Agenda item

The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education submits a report which provides the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission with an update on the delivery of domiciliary support services since October 2017, which were jointly procured with the Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group. The Commission is recommended to note the report and provide any comments to the Strategic Director of Adult Social Care and Education / and/or the Lead Executive Member.

The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education submitted a report which provided the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission with an update on the new domiciliary support services since October 2017, which were jointly procured with the Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group. The Commission was recommended to note the report and provide comments.

The Director for Adult Social Care and Commissioning made the following points:

·         The Council had led on the joint procurement exercise for the support which would allow people to retain independence.

·         Scrutiny Members were involved through Task Group work.

·         The brokerage team dealt with on average 83 new cases each month, and the number of people being supported at any one time was approximately 1,800.

·         The numbers awaiting long term care had also fallen significantly, with the number of people waiting halved.

·         26 providers were on the framework agreement. Five had withdrawn from the framework, some had merged, and some not able to deliver the service.

·         The report also gave details on the quality of care – 14 providers were rated as good, three required improvement, and five were not yet rated.

·         Quality checks included surveys, speaking to family members, and discussions on a regular basis with providers.

·         Next steps summarised planned activities for the following year, including a review of night time support and the best way of commissioning the support in the future.

·         The service was successful in terms of implementation and was stable in the city.

During discussion of the report, the following information was given in response to Members’ questions:

·         With regards to job vacancies, a range of providers were supported through grant access across LLR, to enable marketing services. Also, some work had been done through local colleges to encourage people into the care sector.

·         Contracts ensured the support met the diverse community. Regarding translations, here might be a language that isn’t widespread that hadn’t been included, but overall were covered.

·         One of the things Healthwatch was involved in was equality support to ensure required support was delivered.

·         The national data NMDS was variable in terms of accuracy. It was guessed there were 3,000 to 4,000 homecare workers in Leicester, either on zero / small / more hours contracts.

·         The 65-95 age bracket was the service’s biggest cohort of customers. The CQC required staff to have certain training.

·         There were two officers in the brokerage team. The service would be extended to eight members of staff at the beginning of November 2018.

·         It was not known what the impact of Brexit would be, as there had been a slow decline of people coming to the country.

·         It was suspected that non-compliant providers were failing due to Health and Safety issues, but further information on this would be provided to Members. If there were major concerns or risk of danger, Officers would speak to the CQC to suspend a provider. People wanted to be compliant as they wanted to maintain their business, and most problems were sorted out.

·         The level of home care had not changed over the past few years, and demand was being managed more effectively.

·         Service users being supported by other providers while they awaited a domiciliary service might be because the care provider could not find the right carer for somebody. People needed to move through the system as quickly as possible with a support package, but occasionally there had to be a bridging arrangement.

It was AGREED that:

1.    The report be noted.

2.    Information on the reasons for non-compliant providers to be provided to Members of the Commission.