Issue - meetings

The Scrutiny Commission to receive a brief presentation on the Adult Social Care portfolio.

Councillor Rita Patel, Assistant City Mayor (Adult Social Care), Ruth Lake, Divisional Director for Adult Social Care and Safeguarding and Deb Watson, Strategic Director for Adult Social care, Health and Housing attended the meeting and spoke to the report that had been circulated.

The report identified the remit of the Adult Social Care and Safeguarding Division and the Care Services and Commissioning Division, together with the relevant structure charts. A separate report identified the Public Health structure and portfolio, following the transition of the Public Health function from NHS Leicester City to Leicester City Council that had been formally completed on 1^st April 2013.

Members welcomed the presentation and commented on the following topics. Responses are also summarised: -

·         Direct Payments – some 25-30% of people cared for by the City Council had opted to take Direct Payments. The department were in the process of commissioning a third party organisation to provide support to these people. Members requested information on the numbers of people opting for Direct Payments and an indication on how the scheme was working.

·         Benefits and Welfare Advice – what provision had been put in place by the City Council to meet the extra demand following recent changes. Officers stated that a small front facing service was operated by the City Council but other provision had also been commissioned from other third party organisations.

·         Locally based Social Care Teams – were other teams e.g Benefits Team based locally. Officers stated that Benefits Team were based centrally

·         Safeguarding – Members commented that when cases were reported progress and outcomes were never fed back. Officers stated that they would look into this with a view to achieving some consistency. Members suggested that some form of flowchart would be helpful following the process from referral to closure

·         Provision of Services – members commented that it appeared that some one-third of Social Care services were provided by the Independent and Voluntary Sector. Officers stated that following changes in legislation there had been huge shifts in the nature of provision. A significant range of services were no longer provided by the City Council

·         IT and Transformation project – members questioned whether officers were confident that the new systems would work. Officers stated that they were confident that the systems in place would be effective

·         Income Support Allowance – members stated that they were aware of cases of people intending to move from Incapacity Benefit to Income Support Allowance and having their claims being turned down. Officers stated that the Benefits system was administered by the Department for Work and Pensions

·         Blue Badge Scheme – Members expressed concerns around the re-assessment of applicants and of the process whereby applicants medical conditions are not being taken into account. Officers stated that the Blue badge Scheme was currently managed by the Corporate Administration Service, with Adult Social Care providing an Occupational Therapist to assist the process.

Both Ruth Lake and Deb Watson were thanked for their presentations.