Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that Councillor Harrison be elected Chairman of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel for the 2017/18 Municipal Year.

            COUNCILLOR HARRISON IN THE CHAIR

RESOLVED that Councillor Allen be elected Vice-Chairman of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel for the 2017/18 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 28 March 2017.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 28 March 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests and the nature of that 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 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 disclosable pecuniary interest is not entered on the register of Members’ interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting and must not participate in discussion of the matter or vote on the matter unless granted a dispensation by the Monitoring Officer or by the Governance and Audit Committee.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

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

There were no items of urgent business.

No submissions had been made by members of the public under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

The Director to give a presentation highlighting departmental performance headlines as reported in the Quarterly Service Report (QSR) for the fourth quarter of 2016/17 (January to March 2017) relating to Adult Social Care and Housing with a live interactive link to the performance Dashboard.

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 QSR for the fourth quarter of 2016/17 (January to March 2017) relating to Adult Social Care and Housing.  The Director introduced a presentation highlighting the good performance, outcomes and challenges across the service and the Panel noted:

• New outcome based Domiciliary Care contracts had been awarded to five providers and work was proceeding to implementation.
• The Executive had approved the new model for community based Intermediate Care and implementation plans were being worked up, with the commencement to be dependent upon agreement about the options for the Bridgewell Centre.
• The new resource allocation system was operational and its impact would be closely reviewed over the coming months.
• The Bracknell Forest Community Network had been implemented, being the first plank of the digital platform.
• A package of police-specific autism awareness training had recently been developed.
• A digital marketplace had been agreed for implementation in the next two months.
• As Residential and Nursing Home prices continued to increase, the Council had just entered into a block contract which would offer lower prices.

Housing highlights

• 8 people with Learning Disabilities had been placed in supported living houses purchased via Downshire Homes Limited.  DHL purchases for 2017/18 were underway with 4 completions and 11 offers on properties accepted.
• An order had been placed to procure an E-benefits on-line system for customers to make claims and notify changes of circumstance.  All welfare and housing customers would be able to access services digitally, with a go live date expected for September.
• The Homeless Prevention Act, expected to come into force in April 2018, would introduce a duty for the Council to provide homeless prevention for 56 days.  This meant additional work to prepare for this and a new funding burden.

Arising from questions and discussion, the Panel noted:

• A demonstration of the live interactive link to the performance Dashboard had been postponed as it was proving difficult to support the Dashboard across all mobile devices in advance of the Council moving to the Cloud.
• While the business model for care providers allowed for self-funders to cross-subsidise local authority funded clients, the Council was able to advise self-funders how to get more for their money and additional value for their higher payments.
• The new outcome based domiciliary care contracts included incentives for the providers to reduce the care required by individuals.  The care providers had a range of innovative ideas to encourage people to access activities not requiring paid care and to assist the recruitment and retention of staff, particularly young staff.
• A query was raised in relation to Indicator L178 (the number of household nights in non self-contained accommodation) which was much lower (ie. better) than the target.  Did this include those accommodated at Tenterden Lodge?  It was requested further information be circulated to Panel members, including a view on whether the target should be revised.
• Further information was also requested in relation to staff sickness, specifically the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

To consider a business case on the future commissioning arrangements for Intermediate Care.

Intermediate Care was currently provided via a combination of bed based care at the Bridgewell Centre and community based care in people’s homes.  The Panel considered a report setting out the business case for the proposed new model of Intermediate Care provision in Bracknell Forest.  The new service, to be jointly commissioned by the Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group, would look to decommission the Bridgewell Centre and develop community based Intermediate Care, providing care and rehabilitation for individuals in their own homes where possible,  and keeping them out of hospital using integrated Intermediate Care teams.

Implementation of the new service, particularly the de-commissioning of Bridgewell, would be timed to fit in with the opportunities for future use of the site, including the possibility of procuring a care provider to run a dual registered Elderly Mentally Infirm residential and nursing care home, pending the redevelopment of the former Heathlands site.  This would also minimise the possibility of redundancies for staff currently at Bridgewell, with redeployment opportunities in the enlarged community based teams and the new Heathlands facility.

The Panel noted that initially there would continue to be a number of “step up / step down” beds at Bridgewell for those people who continued to need some medical care which could not be provided at home.  It was recognised that there was always a judgement call to be made around the appropriate care package for people to remain independent and in their own homes, which did not impose unreasonable burdens on them, their carers or, for instance, neighbours who may also be vulnerable.

The Panel noted the report.

To provide Overview & Scrutiny with information on Charging for Adult Social Care.

The Panel received a report setting out details of the national and local charging policies for Adult Social Care.

The power for local authorities to charge for adult social care derived from the Care Act 2014, together with associated Regulations and statutory guidance.  It was not mandatory to charge for residential and nursing care, but if local authorities chose to charge they were required to do so according to nationally set Regulations.  No English local authority had chosen to make residential and nursing care free of charge; Bracknell Forest raised approximately £2.75m in client contributions.

There were a number of services, specified by Regulation, which could not be charged for but a decision on charging could only be taken following a financial assessment.  If people had more than £23,250 in capital, they were not entitled to local authority funded support.  The report went on to describe how the charge could vary according to whether the service was in a care home or support was provided in the community.  A person’s home was not considered to be a capital asset if they were living in it, but its value would be taken into account if the person moved into a care home.

People in receipt of residential and nursing care with assets in excess of £23,250 must pay the cost of this themselves until the value of their assets fell below this threshold.  Further details were given as to how a person’s financial contribution to their care was assessed, including how income was taken in to account, the possibility of making deferred payments, any disability related expenditure applicable, and areas where the Council had discretion on how it made charges.

Arising from questions the Panel received an explanation of how a person requiring night time support received an allowance towards this cost, but could be charged if the allowance was not used for the purpose it was made.

The Panel noted the report.

To provide the Panel with an understanding of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), and the nationally approved MND Charter which each local authority is being asked to adopt.

The Panel received a report relating to the adoption by the Council of the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Charter, which aimed to raise awareness and understanding of the needs of people with MND.

The five main points of the Charter were:

• The right to an early diagnosis and information
• The right to access quality care and treatments
• The right to be treated as individuals and with dignity and respect
• The right to maximise their quality of life
• Carers of people with MND have the right to be valued, respected, listened to and well supported

The Panel agreed that there was no reason not to support the Charter, since the Council already met the goals set out in it.  The number of people in Bracknell Forest living with MND was low but Members asked that the Public Health team supply further details of the number of Borough residents that were affected.

The Panel endorsed the adoption of the MND Charter.

To receive an update in respect of the Panel’s Working Group reviewing Housing Strategy and Supply and the Working Group of this and the Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel reviewing the NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan.

The Panel received a report which summarised the progress achieved to date by the Working Group of the Panel reviewing the Council’s draft Housing Strategy and Housing Supply and the joint Working Group of this and the Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel to review the Frimley Health and Care NHS Trust Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).

The Housing Strategy Working group was due to meet again to continue its review and the STP Working Group was set to review key documents, meet Council Officers and NHS staff and hold discussions with representatives of patient forums.

RESOLVED that pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of that Act:

(3)       Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

To consider a report setting out the issues and proposals that will be considered by the Executive in June in relation to Housing Related Support for young single homeless people.

The Panel considered a report, approved by the Executive at a meeting on 6 June 2017, recommending the award of a tender for housing related support for young single homeless people together with approval to enter into a funding agreement so as to ensure that suitable accommodation for young single homeless people and care leavers was available.

A tender process had taken place to select the provider of housing related support for young single homeless people.  Holly House was a Council owned ex-sheltered housing scheme that was leased long term to a registered provider to provide accommodation for young single homeless people.  The continued use of the property was dependent on essential investment to provide at least 15 years life for windows, heating and some design improvements.  The registered provider was seeking 50% of the cost of the works from the Council.

The Executive had accepted the clear business case for the Council providing the capital funding compared to the revenue savings that could be achieved in relation to the current cost of providing accommodation for care leavers.  A confidential annexe to the report gave details of the tenders received, the selected tenderer and the proposed funding agreement.  Clarification of the tenders and capital and revenue costs associated with the housing related support was sought.

The Panel noted the reports and recognised the beneficial outcomes for young single homeless people and care leavers.

The Panel noted the scheduled Executive Key and Non-Key Decisions relating to Adult Social Care and Housing.  The Outcome of the Adult Social Care Charging Consultation would be provided for consideration by the Panel at its next meeting.