Agenda item

The Strategic Director Social Care and Education submits a report bringing together information on various dimensions of adult social care performance in the final quarter of 2018/19.

Members of the Commission will be asked to note the areas of positive achievement and areas for improvement as highlighted in the report.

Members of the Commission will also be asked to comment on the content and format of the report to inform the development of reporting for 2019/20 to meet the Commission’s requirements.

The Strategic Director Social Care and Education submitted and presented a report to the Commission which brought together information on various dimensions of adult social care performance in the final quarter of 2018/19. Members of the Commission were asked to note the areas of positive achievement and areas for improvement as highlighted in the report, to comment on the content and format of the report to inform the development of reporting for 2019/20 to meet the Commission’s requirements.

Steven Forbes, Strategic Director Social Care and Education presented the report, and the following additional points were made:

·         78% of services users said their quality of life had improved very much or completely as a result of support and services – the aim was to improve the ASCOF ‘quality of life’ score.

·         Most local authorities had the challenge of safeguarding individuals. Completion of safeguarding enquiries within 28 days was the Authority’s own benchmark and target, but there but there was no time limit to conclude a safeguarding case and outcomes.

·         The Department spent £104million on budget and transferred £5.8million to reserves a year in advance.

·         There was a £5million growth pressure every year, and without further funding the Service would be in crisis next year. It was suggested that when the Government’s Green Paper was released, a Scrutiny Review might be beneficial and of interest to the Commission.

·         Workforce data for Q3 and Q4 was not available as the service moved from one IT system to another but would be available in future reports.

·         Overall the number of older persons under new contacts only went up by seven people, though it was reported there was an increasing demand of medical help for people of working age.

Councillor Russell, Deputy City Mayor Social Care and Anti-Poverty, asked for the report to be re-formatted to show tolerance levels to provide a sense to Members of how service provision and outcomes changed. Members also requested displays of data using bar / pie charts would also assist. Members were asked to provide the Deputy City Mayor with suggestions for the re-working of the document. Councillor Kitterick offered to look at the document.

The Strategic Director Social Care and Education asked Members to provide him with suggestions of what they would like to see in the document.

Members observed that under non-statutory targets, a quarter of people’s needs were not being met and queried what plans were in place to bring the figure down. It was noted that the primary duty of the Department was to safeguard individuals, and Section 42 of the Care Act 2014 was the threshold for a safeguarding investigation. Some responsibility was devolved to NHS partners. Measures were different across Adult and Children’s Departments.

Members noted that three measures in ASCOF were not adequately supporting carers, and what more could be done to support them. It was noted that carers eligibility was introduced in 2015 as a national issue, and the Department was confident the threshold was applied.

Members noted that 78% service users said quality of life had improved, therefore 22% felt the same or worse. The Strategic Director Social Care and Education there was a necessary discussion to be had on why things improve / didn’t improve, but factors could include what issues a person presented with initially.

The Chair thanked the Strategic Director Social Care and Education for the report.

AGREED:

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    A regular report be received at future meetings of the Scrutiny commission.

3.    ASC to invite Scrutiny Members and Micheal Smith (Healthwatch Leicester) to a reference group to test the new format of report.