about what the department does well. 

·       Head of Service and Chief Officer write to every member of staff who has received a compliment to show appreciation of their efforts.  Also awards event held every year to recognise achievement.

·       Panel concerned about the department’s resilience to changes in structure in order to retain learning and knowledge which has been built up over many years. Informed there is a risk but department has worked hard to create embedded systems in complaints and in social services, by for example, tracking record of complaints. 

·       Also asked if there is a process for updating manuals on a regular basis within the department to ensure processes and knowledge is retained.  Informed this is a work in progress in Adult Services.

 

 

 

 

5.

Cabinet Member presentation and Q and A Session

Mark Child, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing

Minutes:

Councillor Mark Child, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing attended to give an update on what has been happening in Adult Services over the last year.  Dave Howes, Chief Social Services Officer also attended for this item.

 

Discussion points:

 

·       Local Area Coordination – Peter Black has met his Local Area Coordinator and was very impressed.  Last year Panel looked at potential benefits of LAC. Panel wanted to know if Department has been able to look at cash benefits.  Informed information on this is not currently available. The Authority does not have an ongoing agreement with Swansea University to produce evidence of how effective it is.  However at some point in the future information will be collated.

·       Panel requested performance indicators that would show the results of LAC.  Panel informed it would be difficult to show benefit but the Department will produce something to include in its performance reports to the Panel.

·       Panel commented that there is a big difference for health if the Local Area Coordinator is good or not and that they need to get to know the community in their area as the more they embed themselves the better the results they get.  Panel felt that the ones in Swansea are very good.

·       Panel pleased to hear that social services regularly introduce / refer people to Local Area Coordinators.  They are being referred to from a wide selection of professionals so are being well used.

·       Panel heard there are a number of reviews planned in social services. Regarding the advocacy service, there will not be a discreet review but the department will be reviewing its approach to advocacy.  There is going to be a re-examination of the current process so there is ongoing work on this.

·       Accommodation Strategy for Older People – Panel thought this would detail the number of older people and their housing needs and was surprised to hear it will not be a formal review.  It is something that needs to be looked at in more detail but currently commissioning reviews are taking precedence for staff time.  Panel feels a cross cutting review of older people’s needs across departments would be time well spent.

·       There are examples in Europe of students and older people sharing accommodation.  This is something the Cabinet Member is interested in pursuing.

·       Panel wanted know what to expect in terms of funding for Supporting People. However Welsh Government decides to distribute the funding it is something the Authority will need to keep an eye on.   Panel queried whether any work had been done on how to defend our position, given that Swansea is a potential loser in this. The Authority is trying to gather evidence on what it has done and what it has to deal with, for example, homelessness.  It is positive that the Authority has a People Directorate and a lot of grants come within this.  This enables an approach of looking at how we can mobilise total grants for the outcomes we want to achieve. This is a very difficult issue and is in the early stages but some work is happening on it. Panel will want to check progress on this in 3 to 6 months.

 

Actions:

·       Add ‘How the Authority will use its grants to Support People’ to Work Programme in 3 to 6 months.

 

6.

Work Programme Timetable 2017-2018 pdf icon PDF 78 KB

Minutes:

Work programme received and considered by the Panel.

 

Actions:

 

·       Arrange meeting between Peter Black, Alex Williams and Scrutiny Support Officer before Panel meeting in May to discuss draft Work Programme for 2018/19.

 

7.

Letters pdf icon PDF 112 KB

a) Response from Cabinet Member (16 January 2018 meeting)

b) Convener’s letter to Cabinet Member (13 February 2018 meeting)

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Letters received and considered by the Panel.

Letter to Cabinet Member pdf icon PDF 156 KB