Agenda item

The Strategic Director for Adult Social Care submits a report that provides the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission with an overview of the Commissioning Intentions for Adult Social Care (2016/17).  The Commission is asked to note the content of the report and the commissioning intentions for Adult Social Care services.

The Strategic Director for Adult Social Care submitted a report that provided an overview of commissioning intentions for Adult Social Care for 2016/17.

The Head of Commissioning presented the report and advised that the intentions supported the delivery of the Department’s six strategic priorities as set out in Paragraph 4 of the report.

Members considered the report and raised a number of comments and queries, including the following:

·      A Member expressed a concern that whilst there was much to agree with in the report, it was generally lacking in details.  The Commission needed more details and early enough for Members to provide their input and make a difference. Reference was made to the intention to improve support for young people, with care and support needs, in transition into adulthood. More details on the plans for achieving this were requested.

The Head of Commission explained that this was a high level overview. Detail sat beneath this, noting that some plans would be more advanced than others, depending on timelines. The Chair asked that commissioning activities be brought to the Scrutiny Commission in time for Members to provide their input. A further request was made by a Member for an upcoming list of Delivery Plans to be made available to Scrutiny, so that Members could decide what they would like to discuss at the Commission. The Chair explained that discussions were regularly held with the Strategic Director to advise on forthcoming plans and issues which affected Adult Social Care.

·      A Member asked about the age in which a young person was classed as moving into adulthood; she stated that the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) stopped working with young people at the age of 16 years.

Members were advised that there was not a consistent approach within the current system, as to the age when a young person would start a transition into adult services. This was something that needed to be looked at. The Chair commented that this might be a piece of work that Scrutiny could look at.

David Henson, the Healthwatch representative commented that the organisation also had some concerns relating to transition, which had been raised with the Director of Adult Social Care. He said that it was important to gather the evidence which could inform the commissioning intentions going forward.

·      In relation to transition to adulthood, a Member queried how many young people became independent.  The Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding responded that there were different levels of independence; there would be a report forthcoming which would consider how best to develop the council’s approach to transition.

·      In response to a query relating to the budget and the commissioning intentions, the Deputy City Mayor responded that the intentions were guided by the six strategic priorities. The budget situation presented significant challenges but it should not prevent the council from delivering those objectives.  The objectives were ambitious and sometimes difficult decisions had to be made. He added that it was right to help people sustain their independence and to live longer and healthier lives.  The sixth priority was to continue to learn from experiences in order to improve and innovate. People’s aspirations were changing and it was important to recognise this as well.

In relation to the focus on independence, the Deputy City Mayor offered to share some anonymised case studies. Members indicated that they would find these useful.

·      A comment was made that independent living often came with the support of carers and their needs should not be forgotten. The Deputy City Mayor responded that the commissioning intentions included support for carers. There was a need for early intervention, offering carers as much support as possible and ensuring that they were aware of what support was available. A Carers’ Action Plan had been drawn up.

·       In response to a question, Members heard that an equality impact assessment would be carried out on each of the different commissioning intentions.

The Chair drew the discussion to a close and asked Members to consider whether they wished to look at any of the commissioning intentions in detail.

AGREED:

                   that the report be noted.