Agenda item

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submits a report that provides the Scrutiny Commission with information on various dimensions of adult social care (ASC) performance in the second quarter of 2016/17.  The Commission is asked to note the areas of positive achievement for the quarter and areas for improvement.

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submitted a report that provided the Commission with information on various dimensions of Adult Social Care performance in the second quarter of 2016/17.

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

A Member referred to para 3.5.2.3 and noted that the number of complaints was forecast to be higher than the previous year.  She stated that she was pleased that lessons were being learned from complaints received and queried whether there were more complaints because of raised awareness of the complaint procedure.

The Strategic Director responded that complaints may be made because the service user did not like the outcome of the decisions made relating to, for example, their assessment or review.  The department had a dedicated officer who oversaw the process of dealing with complaints and identifying any areas for improvement or learning, and identified any particular themes arising from complaints.

A Member questioned what action was being taken to address the significant demand for Extra Care Accommodation. The Director for Care Services and Commissioning (Adult Social Care) responded that there were about 400 working age adults in residential care; about 200 of those would manage in Extra Care accommodation. However, the two schemes to build more Extra Care Accommodation in Leicester had been put on hold because of the introduction of the housing benefit cap.  The Council and other Local Authorities were giving a strong response to the Government about the problems arising from the benefit cap and housing associations and social landlords were putting their schemes on hold as they could not be guaranteed to receive the full cost of the rent.

A Member raised a concern that 59% of safeguarding enquires had been completed within the target of 28 days, compared to 81.9% in the previous quarter. The Director of Adult Social Care and Safeguarding stated that they were investigating the reason for this. As part of the investigations they needed to check whether enquiries in different settings (in a hospital for example) were taking longer to complete. It was possible that the target needed to be re-set.  A Member commented that quality was more important than meeting a target and suggested that this could be discussed again at a future scrutiny meeting.

A Member referred to case management and queried whether in cases which were open for more than 100 days, the service user would be receiving care during that time. The Strategic Director confirmed that most arrangements were finalised within 100 days, but there may be reasons why a case was kept open.  For example, if a person was continually at risk, their case would be kept open. However the department was particularly focused on understanding the number of cases over 100 days which either did not have any active care arrangements in place, or at the point of reaching the 100 day threshold, no assessment or review for example had been completed and signed off.

A concern was raised as to whether the pressures the hospitals faced during the winter months would affect Adult Social Care. The Director for Care Services and Commissioning confirmed that the situation was challenging, but with the partnership arrangements that were in place, they believed that they could maintain their position.

A Member queried whether the number of repeat enquiries was reasonable or high, as they had increased from 204 in Quarter 1 to 211 in Quarter 2. The Strategic Director thought that this was slightly high and stated there was a need to continue look into the reasons for this.

In response to a query regarding the data for care providers (the final three indicators of Appendix 4), the Director of Care Services and Commissioning explained that care providers were monitored for quality and if there were any issues, an improvement plan would be put in place. Where appropriate, the Council could terminate a contract with the care provider.

In response to questions over staffing, the Strategic Director stated that levels of sickness were still high but the situation was improving. There had been a considerable reduction in spending on agency staff and overall there had been a reduction in the number of staff. The Strategic Director noted that during this period of reduced spend on agency staff and overall reduction in the staffing establishment, that overall productivity in the department had increased.

The Chair thanked officers for the report and asked the Strategic Director to congratulate staff on the positive achievements.

AGREED:

                   that the report be noted.