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Agenda item

Agenda item

LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY CARE LIMITED (LCCL) - VERBAL UPDATE

The Strategic Director Social Care and Education will provide a verbal update to the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission on Leicestershire County Care Limited (LCCL).

 

The Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission is recommended to note the content of the update and are invited to provide comment and feedback to the Strategic Director.

 

Minutes:

The Director of Social Care and Education gave context into the agenda item and the reason for inviting a representative from Leicestershire County Care Limited. The Chair thanked the Director for his update and was pleased to hear that an agreement had been reached between the Council and Leicestershire County Care Limited. The Chair then invited the representative from Leicestershire County Care Limited to address the commission to help reassure members. It was noted that the company was resolute on paying the outstanding £200,000 due to the ongoing pandemic there had been delays and occupancy within the care home was down by 20% and the Government grants and support aided the company to stay afloat.

 

Following the bad press in the media, the representative reassured Members that the company still provided the highest quality of care as reported by the compliance team and no areas of concern were raised and the Care Quality Commission were also kept updated.

 

It was reported that the cost of running the Care homes were going up whilst occupancy had decreased resulting in a decrease in income. Grants provided were going towards staffing, training and visiting pods.

 

The representative thanked the Council for the ongoing support and understanding the company during difficult conditions.

 

As part of the discussions the Chair thanked the representative for their attendance and reassuring update and felt it was important as part of the scrutiny process for inviting Leicestershire County Care Limited.

 

Members were concerned with the reduction in staffing, issues in other care homes the outstanding debt and the concern the CQC raised with leadership. It was noted that due to the decrease in occupancy this had resulted in contract changes where rate of pay hours were introduced and transport allowances were reduced. The company did as much as they could to preserve jobs and maintain the service. Following the concerns raised the by the CQC the company had fully recruited 2 external auditors to meet the concerns.

 

Members were reassured that the closure of the care homes in Essex was a result of losing a local authority contract as the Council were grossly underfunded and it was not viable over the subscribed area. It was an urgent decision to close the care home from CQC at the height of the pandemic and the company facilitated the safe movement of residence and closed. It was noted that lessons were learned and since then CQC inspections were good and the company continued to work with local authorities.

 

Following Unison’s deep concerns which suggested staff were given an ultimatum. It was noted that this was blown out of proportion and every staff stayed on to work for the company with no reduction in their pay. The changes were carried out in the interest of all parties.

 

It was noted that the company were budgeting to mitigate the 20% decrease in occupancy and although the external perception was bad as a result of the report of the media internally the company had held one to one consultations with staff and preserved jobs and improved governance and management.

 

The situation with the care homes in Essex was different to the ones in Leicester and both Councils had been very supportive of the family run company that aimed to get back to where they were.

 

The Deputy City Mayor for Social Care and Anti-Poverty supported restoring additional support to staff to enable a stable work force and investigate how to retain care home staff to deliver a quality service.

 

AGREED:

1)    That, the company consider the comments made by the Commission and provide good working conditions for frontline staff;

2)    That the company restore business relationships with Leicester City Council;

3)    And that, the company ensure that the financial debt is resolved by the end of the financial year.