Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed Councillor Tom Wells, who had been appointed to the Board in place of Cllr Fran Oborski. The Chairman wished to put on record his thanks to Councillor Oborski both for her contribution to the Board and for all her work in leading the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel for the last 3½ years. 

Apologies were received from Bryan Allbut (Co-opted Church of England Representative for education matters).

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by e-mail indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 18 November 2020).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

(To follow)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 23 September 2020 were agreed as a correct record and would be signed by the Chairman.

At its meeting on 22 July 2020, the Board received an Interim report on the Council’s response to COVID-19 in respect of Community Safety. During that discussion, it was noted that the Domestic Abuse Bill currently going through the House of Commons would place new duties on the Council.  Accordingly, the Council’s preparedness for the Domestic Abuse Bill was added to the Board’s Work Programme.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Health and Wellbeing introduced the Report and explained that the Domestic Abuse Bill was currently passing through the House of Lords. The first reading was on 7 July 2020 and the second reading was yet to be scheduled. The expectation was that Royal Assent would be given later in 2020 for the Bill to become Law in April 2021 and statutory duties to commence. 

The duties required Tier 1 local authorities to take leadership responsibilities for delivering the duties in partnership with Tier 2 local authorities to ensure safety and support for the whole family affected by domestic abuse. This included provision of accommodation and support for survivors of domestic abuse, work with perpetrators to help prevent domestic abuse and establishment of community champions to ensure that support is maintained in the community.

The Senior Practitioner for Public Health guided the Board through the presentation which had been included as part of the Agenda, this covered:

·       An overview of Domestic Abuse Bill

·       The local implementation guidance

·       The Local Partnership Board and governance

·       Current contracts

·       Needs Assessment

·       Commissioning strategy

·       Next steps

During the opportunity for questions, the following main points were made:

·       The legislation was long overdue but was welcomed

·       It would be important to ensure that there was joined up working between partners to ensure effective communication at all levels and the best outcomes for families

·       In response to a concern expressed about the appropriateness of emergency accommodation when it was needed, it was confirmed that funding was available for all adults over 16 years of age and was allocated on a population basis and was not linked to areas of deprivation

·       The Board heard about the Drive Project which, was a national pilot scheme aimed at reducing the number of child and adult victims of domestic abuse by deterring perpetrator behaviour. It focused on priority (high-risk or serial) perpetrators, as this group carried the greatest risk of serious harm and engaged poorly in available services.West Mercia (Worcestershire specifically) were a pilot area for this scheme

·       It was confirmed that the Domestic Abuse Bill would be a pathway for all types of domestic abuse

·       The importance of providing specific domestic abuse training to safeguarding leads in schools was discussed.  The Board also heard about Operation Encompass which, was a process whereby the police and county council would inform a member of school staff if a child or young person had experienced any domestic incident

·       A Member asked about how the drug, alcohol and substance misuse service was aligned with the domestic abuse services and it was confirmed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1169.

The Board was asked to consider the feedback provided by Scrutiny Panel Chairmen following the discussion of performance information and in-year budget monitoring information relating to Quarter 2 2020/21 (June to September).   In addition, feedback was also provided about the emerging challenges facing Directorates for the 2021/22 Budget.

Adult Care and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Cllr Jane Potter)

Performance – the planned admission rate of people admitted to care homes was an in improving picture, although significantly impacted by COVID-19. A knock on effect of this was the increase in the number of people living independently and staying at home, which was an improving picture too.

The number of annual care packages reviewed had dipped, but plans were in place to improve performance.

BudgetMonitoring – overall the current forecasted overspend was £260k, with learning disability and mental health services being the main areas of overspend due to increases in average unit costs.

The main reasons for the improvement in the forecast was tighter control on overall spend, the changed entry pathway into residential and nursing care and the decrease in the projected numbers of people coming into the care system, although the costs of those being placed were, on average, higher.

At the current time, the impact of the spend due to COVID-19 was covered by government grants.

2021/22 Emerging Pressures and Challenges – the key areas being reviewed by the Directorate were:

·         Nature of support (which was changing)

·         Unit costs for care provision including impact of inflation and National Minimum Wage

·         Market availability and ability to provide types of care needed by clients

·         “one system approach” to intermediate care and learning from the positive lessons of shared working with NHS, independent and voluntary and community sectors

·         Delivering the 2020/21 savings relating to organisational redesign which had been delayed due to COVID

·         Implementing a single “front door” for access to Council services

·         Working with key partners to develop integrated community offer Here 2 Help

·         Development of a strong digital offer for customers and clients

·         Moving towards a more “reablement” and “enabling” social care offer

·         Development a new “All Age Disability Offer”

·         Medium to long term impact of COVID-19.

Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Cllr Adam Kent)

BudgetMonitoring– The overall forecast was for an underspend of £559k for COACH and £113k for Chief Executives Unit.  The Key variances were:

·         Underspend within Property Services due to reduced contract expenditure and reduction in planned works for administration buildings

·         Underspend on Financial Services due to vacant posts and income generation

2021/22 Emerging Pressures and Challenges – The key areas being reviewed by the Directorates were:

·         Front door

·         Development of an asset management strategy

·         Review of the property portfolio including libraries and corporate accommodation 

·         Refresh and implementation of revised digital strategy

·         Delivering the 2020/21 savings relating to organisational redesign which have been delayed due to COVID

·         Maintaining and improving the quality of our digital network

·         Implementing a single “front door” for access to Council services

·         Medium to long  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1170.

This item was withdrawn.

Member Update

In addition to the Performance, In-Year Budget Monitoring and 2021/22 Budget Scrutiny updates provided earlier in the meeting, Scrutiny Chairmen provided updates on other work areas within their remits.

Cllr Potter advised that at the recent Adult Care and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Panel, the Strategy for People and Communities (a strategic plan for change for the Directorate of People, to a strengths-based model) and the vision and plans being introduced to continue to promote people’s independence and sustain their independence for as long as possible, at home were discussed.

At the Economy and Environment (E&E) Overview and Scrutiny Panel, Cllr Adams advised that the Panel had discussed diversionary routes, including how they were identified and reviewed, and how the public were kept informed and suggested that members downloaded the One.Network traffic management software to keep informed of the up to date position of the road network.  The Panel also heard about the county-wide work to enable and promote cycling in Worcestershire.  After the County Council elections, Cllr Adams would also like to carry out a task group to look at S278 technical approvals.

Cllr Kent explained that the Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel had looked at the Councils Here2Help Service response as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic and how it would continue beyond the COVID pandemic.  This was an area of interest to the Adult Care and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Panel who had also been invited to the meeting.  In addition, the Panel discussed the .developments relating to the Corporate Redesign Programme.

In addition, Cllr Kent was leading a task group looking at the County Council’s Energy Purchasing Arrangements which would be reporting to the January Board.

Cllr Tuthill updated the Board on the recent meeting of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee  where the Committee looked at restoration of health services and improvements arising from new ways of working during COVID-19 and were addressed by the Chief Executive of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Managing Director, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust.

Work Programme

Cllr Vale stressed the importance of keeping gateway drugs on the Board’s radar even though it wasn’t possible at the moment due to the pandemic to actively scrutinise this area of concern.

The Chairman referred to a letter that he had received from Cllr Denham and a briefing note that had been requested from the Director of Economy and Infrastructure (circulated to the Board) about service changes to the Transport Planning Team. Cllr Denham and Cllr Jenkins were in attendance for this part of the meeting and were concerned about the loss of staff expertise and implication on Council services resulting from this proposal.

The Chairman reminded the Board that it wasn’t appropriate to scrutinise matters of an operational nature and the Democratic Governance and Scrutiny Manager added that the Strategic Director had the authority to manage his service as appropriate in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1172.