Agenda item

To consider the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the Quarterly Service Report for the third quarter of 2017/2018 (October to December 2017) relating to Adult Social Care and Housing.  An overview of the key issues relating to the fourth quarter will be provided.

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 third quarter of 2017/18

(October to December 2017) relating to Adult Social Care, Health and Housing.

The Director of Adult Social Care, Health and Housing made a presentation

highlighting recent and current activity:

·         Forestcare have won two external monitoring contracts with a total annual contract value of nearly £100,000.

·         Self Care week had been successful with a range of different activities including the biggest walking group session organised so far with 42 people taking part.

• The Council was sponsoring Dogs for Good project which had enabled two dogs to work with up to three people per day. One of the residents who had benefited form the scheme had attended the main arena at Crufts to help demonstrate the project. Despite the event being very busy he was relatively calm and was well supported throughout.

·         The percentage of people receiving social care who receive direct payments has risen to 43.5% against a target of 31.4%, which is very good performance.

• In relation to performance measure L178 regarding Household nights in bed and breakfast this had increased to 908. It was clarified that this related to single people due to issues such as arrears or convictions which meant that they spent up to a week in a bed and breakfast accommodation. Previously these figures did not relate to families but as of the night before the meeting a family was being accommodated in bed and breakfast but the team were working to help them move on.

Arising from questions and discussion, the Panel noted:

·         Early stage plans were in place to look at council sites for shared accommodation in the borough to support people on probation and another plan was to work with Probation to look at a large housing association to address this issue of accommodation

·         Revenue budget was forecasting an overspend but that was no longer the case in quarter four. A £1.1million saving was proposed and £1.8million had been achieved due to improving services rather than cutting them and was a credit to the staff team who had embraced the changes.

·         Direct payment RAG rating was red in quarter three but had since been updated to green.

·         4.4.14 Additional build on Healthlands was the joint EMI project whose RAG rating was red as the delivery had slipped by three months. It was due to open in December 2020 but this was now March 2021 due to working with multiple partners.

·         7.1.20 the transitions model is now working effectively so RAG rating altered to Amber

·         7.1.25 New intermediate care service model operational was showing in quarter three as red but was currently green as the project was back on track.

·         Suggestion to consider Hope into Action project in which churches bought properties in shared ownership, one individual looked after 4/5 people in the heart of the community to support people past the vulnerable stage. The Director welcomed all suggestions and agreed to look into this.

·         Two people were working full time as Community Connectors to link individuals with care providers. Concerns regarding these roles potentially taking funding away from the voluntary sector were noted. The pilot was working to demonstrate that the principle works with the intention that this would be delivered by the voluntary sector in the long term but the service was currently not mature enough to be run by others. It was agreed that supporting 15 people was low but this was due to increase. There had been a soft launch of the digital platform to be tested and refine in response to comments received before it was promoted to encourage self referral to the service.

·         My BFC Benefits length of time to process claim was initially high due to the introduction of the scheme but as of 19 March this was down to 5.74 days so were now below target. It was easier, more flexible and ability to message caseworker. It was noted that not everyone was using the scheme yet.

·         If individuals fail to tell the Council about a change in their circumstances that leads to an overpayment then the Council recovers this by reducing future payments or invoicing individuals. If these methods are not successful then the Council uses a debt collection company to collect on our behalf. However the 300 families approach means that the Council considers write off debt that will cause homelessness for example as this is more cost effective for the local authority. Only when all options have been exhausted does the Borough Treasurer agree to debts being written off.

·         7.1.25 Noted that the wording and performance was the same as per quarter 2 and it was explained that some Bridgewell staff were intermediary, some went to work in other local homes and some staff choose to retire.

·         It was agreed that the initial impact of the Lexicon’s opening on care company recruitment had been underestimated but this had settled. It was reported that a recent recruitment had received 15 applications.

·         The delay to development at Heathlands was due to the CCG changing the specification and the requirement to demonstrate delivery of appropriate returns. This was due to be considered by the Executive. It was clarified that the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead were very interested but wanted to invest capital, it may be possible to sell surplus beds or voids to them.

·         In relation to single young homeless people – there was no specific age banding but currently they were all in their early twenties.

The Chairman concluded that it was excellent to see these projects getting back on course.