Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.  Apologies had been received from Cllr Rob Adams, Panel member, and from Cllr Adrian Hardman, the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care.

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, in writing or by email indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 26 September 2017). Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/email address below.

None.

Previously circulated

The Minutes of the meeting on 16 March 2017 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman

The Worcestershire Safeguarding Adults Board (WSAB) Independent Chair, Kathy McAteer and the Board's Manager, Bridget Brickley had been invited to provide an overview of the WSAB's role and the Annual Report 2016/17.

The Council's Assistant Director of Adult Services was also present.

The Independent Chair highlighted the key messages from the presentation which had been included in the agenda papers, and focused on the WSAB's work this year and what it revealed about safeguarding.

Although WSAB had existed for many years, this was only the Board's second year as a statutory body and many changes had been needed in terms of its functionality. The statutory requirements for safeguarding boards were set out in the Care Act 2014, section 42.

The Board's role was to protect adults in its area who:

·         had needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs) and;

·         were experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect; and

·         as a result of those care and support needs were unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect

Other organisations may also look at issues affecting adults more broadly, for example Trading Standards could look at doorstep scams affecting older people.

The key priorities for 2016/17 had been to:

·         improve communications with public and partners – development of an website and app had been the main focus of work which was due to be completed by the end of the year. It was best practice to have an independent website, rather than the current arrangement of a webpage linked to the Council's website. The first shared learning event had also taken place

·         check Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) were understood and properly used – progress had been made although this area continued to be a significant risk

·         improve how WSAB listened to adults with care and support needs – it was hoped to establish a reference group by the end of the year

·         build on work with other boards (Worcestershire Safeguarding Children's Board, Health and Wellbeing Board, Community safety Partnerships). The new website would combine adults and children's safeguarding

·         work with partners to identify risks for adults – this had been a huge area of work to introduce a regular flow and analysis of safeguarding data for the WSAB, which was proving very useful 

·         continue to improve community awareness and approve a Prevention Strategy

·         complete work from year 1

A lot of work had been put into the ambitious priorities, to get the foundations in place. Overall good progress had been made, with some slippage, for example as a result of changes in partner representatives which affected momentum, and also the WSAB team's administrative resources were very small.

Five Safeguarding Adults Reviews were started during 2016/17, of which one was published and four carried over. Mental capacity continued to be the main theme, with some evidence of inconsistent practice in its assessment, which had fed into the WSAB's 2017/18  ...  view the full minutes text for item 252.

Richard Keble, the Council's Assistant Director of Adult Services had been invited to provide an update and evaluation of the Three Conversations (3C) programme for social work in Adult Services, and summarised the main points of his presentation.

Two Locality Managers of social work teams were also present, to provide feedback on the new approach.

The new model was about people, conversations(s), promoting independence and building on strengths; the focus was on enriching people's lives, not providing services.

The three conversations involved in this new model were:

·         Conversation 1: Listen and connect – Listen hard. Understand what really matters. Connect to resources and supports that help someone get on with their chosen life, independently.

·         Conversation 2: Work intensively with people in crisis – What needs to change urgently to help someone regain control of their life? Put these into an emergency plan and, with colleagues, stick like glue to help make the most important things happen.

·         Conversation 3: Build a good life – For some people, support in building a good life would be required. What resources, connections and support would enable the person to live that chosen life? How did these need to be organised?

In April 2017, the model had been introduced with two innovation sites for Older People's Teams (Pershore and Upton, Redditch Central), and from August the Young Adults Team started as the third innovation site. The Acute Hospital Teams were due to go live in October. An integrated health and social care approach in Malvern, with the GP Practice and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust, was targeted to go fully live in December.  Redditch South and Droitwich, Ombersley and the Rural Older People's Teams had been identified as the next to prepare for innovation. Roll out needed to be gradual, to allow time for development and support.

Processes had been mapped and were being standardised. A Communications Plan had been developed and local services were being mapped. Neighbourhood offices were being identified. Each team had a separate space to reflect, learn and support each other, teams took direct calls and there were new, simplified records.

Feedback from the public and staff was shown to the Panel, which was very positive and indicated support from service users and staff.

The majority of staff reported that people and carers were receiving less funded long-term on-going support with the new approach. Cost analysis continued, and costs of care were similar in 3C and non-3C teams, however the long-term package conversion rate for the 3C model was currently more than 50% lower. 

Over four months, nearly 600 people had been worked with; the term 'cases' was no longer used. The Panel was shown a graph which showed that 70% of people only needed the 'Conversation 1' stage to have a positive effect (519, compared with 115 Conversation 2's and 48 Conversation 3's).

With the 3C model, most conversations started immediately (with an average wait of 2 days), which was an important factor in keeping people independent. Previously, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 253.