Agenda item

To advise of the content of the Flintshire’s ‘A Place to Call Home? – Impact Analysis’ report; and

To provide details of ongoing actions and initatives underway within Social Services to contiune to enhance the quality of life of residents in Flintshire care homes.

That the Flintshire’s ‘A Place to Call Home? – Impact Analysis’ report be noted and the achievement of the Authority be recognised.

The Chief Officer introduced a report to advise of the content of the Flintshire’s ‘A Place to Call Home? – Impact Analysis’ report and to provide details of ongoing actions and initiatives underway within Social Services to continue to enhance the quality of life of residents in Flintshire care homes.  He invited the Senior Manager Safeguarding and Commissioning to present the report. 

The Senior Manager provided background information and advised that since publication of the report, Flintshire had been developing strategies to improve the experience and quality of life for people living in Flintshire’s care homes and this work was reviewed by the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales  who had completed a full impact and analysis of each partner agency in 2017.  The Senior Manager referred to the main considerations, as detailed in the report and commenting on the Older People’s Commissioner’s follow-up  review in 2017 she advised that of the 22 local authorities in Wales, only 4 local authority responses were judged as sufficient across all the requirements for action.  She stated that Flintshire was the only North Wales local authority to achieve this result.

Councillor Christine Jones commented on the inter-generational work and dementia friendly training which was taking place with secondary and primary schools in Flintshire to promote social interaction. 

In response to the suggestion by Councillor Kevin Hughes that a dedicated activities co-ordinator post be created for care homes the Senior Manager Integrated Services Lead Adults/Early Years said that consideration could be given to how a post could be funded. 

Councillor Dave Mackie spoke in support of the report and congratulated the Chief Officer and his Team on their achievements. 

Councillor Gladys Healey expressed the view that the mandatory  training of care assistants needed to be given a higher standard.  She also said that more staff in care homes should be able to speak in the Welsh language. The Senior Manager Safeguarding and Commissioning acknowledged the points made and referred to the training and induction programmes care assistants worked towards.  She advised that in joint partnership with Coleg Cambria, the Authority had set up a  programme to train care staff to learn Welsh in a care setting.  She also referred to the voluntary schemes to learn Welsh provided at the Methodist Chapel, Mold, and the Flintshire Local Voluntary Centre, Mold, and the Social Care Wales e-learning programme for care staff to develop Welsh language skills.

In response to a concern raised by Councillor Hilary McGuill regarding the monitoring of private care homes in Flintshire, the Senior Manager Integrated Services Lead Adults/Early Years advised that there were unannounced visits by CCSIW and commented on the robust monitoring procedures in place by the  contracts monitoring team.

Councillor Andy Dunbobbin said he would like to see more reference to the support of Armed Forces veterans in care homes across the County.

The Chair welcomed the report and referred to the impact of the significant forward planning which had taken place and the contribution it had made to the positive outcome of the report.

RESOLVED:

That the Flintshire’s ‘A Place to Call Home? – Impact Analysis’ report be noted and the achievement of the Authority be recognised.