Agenda item

The following were in attendance:

Paula Furnival, Strategic Director for People

Laura Westwood, Lead Commissioner

Cllr Adrian Hardman, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care (CMR)

The Lead Commissioner highlighted the main points of the Council’s work to promote and enable independence, which was one of the programmes of work under the Strategy for People and Communities, and which aimed to enable people to live at home for as long as possible.  There were several streams of related activity, including:

·       introduction of Community Reablement Service

·       increasing Shared Lives

·       increasing Extra Care provision

·       increasing Supported Living provision

·       Home First Programme

Reablement

Following an update to the Panel in September, the Community Reablement Service commenced had in October and so far there had been 27 referrals, with 25 interventions being made.

Housing Need Development

The Council was working closely with Worcestershire Strategic Housing Group to develop an accommodation and support plan, not just for social care but across all vulnerable groups. This included ambitious plans to expand the Shared Lives scheme, which was a cost-effective and person-centred way of supporting an individual within a family home.

The current Extra Care Strategy for Worcestershire 2012-2026 was being updated and in view of the decline in growth there was a project to look at what the 65+ age group wanted as well as working with the market to develop services. Extra care supported those over 65 years and was a preventative service which enabled people to access help when needed. 

Supported Living (which was for under 65s) had been relatively successful for those with learning disabilities, and this was now planned to be redesigned and extended to other groups, and a Supported Accommodation Strategy was being developed.

Each piece of work would allow the Council to have better conversations with the market and there were strategic plans to identify plans for each area, which would benefit both the Council through not having to fund housing costs, as well as the individuals, since they would gain access to benefits.

Home First Programme

The Directorate recognised the need to increase the number of individuals being discharged from hospital to home with health or social care support (Pathway 1), with a further increase necessitated by COVID-19 and additional investment had been put in place. Moving forward, capacity would need to be further enhanced.  Work was also underway to engage with the external market and how to deal with increased number of requests for help with arranging their own care when leaving hospital.

The Chairman invited questions and the following main points were raised:

·       The Lead Commissioner explained that extra care was generally for those aged 65+ and provided a mixed economy of housing which were available to buy or to rent and a mix of care, ranging from those who needed funded adult social care, to those who may have no care needs but wanted the option to access care in the future. Schemes tended to be big with onsite facilities. Supported Living at the moment was specially developed for those who were adult social care funded and tended to be those with learning disabilities, consisting of a small number of flats or a small group home with support.

·       When asked how the Council could better engage with and guide the market, it was explained that the Council’s aim was to develop a market position statement to be clear on its priorities. It was a growing market and the Council had been relatively successful in building links with developers, working with district councils around S106 arrangements and also using council-owned land which was no longer needed. It was also pointed out that tenants with learning disabilities tended to be easier tenants to manage. While it was true that developments would spring up from time to time without conversation with the Council, the Strategy should help with this. The Director referred to positive work with the district councils to commission long-term housing strategies, and a desire to plug in population needs.

·       Comment was invited from the Healthwatch Worcestershire representative present, who said that he was pleased to hear the range of options available which would further help people decide where to live – good communication would be important.

·       A Panel member pointed out that as someone who worked with people with learning disabilities, he felt that providers were very clear on the direction the Council wanted to take, and that people in Worcestershire had a lot of say in what they wanted. He had seen many people benefit from the person-centred approach and he envisaged more people with learning disabilities going into Supported Living facilities which were also financially better value.

In summing up, the Chairman thanked the Officers for a positive report.  She requested that the updated market position statement be available to the Panel.