Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Aldred and Newcombe.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they had in the business on the agenda. No such declarations were made.

The minutes of the meeting of the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission held on 5 September 2017 have been circulated and the Commission is asked to confirm them as a correct record.

AGREED:

that the minutes of the previous meeting of the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission held 5 September 2017 be confirmed as a correct record.

End of Life Task Group Review

The Scrutiny Policy Officer explained that he was investigating dates for further sessions for the End of Life Task Group Review, but it was possible that these would be held on 15 and 29 November 2017 at 4.00pm.

The Monitoring Officer to report on any petitions received.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no petitions had been received.

The Monitoring Officer to report on any questions, representations or statements of case.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no questions, representations or statements of case had been received.

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submits a report that brings together information on various dimensions of adult social care (ASC) performance in the first quarter on 2017/18.

The Scrutiny Commission is requested to note the areas of positive achievement and areas for improvement as highlighted in this report.

The Strategic Director submitted a report that brought together information on various dimensions of Adult Social Care (ASC) performance in the first quarter of 2017/18.

Councillor Dempster, Assistant City Mayor, Adult Social Care said that the report showed that performance was good, but it was important not to be complacent and to be aware that circumstances in adult social care could change very quickly.  The Assistant City Mayor commended the staff for their hard work. 

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care stated that in some areas there was sustained improvement. There continued to be no further clarity from the Government regarding the proposed LHA cap that would fund and enable the development of supported accommodation, and without that clarity, the plans to provide that accommodation could fall two years behind schedule.

Continued pressure and growth in demand for social care arose from the increasing frailty of a growing population, and within adult social care, there was an increasing level of demand from those who already had a care and support package.  The meeting also heard that Leicester had a higher number of working age adults who required adult social care than its comparators.

The Chair questioned whether, when work started on the supported living accommodation, it could be phased and heard that the council had agreed to provide 100 places but it would not be appropriate to build on a phased basis as this would impact on the economies of scale.

In response to a question about preventative work, the Strategic Director commented that most preventative work around those conditions that affected adults of working age, generally was within the remit of the Public Health and local health services i.e. in preventing ill health, supporting people to manage long terms conditions so as to minimise the impact on their general wellbeing and health. Adult Social Care itself was very limited in what it could do to prevent people of working age with long term conditions and major health needs to improve their health and minimise the impact and the need for future social care.

In relation to the ASC Strategic Priorities, the Strategic Director explained that one of the priorities related to supporting young people and their families in transition to adulthood. Work on transition had been delayed, but progress was now being made jointly with Children’s Services and health partners on this priority. It was anticipated that there would be more detail on this in the Quarter 2 / Quarter 3 reports.

A Member referred to section 3.2.5 of the report which stated that 74.2% of enquiries had begun with 24 hours of the threshold decision being made and questioned what had happened to the remaining enquiries. The Director of ASC and Safeguarding explained that there could be a number of reasons for this, including an unwillingness to engage. Some of the enquiries might have been dealt with within 24-36 hours and all enquiries were actioned. The Strategic Director explained that there was no national or legal target for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submits a report that provides the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission with an update on the refreshed Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Autism Strategy Delivery Plan. Members will also receive a power point presentation in relation to this.

The Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission is asked to note the contents of this report and presentation and to provide feedback.

The Strategic Director for Adult Social Care submitted a report that provided an update on the refreshed Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Autism Strategy Delivery Plan. The report was supplemented by a PowerPoint presentation; a copy of which is appended to these minutes. Dr Barrett and Dr Avinash Hiremath from the Leicestershire Partnership Trust (LPT) delivered the presentation after which Members raised comments and queries, which included the following:

·      The Chair referred to the problem of obtaining a diagnosis for people with autism and the Asperger syndrome.  Dr Barrett explained that it was difficult to obtain a diagnosis for adults; one of the problems was trying to get individuals ‘through the door’ for an assessment. A parent could also struggle for many years to get an assessment for their child, and it could then be very difficult to untangle several years of different issues.  Dr Barrett said that they recognised that, at the moment, because of the financial challenges, they could not provide the level of support they would like. They were now however offering a speech and language and occupational therapy service.

·      A Member questioned whether the LPT Board had been asked to provide additional funding for the service. They had made a case to provide support for people with autism and although finances were limited, the Board had been responsive.

·      A Member commented that she had met rough sleepers and homeless people with autism and there were few job opportunities for people who lived with this condition. She questioned whether the service could work with people in that community. The Strategic Director responded that there was a group of people who did not meet the requirements for an adult social care package; some of those had autism and were high functioning. He would like there to be more emphasis on employment training as some individuals entered the criminal justice system, which could be avoided if they were given opportunities for employment.  Money had been secured from the European Social Fund for the Employment Hub to help specific groups of people, including people with autism.

·      The Chair expressed a view that in the criminal justice system, the law looked at the crime first, rather than autism and there needed to be appropriate training of the professionals.   The Strategic Director responded that the Leicester Safeguarding Adult’s Board worked to raise the awareness of the Police and people within the criminal justice system; in his experience, people within the criminal justice system were tolerant.

Dr Barrett stated that there was an autism App and also an information pack that they gave out which contained an ‘alert card’ designed by the West Midlands Police. Dr Barrett offered to share the pack with the Chair.  The Chair also made reference to a rap song about autism which had been performed by a family member and her friend. All proceeds from the song went to organisations that supported people living with autism.

The Chair drew the discussion to a close and thanked Dr Barrett, Dr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submits a report that considers the results of the Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE) and the City Council’s performance against the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) indicators derived from the survey.

The report also gives a progress update on the delivery of the commitments made in Building a strong future for our city’, Labour’s 2015 Manifesto for Leicester and on the work being done across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland to update the Carers Strategy.

The Commission is asked to note the findings from the SACE and comment on the contents of the report in relation to the future direction of work regarding the Carers agenda.

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submitted a report that considered the results of the Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE) and the City Council’s performance against the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) indicators derived from the survey.  The report also gave a progress update on the work being done across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland to update the Carer’s strategy.

The Strategic Director presented the report and stated that within the given indicators, Leicester was moving upwards in the ranking, though he felt that in some of the areas, they were not moving up as much as they would like or against agreed local targets.

A Member referred to para 3.4.1. and expressed concerns at the extent to which a caring role was causing financial difficulties for carers. It was noted that 12.5% of carers who responded to the survey, reported that their caring role had caused ‘a lot’ of financial difficulty; this measure was within the top ten highest scores in England.  The Member asked for this issue to be raised with the Executive.

In was noted that the survey was carried out every two years, and the Chair of Healthwatch questioned whether the five indicators that were measured, varied from survey to survey. The meeting heard that while there was some change, the indicators remained mostly stable.

A Member asked about respite for the carer from their responsibilities, and heard that respite was not necessarily about the carer getting away for a few days holiday. It could be about having a regular weekly half an hour break, something which Carers had said they greatly appreciated.   Respite care might also be made available by enabling someone to go into residential care for a few days

AGREED:

                   that the report be noted.

Members will receive an update on the procurement plan following a request for their views as to which items should be brought to the Commission for further consideration.

It was noted that Councillor Chaplin had suggested items from the Procurement Plan for more detailed consideration. The Chair asked the Director for Adult Social Care and Commissioning to email Councillor Chaplin and the Chair to arrange a meeting to discuss the procurement plan further.

AGREED:

that the Chair and Councillor Chaplin meet with the Director for Adult Social Care and Commissioning to consider in more details, specific items from the Procurement Plan.

The current work programme for the Commission is attached.  The Commission is asked to consider this and make comments and/or amendments as it considers necessary.

Members were invited to consider and comment on the work programme.

It was agreed that two further items should be added to the work programme for the December 2017 meeting:

1.    Adult Social Care complaints annual report for 2016-17; and

2.    A mid-term report on a four year Big Lottery funded project which was   being delivered by Leicester Ageing Together.

It was further agreed that the item relating to the Extra Care Housing Allowance should be removed from the work programme for the time being. The Strategic Director would advise when it was appropriate to bring this back to the commission.

AGREED:

that the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission work programme be amended as detailed above.

The meeting closed at 8.12 pm