Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting. The Panel had a new member Cllr Andy Fry, although his apologies had been received for this meeting.

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Democratic Governance and Scrutiny Manager, in writing or by email, indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 27 September 2022). Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/email address below.

None.

Previously circulated

The Minutes of the Previous Meeting held on 18 July were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

(Indicative timing: 10.05am – 10.35am)

The Panel was updated on performance and financial information for services relating to Adult Services.

In-year 2022/23 Budget Monitoring – the Deputy Chief Finance Officer summarised the main points relevant to the forecast outturn, as included in the Agenda.

Adult Social Care was now showing an overspend, which was the picture for a number of local authorities with social care responsibilities. The current overspend was mainly due to an increase in clients and a significant rise in related costs; there had already been a growth of 2% in clients since the end of March which was forecast to reach 4% by the year end.  Budgets had factored in inflation, however costs were now increasing in so many areas, particularly in provider services.

The Gross overspend of £13.6m was being partially offset by a £7.1m one-off mitigation, giving a £6.5 m net overspend, which was fantastic but left much more work to do.

Discussion points

·         Regarding the task of identifying continued savings, the Strategic Director for People (the Director) referred to conversations within the Council as well as with other local authorities, with demand and contract management strategies being used where possible.  A downturn in demand was beginning to be seen, possibly post-Covid, although it was too early to rely on this.

·         Central Government’s ‘fair cost of care’ exercise and expectations on councils to set sustainable market rates, which would inevitably be higher than current rates, was worrying since the expectation amongst councils was that this Policy would drive costs considerably.

·         The Panel was assured that the Council was actively involved with the conversations taking place with central government regarding the ‘fair cost of care ‘reforms through local government networks, and the Leader had a meeting with MPs the following week – all councillors were encouraged to take positive action through their own interaction with local MPs.

·         Financial settlements for local government were not expected to be confirmed until very late before Christmas, and specific grants not confirmed in time for the Council’s budget setting process.

·         The Director acknowledged that invariably there may come a point where a council may have to make a call on its ability to continue to fulfil the statutory obligations of social care, which were set out in the Care Act 2014 – definitions in the legislation were quite open and there may be decisions to be made around some aspects of wellbeing, although it was emphasised that the Council had stopped providing ‘nice to have’ adult social care services some time ago. Importantly, aspects such as care for an elderly person living alone with care and support needs, was absolutely councils’ responsibility.

·         Providers were facing significant cost increases and the cost of care packages was therefore increasing.

·         Long-Covid was not an identifiable feature in increased numbers of clients.

Adult Services Performance Monitoring for 2022-23 Quarter 1 – the Principal Management Information Analyst talked through the background to each of the targets included in the Agenda.

Admission to permanent care for the 18-64 age  ...  view the full minutes text for item 445.

(Indicative timing: 10.35am – 11.20am)

Paul Harbison, Consumer Relations Officer (IT Customer Service), summarised the main points of the Agenda report on compliments and complaints relating to Adult Social Care Services, as part of an annual update to the Panel.

The Agenda report referred to the information presented in the Adult Social Care Statutory Representations and Complaints Procedure Annual Report for 2021-2022.  Complaints had increased from the previous report’s 123 to 233, with 13 being referred to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO), 3 of which were upheld and were found maladministration with injustice. The report included a breakdown of standards of service, which was the main area for complaints fully or partially upheld.

The highest areas of complaint concerned adult social care teams and provider services.

In terms of outcomes, 62 complaints were discontinued, which could be because the complainant had been asked for further information which had not been clarified or provided.

In the discussion which took place the following main points arose:

·         The cost to the Council of dealing with a complaint or compliment was not recorded unless it was carried out by an external Investigative Officer.

·         Low to medium risk complaints were dealt with by the Service Manager whereas medium to high risk complaints or those about a care provider would be dealt with by the Consumer Relations Officer or an externally commissioned Investigator.

·         Regarding the extent to which key issues of a compliment were examined, compliments sent to individual members of staff from outside the organisation were included in monthly reports prepared by the Consumer Relations Officer, once the source had been verified as a genuine service user or representative. An area receiving particularly high numbers of compliments would be highlighted so that any learning could be shared.

·         Quarterly reports on compliments and complaints were provided to the Directorate of People Leadership Team and Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

·         The Director and Assistant Director were heartened by the volume of compliments they saw, and would send a letter of thanks to staff involved, with positive cases also being used in recruitment campaigns.

·         The Panel Chairman agreed that thanking staff who received compliments was very important.

·         The Assistant Director pointed out that issues were constantly being raised with many being dealt with by early intervention and she felt the management team was very competent in this respect.

·         Consumer Relations did not look officially at other local authorities’ reports, however it was important to consider the picture at other similar councils such as Shropshire and a networking group was due to restart, having paused during Covid.

·         When asked whether the high number of complaints was a concern or due to historically low levels, the Consumer Relations Officer advised there had been a gradual increase, though not dramatically so. Some complaints were Covid-related, some were issues with providers and reablement was another identifiable area, although this service also received high numbers of compliments. The Assistant Director added that the Reablement Service had doubled in size and subsequent recruitment challenges had increased pressures  ...  view the full minutes text for item 446.

(Indicative timing: 11.20am – 11.30am)

The following items were requested for the Agenda of the next meeting on 7 November:

·         The Role of Adult Social care in Complex Hospital Patient Discharges / Delayed Transfers of Care

·         Intermediate Care

A Panel member suggested deaths of people with learning disabilities for the work programme – the Director explained the Council did not lead on this area and the Panel Chairman undertook to consider this and future meeting agendas as part of agenda planning with Officers.

The Vice-Chairman had asked whether it would now be possible for Panel members to arrange to visit local area social work teams, which the Assistant Director for Adult Social Care was happy to facilitate and the Scrutiny Officers would liaise with the Directorate to set these up.