Agenda item

The Chair submits the draft report of the review of Domiciliary Care.  The Commission is recommended to receive the report and endorse the recommendations contained in it for submission to the Executive.

The Chair submitted the draft report of the Commission’s review of Domiciliary Care, drawing attention to the financial, legal and equalities implications section of the draft report, which had been circulated separately.

The Commission welcomed the bringing together of key points in the report, but suggested that two recommendations should be added.  Firstly, the Commission expressed concern that deficiencies in the current system had meant that problems in the delivery of home care had arisen.  In view of this, it was suggested that a recommendation should be added to the report that the Secretary of State and national bodies be advised of this concern.

In addition, it was noted from the report that information on mainstream domiciliary care and funding for this could be hard to find, so vulnerable people could be unaware of the care that was available to them.  In order to increase transparency, and help fulfil the Council’s role in disseminating information, the Commission felt that information on domiciliary care and its funding should be more widely available and in accessible forms.

In reply to concern that paragraph 2.2.5 of the report contained the statement that it was very unlikely to disrupt care if a large number of staff left a particular provider, the Director for Care Services and Commissioning (Adult Social Care) advised that all domiciliary care contractors were monitored.  Officers therefore would be aware of concerns and complaints as they arose.  They would meet providers to discuss concerns and would put an action plan in place, which would include monitoring by officers, to ensure that long-term changes were made.  If necessary, providers could be suspended, to enable officers to work with them to improve standards, or their contracts could be terminated.  No provider had been suspended in recent times.

The following points also were made during discussion on the report:-

·           The Council could not recommend which provider should be used, but would be publishing its ratings of the quality of care provided by individual providers;

·           Mr Philip Parkinson, on behalf of Healthwatch, complemented the Commission on the report that had been produced.  Healthwatch would continue to monitor domiciliary care, particularly as the Care Quality Commission was taking on inspection duties for domiciliary care;

·           Clarity needed to be provided for employees of providers on how they could report problems with those providers.  The need for this should be included in the recommendations of the report of the review;

·           The Council currently provided a Reablement service, but did not employ mainstream domiciliary care staff;

·           Some service users were being visited by many different carers, so had no continuity of care.  For example, the elderly person spoken to during the Chair’s visits to Domiciliary Care facilities, (item 4 of Appendix C to the report), had been visited by six different carers in the previous five weeks; and

·           A definition of domiciliary care needed to be included in the final report of the review.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the following recommendations be included in the final report of the review of Domiciliary Care:-

a)     The Commission is alarmed that there is not a uniformly high standard of mainstream domiciliary care locally.  It is recognised that this is also a national issue, so the Executive is asked to write, jointly with this Commission, to the Secretary of State and appropriate national bodies to express concern at the overall funding and policies around domiciliary care for the elderly; and

b)     This Commission asks the Assistant Mayor (Adult Social Care) and the Executive to look in to making information on mainstream domiciliary care, and funding for this, readily available to existing and potential users in the city.  This is to include information for employees of providers on how to alert the authority of concerns they may have about care being provided; and

2)    That the Scrutiny Support Officer be asked to liaise with the Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding and the Director for Care Services and Commissioning (Adult Social Care) to include a definition of domiciliary care in the final report of the review of Domiciliary Care; and

3)    That, subject to resolutions 1 and 2 above, the report of the review of Domiciliary Care be endorsed.