Agenda item

Member Update

Adult Care and Well-being Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Cllr Jane Potter)

At its March meeting, the Panel discussed the:

People and Communities Strategy and Workstreams - the Directorate’s Strategy was focusing on people (not organisations) and the Panel heard how it would be delivered via a series of workstreams grouped together under 3 strategic pillars:

·       Person Centred Approach – this included the integrated wellbeing offer, dementia meeting centres, review of Transport Policy and Provision and Care Work as a Career

·       Shaping Services – this included an All Age Disability Service, a review of Social Work Processes and Practice, the Community Reablement Service, Remodelling Day Opportunities and Direct Provision of Adults Mental Health Social Work

·       Shaping an Effective Market – this included reablement focused domiciliary care, the increased use of direct payments, an increased Shared Lives Provision, intermediate and integrated Care, joined-up commissioning, refreshed Market Position Statement and a refocus on the use of residential/nursing care.

Cllr Potter advised the Board that she had been copied into a letter from the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust expressing some concerns about the dissolution of the Section 75 Agreement in respect of Integrated Provider Adult Mental Health, Older Adult Mental Health and Learning Disabilities with Worcestershire Health and Care Trust. The Strategic Director of People would be responding.

Review of Funding Arrangements between the Council and Herefordshire & Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)- The Panel received an update on progress of the review of the funding arrangements between the Council and Herefordshire and Worcestershire CCG (for adults and children) which was being carried out to ensure that they were fair and transparent.

Care Act Easements as a Result of COVID-19 – the Panel received an update on the Council’s position with Care Act easements.

Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Cllr Tom Wells)

At its recent meeting, the Panel looked at the educational outcomes for the academic year 2019/2020, in particular the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the measurement of educational outcomes; and the academic year 2020/21 including the impact of Covid-19 and next steps. The Headteachers of Upton Upon Severn CofE Primary School and North Bromsgrove High School attended the meeting to give a school perspective.  The Panel had concerns about elective home education (EHE) and identified that this should be a priority for taking forward after the elections.  The Interim Chief Executive, Worcestershire Children First suggested a report on vulnerable learners be added to the Work Programme in the first instance which would cover the 3 cohorts of vulnerable learners (one of which was EHE), prior to a decision on whether an in-depth scrutiny on EHE was required. This was supported as a way forward.

The Panel had also received an update on the proposals for the delivery model for medical education provision in Worcestershire, being considered by Cabinet on 18 March 2021.  The Chairman of the Children’s Panel confirmed that there were no major comments to pass on to Cabinet.

Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Cllr Alastair Adams)

The Panel received updates on the:

Council’s support to businesses during the COVID pandemic – the areas highlighted were:

·       Local district councils had administered government grants and had issued over 17,000 grants totalling £140m to local businesses

·       Following the announcement of the government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans Scheme (CBILS) and the Bounce Back Loan scheme, the Council had worked with the British Business Bank to promote the availability of the schemes alongside local partners. Both schemes had seen a large take up. In Worcestershire 753 CBILS Loans had been offered at a value at £196,051,770 and 12,228 Bounce Back loans at a value of £353,863,934. This was an investment of almost £550m.

·       Worcestershire Business Central had introduced new services to support local businesses and support was available via the website https://www.business-central.co.uk/

·       Carriage, Footways and Public Rights of Way– the Panel received an initial update on the additional expenditure available for highways (£6million), footways (£4million) and public rights of way (£500,000) (agreed by Council on 18 February).  The additional funding was very welcome and it would be important to involve local councillors when deciding on areas of spend and where possible work with the community to leverage the funding for PROW as far as possible.  The Panel was also updated on gully cleansing and was advised that the Directorate had carried out a collaborative exercise with the Council’s Service Contractor, Ringway, to review the data relating to drainage assets, including cleansing frequency, locations and defects identified. All drainage assets had now been prioritised based on recent and historic data. This prioritisation would determine the cleansing frequency for each gully. E.g. Monthly, quarterly, six monthly, annually or bi-annually.

Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Cllr Adam Kent) - At its March meeting, the Panel received updates on Worcestershire Apprenticeship Strategy 2020-23, Performance Monitoring of Comments, Compliments and Complaints and the Members Case Management System which was in the process of being developed.

The Report about the Apprenticeship Strategy was well received by the Panel and very informative.  Members had been pleased to note that apprenticeships were opportunities for people of all ages to develop. The strategy included Apprenticeships and Traineeships which were available to anyone wishing to train in a specific job role. Apprenticeship learners needed to be in paid employment to be eligible for the programme and would be required to stay on the programme and in employment for at least 12 months. Apprentices spent 80% of their time in the work setting and 20% of their time as “off the job” learning. Currently there were 146 apprenticeships on programme throughout Worcestershire Children First and the Council with 98 in core business areas and 48 within schools.

Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) - The Democratic Governance and Scrutiny Manager advised that at its March meeting, HOSC had considered reports on:

·       Update on Health Services During Covid-19 Pandemic which included the restoration stage of health services following the initial COVID-19 response and the rollout of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. 

·       Worcestershire Acute Hospitals – Longer Term View.

·       Maternity Services following a recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

·       Integrated Care Systems.

Crime and Disorder (Cllr Becky Vale) – given the recent media coverage, the importance of tackling harassment of women was discussed noting that a lot work was happening at a district council level.

Scrutiny Induction

Following the 2021 County Council elections in May, a programme of induction and training would be held for new and returning Members.  An important part of this programme would be training for those Members who were involved in Scrutiny, including Overview and Scrutiny Panel Members and Chairmen.

The induction training would be a mix of training provided by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) and in-house. The detail was provided in the agenda report.

During the discussion, it was agreed that it was important for all members involved in Scrutiny (both new and returning) to participate in the training offered. All relevant members should be encouraged to attend the training offered as part of their development and the attendance levels for this training should be reviewed and reported to the Chairman of the Board.