Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: County Hall, Worcester

Contact: Emma James /Jo Weston  Overview & Scrutiny Officers

Items
No. Item

231.

Apologies and Welcome

Minutes:

Apologies had been received from Panel member Cllr Fry.

 

Cllrs Bloore and Grove advised that they would unfortunately need to leave early, due to unforeseen commitments.

232.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

Cllr Griffiths declared an interest as her daughter worked as a carer.

233.

Public Participation

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 19 October 2016). Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/email address below.

Minutes:

None.

234.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Previously circulated

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2016 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

235.

Care Act 2014 - Update pdf icon PDF 95 KB

Minutes:

In attendance for this agenda item were Anne Clarke, Assistant Director of Adult Services, and Cllr Sheila Blagg, Cabinet Member responsible for Adult Social Care.

 

Carole Cumino, Chief Executive of Worcestershire Association of Carers, and Jo Ringshall, Director from Healthwatch Worcestershire were also present, and were invited to join the discussion.

 

The agenda report outlined the purpose of the Care Act 2014, following the Panel's earlier overview in 2014. The Assistant Director of Adult Services gave a presentation to update the Panel on the implications of the Act, and the Council's progress to meet the new duties.

 

The second phase of the Act, due to come in from April 2016, had been deferred (reform of adult social care funding- changes to the financial threshold for local authority funded care ad reforming the way in which people pay for care) and the Government was now considering this for 2020, although it was understood that there may be changes.

 

The Council's preparation for implementation had taken a systematic approach, with reporting through the Directorate leadership team and relationships with national and west midlands' support networks, which had been very useful.  All directorate staff had received training proportionate to their role, with social workers receiving three days training between January and March 2015.

 

For a lot of staff, the new duties felt like starting afresh, which the Assistant Director likened to moving to a new country.

 

Work to embed the new duties from the first phase of the Care Act included further training and support for social workers and managers. This had been linked to other changes in Adult Social Care, designed to improve responsiveness and reduce bureaucracy, such as enabling qualified social workers to make more decisions on the spot, closer to the customer – feedback from staff had been very positive.

 

Key Duties

The key duties of the Care Act 2014 were around Prevention and Wellbeing and Information and Advice. The Council had approached the Act by looking at what the local authority 'must, should and may do'.

 

Promotion of wellbeing was the new 'golden thread' which the Council needed to demonstrate in all of its work with individuals. The new duty to prevent, delay or reduce an individual's needs for care and to support the needs of carers gave parity of esteem for carers – a significant change.

 

The Panel had previously looked at the new website 'Your Life, Your Choice', which provided information and advice.

 

A triage system had been introduced to avoid people being passed around when they contacted adult social care.

 

 

A two year contract to provide a Carers Hub had been awarded to Worcestershire Association of Carers, and the Association's Chief Executive (Carole Cumino), present, explained that the Hub aimed to advise people at the earliest opportunity, give helping strategies, practical support and provide a conduit to professional guidance. A big part of its work was to persuade others of their role in identifying carers and starting conversations about caring – issues remained but there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 235.