Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that Councillor Harrison be elected Chairman of the Panel for the Municipal year 2018/19.

RESOLVED that Councillor Mrs McCracken be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Panel for the Municipal year 2018/19.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meetings of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 27 March 2018 and the Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 11 January 2018.

To include a review of the Action/Information Requests arising from both Minutes and to update on any issues arising since the last meetings.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 27 March 2018 and the Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 11 January 2018 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.  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 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.

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

Melanie O’Rourke, Head of Adult Community Team, to attend the meeting to present  an update on the Conversations Approach e.g. where we are now and what outcomes have been achieved.

Mira Haynes, Chief Officer Adult Social Care, presented the meeting with an update on the Conversations Approach including a video featuring Melanie O’Rourke, Head of Adult Community Team which detailed the first, second and third conversation approach.

As a result of Members’ comments and questions, the following points were made:

The Panel were advised that needs were identified at the assessment stage and the whole process including the third stage could be completed at the initial assessment within one or two hours, certainly the same day.

It was clarified that an external auditor would monitor the approach to measure its success. The numbers of people whose conversations had ended at each stage would be monitored in order to identify where the resources would be best placed. 

The role of the conversations approach was to keep residents independent for as long as possible, to reduce attendance at Accident & Emergency.  Outcomes would be measured, for example where people were 91 days after intermediate care intervention and the results of the audit would be available to the business information team during the next quarter.

The Panel were told that residents would be signposted to the most appropriate and best help that could be provided in the community. If they did not accept the offer of support and they were deemed to have capacity to make a decision, their choice would be respected.

The Panel were advised that training had been extensive and that all Adult Social Care and Housing practitioner staff had received training.

Concerns were raised that some disabled individuals had lost support thorough the process and it was explained that support would not be lost or reduced but would be delivered in a different way. It was acknowledged that this could lead to a perception of reduction.  Councillors were asked to provide details to the Chief Officer of any specific cases outside the meeting for further investigation.

A quality panel of officers met to review support provision assessments to ensure that proposed support or changes were appropriate.

The Panel were advised that neighbouring authorities used a similar approach and that the conversations approach in Bracknell Forest was based on a nationally recognised programme.

It was explained that officers worked closely together to take a personalised approach and where the conversations approach extended to housing needs worked closely together to provide support.

Community Connectors support residents to navigate the social care system.

As previously raised, the Panel reiterated that Members should be offered the opportunity to be trained in these techniques to assist them when working with their residents. It was accepted that Members are not practitioners but that it was important for them to understand the approach rather than attempt to refer residents themselves. It was noted that motivational questioning techniques could be used by Members in their casework.

The Chairman requested that a briefing session be organised to refresh Members’ knowledge on how to interact with the public on Adult Social Care changes and how to signpost them correctly.

To consider the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the Quarterly Service Report for the fourth quarter of 2017/18 (January to March) relating to Adult Social Care, Health and Housing.  An overview of the key issues relating to the first quarter will be provided.

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

The Panel noted the Quarterly Service Report (QSR) which covered the fourth quarter of the 2017-18 financial year (January – March).

The Chairman thanked Councillor Tullett for his comprehensive list of questions which had been submitted and answered before the meeting and requested that they were appended to the minutes (available at Annex A).

Mira Haynes, Chief Officer Adult Social Care highlighted that the first phase of the transformation has been successfully delivered despite some challenges such as an unexpected Care Quality Commission (CQC) Local Area Review in September 2017. She reported that there had been good performance across the indicators but some areas were still red. The headline from the current quarter was that consultation had been undertaken with staff to integrate the expanded Integrated Care System and Long term care teams. East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) proposal to manage the continuing Healthcare function was still work in progress. The Council was advertising for Personal Assistant posts which could be paid for by residents through direct payments.

Simon Hendey, Chief Officer: Early Help & Communities advised that the Homeless Reduction Act was a major change at the end of April 2018 which introduced the duty to undertake homeless prevention for 56 days by creating a personalised homelessness prevention plan. He reported that to date:

• 76 households were in triage
• 35 households were under intervention which was the stage before prevention
• 24 households were in the prevention stage which meant that they had a personalised agreed plan
• 49 households were in the relief stages receiving support
• the Council had accepted the homeless duty on 13 households

The Welfare and Housing teams were now combined which gave more opportunity to support residents and additional government funding was supporting ongoing recruitment to increase the number of officers to keep pace with demand.

Lisa McNally, Director of Public Health updated the Panel on recent public health activities including that there were no red activities to comment on. She reported that Bracknell Forest had pioneered more community focused interventionist approach initiatives which were very popular. The approach had been to set up activities with people rather than to them such as the community map and physical activity groups. She reported that more traditional, structured treatment approach such as NHS Stop Smoking campaigns had struggled recently to achieve uptake and a less medicalised approach was more successful. She explained that the Community Map now had up to 386 groups and thanked members of the Panel for their support populating it.  Groups such as Junior Parkrun, Martial Arts sessions which were inclusive of all physical abilities, “Who let the Dad’s out” crèche, walking groups with 50+ members and Checkmates chess groups in libraries had all helped to boost inclusivity for groups who otherwise feel socially isolated.

She reported that, in a short time period of only two years, the data suggested that this activity has had a positive effect on reducing social isolation issues and high re-admission to hospital levels. The approach was attracting national  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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

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

Reference I072405 - Sensory Needs Contract Award

The Panel were advised that the Sensory Needs service had been brought in-house but that there was a need to contract out some services. This item related to the award of spot contracts for the Sensory Needs service following a competitive tender.

Reference I076397 - Safeguarding Adults Annual Report 2017/18

The Chairman observed that this was a routine report which would be considered in November.

To agree the Development of Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme 2018-19.

Kirsty Hunt, Governance and Scrutiny Manager introduced the discussion on the consultative process which had been undertaken to develop the new Panel’s work programme for 2018/19.

It was explained that Members and co-opted members of the previous two Panels, as well as officers and Executive members had been canvassed to suggest topics to be included. Members and co-opted members of the new Panel were asked to rank the collated topics in order of importance so that they could be prioritised.

It was acknowledged that more should have been done to expand on the detail behind the suggested topic areas to give Members greater context, but that this was an evolving process. 

The process was not prescriptive and the aim of the process was to share suggestions, include annual budget scrutiny, support Transformation Gateway reviews and enable the Panel to respond to emerging national or local issues.  The process also sought to link the work programme topics to the strategic themes of the Council Plan.

The report recommended that the current Working Groups (Task and Finish groups) should be reviewed and the Panel should agree their inclusion in the Work Programme if still relevant.

During the discussion the following points were made:

·         There was a general consensus that the Integrated Care System would need to be a key  feature in the Work Programme

·         the work programme would need to be flexible to respond to the upcoming Social Care Green Paper, the integration of individual care budgets and the integration of social care and health items as they emerged

·         The development of the Integrated Care System would require briefings as the situation develops to keep Panel Members updated

·         a final report from the Housing Strategy and Supply Working Group could be expected in the autumn and that a visit to Guildford Borough Council was being planned for June 2018.

·         It was clarified that the previously set up STP Working Group was no longer active.

It was agreed:

·         That the current task and finish groups, The Primary Care Patient Experience Task and Finish Group and the Housing Strategy and Supply Task and Finish Group should be included in the next work programme

·         To develop the work programme further at a facilitated workshop which should be organised before the next scheduled meeting of the Panel.

o   That the facilitated workshop would consider how to include the Integrated Care System in the work programme.

o   That the facilitated workshop should also consider what development requirements the Panel had.

The Chairman acknowledged that the consultation process to develop the work programme had been valuable but that the Integrated Care System (ICS) would be such a significant topic that its different elements should be investigated in more depth. The Chairman summarised for the Panel that the work programme would be developed at a facilitated workshop with the focus on the ICS. 

The next meeting of the Adult Social Care,Health and Housing Panel has been scheduled for 24^th July 2018

The date of the next meeting will be 24 July 2018 at 19.30

Questions and answers, submitted in advance of the meeting, in relation to Minute item 8 – Quarterly Service Report (QSR).