Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Social Services provided an update on the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, the key implications and timelines for implementation.

The intended purpose of the Act was to enable the transformation of priority areas of social care, bringing about significant change in how services were delivered and to ensure they were sustainable.

The Act placed greater legal obligations on Local Authorities and Local Authority partners to: promote equality, improve the quality of services and the provisions for information and advice, provide service users and carers with a stronger voice and real control over the services they received and encourage a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention. 

Subordinate legislation including relevant regulations, codes and guidance would be drafted following the achieved Royal Assent which would provide further clarity on the requirements of the Act through 2014-15.

Full details of the proposed changes and updates were detailed in the report.

The Chief Officer, Social Services added that the Act required transformational change in the way the authority managed and commissioned services for vulnerable people.  There was a need to ensure that vulnerable people had access to high quality services whilst at the same time needing to remodel more traditional models of care, and empower people and communities to take responsibility for their own wellbeing.  This could not be delivered in isolation – the Council, the NHS, independent and voluntary providers of care and support and local communities would need to work together to turn the Act’s ambitious plans and principles into an everyday reality.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the legislative changes and obligations associated with the Act be directed and overseen through the established Modernising Social Services Board;

(b)       That there be a sustained focus on how services are commissioned, provided and where appropriate integrated.  The Council’s response will also need to be informed as proposed regulations and guidance are received from Welsh Government; and

(c)        That a self-assessment be conducted against the new guidance/regulations when they are published, to be undertaken within three months of publication.