Agenda item

The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education will provide a presentation to the Commission providing an overview of the Adult Social Care services.

Members are recommended to note the presentation and pass any comments to the Strategic Director for Social Care and Education.

The strategic Director for Social Care and Education delivered a presentation providing the Commission with an overview of the Adult Social Care Service and informed the Commission that there were many changes taking place over the next municipal year and beyond, which would be of significant interest to the Commission to scrutinise.

As part of the discussions, it was noted that:

·         The money spent on the safeguarding was the Councils contribution to the Safeguarding Board and Care management was all about safeguarding

·         Safeguarding for children would come as a contribution to the Safeguarding Board from the Children Services budget

·         Comparisons with other similar authorities in the take up of services was in a very early stage and the three other authorities that were being compared with were Barnsley, Bradford and Coventry

·         Initial analysis showed that the expenditure was increasing faster than that of the other three authorities

·         The data that was being analysed was data from the ONS and GP records, the latest Census data was not yet available and that the Census data would provide a broader scope of the city as the city had changed in the last decade

·         A report in the future could be provided to the Commission once the Census data was available

·         In response to Members queries on the review of service users and their care packages, it was noted that, several hundred people were waiting for a review a year later, there was triaging in place for people waiting on the list to identify those with the most need and those being reviewed indicated that the rate of increase in care was slowing down

·         The Service were confident that the people who were waiting for a review would not require additions in their packages and the service were comfortable within budget

·         Alternatives ways of conducting the reviews was also being explored

During further discussions it was noted that:

·         The recognition of the Care Sector and being able to recruit would help lower cost, the Principle Occupational Therapist role had been advertised 4 times without a single applicant

·         The overall view of the sector was an area that needed improving collectively

·         Staff were continuing to carry out the work and Members were reassured that current staff were not being overburdened and the waiting list and triage system supported this

·         There were good development schemes in place for the existing staff to take on more qualified roles

·         The service was on track to deliver the savings and come under budget this year

The Strategic Director for Social care and Education also noted that after a decade of no inspections, inspections were to commence shortly. On 1 July 2022 the CCG would seize to exist and would be replaced by the Integrated Care Board, with a lot of work going on in terms of integration resulting in a lot of time being absorbed. The Deprivation and Liberty Safeguards was also being replaced by the Liberty Protection Safeguards which would develop entirely new systems requiring several hundred staff members being retrained. with each project being a major change, the capacity within the department would need careful consideration.

The Chair echoed the concerns raised by the Commission Members and noted that underfunding from national government has had a severe impact on the Social Care and took the opportunity.

AGREED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That the strategic Director for Social Care and Education be requested to provide future updates on the upcoming changes to the Commission; and

3)    That the Strategic Director for Social Care and Education be requested to provide more data on the care services taken up by the ethnic minority groups in the city.