Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that Councillor Harrison be elected Chairman of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview & Scrutiny Panel for the 2014/15 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED that Councillor Allen be appointed as Vice Chairman of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview & Scrutiny Panel for the 2014/15 Municipal Year.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 25 March 2014.

Matter Arising: Update in respect of the Dementia Homecare Team.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview & Scrutiny Panel held on 5 March 2014 be approved as a correct record, and signed by the Chairman.

Arising from Minute 44, the Panel noted that all people in receipt of dementia care from the Council had now been transferred to new providers.  The wellbeing of all people that had been transferred was being monitored and would continue to be assessed for up to six months following the transfer of care.  Eleven staff had been redeployed with the new care providers, but four members of staff had opted to take voluntary redundancy from 30 April 2014.

Members are requested to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interest, including the existence and nature of the Party Whip, in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

There were no declarations of interest relating to any items on the agenda, nor any indications that members would be participating whilst under the party whip.

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

There were no urgent items of business.

To receive submissions from members of the public which have been submitted in advance in accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

There were no submissions from members of the public in accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

To consider the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the QSR for the fourth quarter of 2013/14 (January to March 2014) relating to Adult Social Care and Housing. An overview of the first quarter of 2014/15 will also be provided.

Please bring the previously circulated Quarterly Service Report to the meeting.  The QSR is attached to this agenda if viewed online.

Panel members are asked to give advance notice to the Overview and Scrutiny Team of any questions relating to the Quarterly Service Report where possible.

The Panel considered the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the Quarterly Service Report for the fourth quarter in 2013/14 (January to March 2014) relating to Adult Social Care and Housing.  An overview of the first quarter of 2014/15 (April to June 2014) was also reported.

Key areas for the Department included: the purchase of two temporary to permanent properties to provide accommodation to homeless households; there had been an increase of 20% of families in Bed and Breakfast accommodation compared to eight families in the same period in 2013.  A home ownership evening to promote home ownership opportunities would be held and the E-bens system would go live to allow people to make on-line housing benefit/council tax reductions scheme claims.  Work in the area of Older People and Long Term Conditions would include the development of Clement House with the appropriate care and support schemes being put in place; improving Therapy Support for people with high support needs at home; and the completion of the Adults Substance Misuse Needs Assessment.  The Community Mental Health Team would work on Health Promotion including Smoking Cessation, development of the Prevention and Self-Care programme and the action plan developed to implement the priorities identified in the joint Learning Development strategy.  This would be reported to the Panel in Quarter 2.  The programme for the implementation of the Care Act 2014 would be put in place, the independent Living Fund would now be transferred to local councils and the initial proposals for the 2015/16 Budget would be considered.

Arising from the Panel’s questions and comments the following points were noted:

·                     The number of people and families presenting as homeless was due in part to the loss of private landlords and the fact that private rents were increasing across the borough and the Council not receiving notice of homelessness until final notices had been served on the private tenants.  It was not the Council’s intention to house people outside of the Borough in temporary housing. 

·                     The implementation of the Electronic Monitoring for Domiciliary Care system had continued to be delayed, the Electronic Call Monitoring was implemented but the financial modules provided by the software provider were not at an acceptable standard.  The new target date for implementation was now 21 July 2014.

·                     There were a large number of vacancies and some posts had been kept for the Dementia Team.

The Panel thanked officers for their update.

To consider the Annual Complaints Reports 2013/14 for Adult Social Care and for Housing.

The Panel received the report detailing the complaints received in 2013/14 for Adult Social Care and for Housing.  It was a requirement to hold a complaints record for Adult Social Care, whilst it was not a requirement for Housing a record was kept and presented to Panel as part of one report.  There had not been any complaints received in respect of Public Health.  Overall the number of complaints was decreasing in 2013/14.  In Adult Social Care there had been 19 complaints in 2013/14 compared to 21 complaints in the previous year.  The reduction in the number of complaints was welcomed; it was considered an indicator that whilst the budget had been squeezed the quality of the service was being maintained.  In Housing there had been an increase in the number of complaints to 49.  The number of compliments for Adult Social Care had been 138 and for Housing had been 27.  The Local Government Ombudsman had released a report on Adult Social Care Complaints in 2013-14 looking at complaints that had reached this stage.  Bracknell Forest had two complaints that went to the Ombudsman, of which neither were upheld.  The Panel were pleased to note that this was significantly less than the average for most other authorities placing Bracknell Forest in the top 10% of local authorities for satisfaction with Adult Social Care services.  Following a question the Panel were advised that once a complaint process had started then the procedure needed to be followed to completion to when the complaint closed. 

The Panel noted the report. 

To review the Action Plan associated with the above Strategy.

The Panel reviewed the Action Plan associated with the Community Strategy for Adults with Long Term Conditions Aged 18 – 64 Years and reviewed the progress against delivery.  Most of the actions had been completed and the Partnership Board would review the strategy and will look to develop the Action Plan.  It was noted that the coloured traffic light system showing the current position on individual actions i.e. read, amber and green did not show on black and white copies of the report.  It was suggested that a system of smiley faces replace the current traffic light system in future.

To note the establishment of the new alcohol brief intervention programme and progress made to date.

The Panel received details of the new programme aimed at facilitating the delivery of alcohol brief interventions by staff working in social care settings.  It was noted that alcohol was a significant factor in 60% of social care case loads nationally.  Alcohol misuse could play a significant role in a range of difficulties that people using social care services experienced.  The misuse of alcohol was a difficult subject to raise with individuals and interventions were brief structured conversations within which an individual was invited to discuss his/her drinking, its impact and strategies for reducing that impact.  49 staff had attended Brief Intervention training and more staff would attend this training which would equip them well to intervene when alcohol consumption was an issue.  Evidence suggested that if ‘brief intervention’ protocol was followed by staff a significant and positive impact on alcohol related harm could be achieved.

In response to related questions, the Panel were advised that consistent or valid data concerning alcohol related hospital admissions was not received, however, this data could be commissioned from hospital trusts by clinical commissioning groups.  The programme involved the Council working in partnership with the Drinkaware organisation which produced useful drink awareness kits.

The Panel thanked the officers for the report.

To receive an update in respect of the Care Act 2014, its likely impact on the Council and plans for its implementation in Bracknell Forest.

The Panel received an update on changes outlined in the Care Act 2014 and the probable impact on the Council.  The Care Act 2014 was effective for some elements from 1 April 2105 and 1 April 2016 for other elements.  Work was in hand to assess which areas the Council needed to address to bring them in line with the requirements of the Act, in some areas the Council already complied with the Act.  The Better Care Fund would help Bracknell Forest to help fund changes to eligibility criteria.

A Programme Board would likely be constituted of officers responsible for the different areas that the Care Act covered.  There would be several policy decisions that would need o be considered, including decisions regarding charging for deferred payments for Bracknell Forest Council.

The Panel asked numerous questions focusing on meeting the cost of care, particularly deferred payments, and noted the updated position regarding the Care Act and the implementation of it within Bracknell Forest.

To receive an update in respect of the working group of the Panel reviewing the Council’s role in Regulated Adult Social Care Services and to select the next review topic and working group membership.

The Panel received a report providing an update in respect of its Working Group reviewing the Council’s role in regulated Adult Social Care services.  The Group had looked at the Council’s role with regard to care governance and managing safeguarding in regulated Adult Social Care services, these services were the ones registered with the Care Quality Commission.  The Group would be submitting its findings to the next meeting of the Panel.

The Panel considered what area their next review would cover.  The Panel wished to review the Council’s arrangements for homelessness including arrangements for adults with learning disabilities, itinerant and temporary informal lodgers.  It was suggested that when scoping the review, Members should be mindful of the varying definitions of homelessness.  Councillors Brossard, Mrs McCracken and Temperton expressed their interest in being part of this proposed working group.  The working group would be opened to any other Councillors who wished to be part of the working group.

To consider scheduled Executive Key and Non-Key Decisions relating to Adult Social Care and Housing.

The Panel received and noted the scheduled Key and Non-Key Executive Decisions relating to Adult Social Care and Housing.

The next meeting of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel would be held on Tuesday 16 September 2014.