Issue - meetings

That members support the response that Flintshire County Council have produced to provide to the Welsh Government in relation to the proposals for changes to primary legislation.

The Commissioning Manager advised that the Welsh Government (WG) was seeking views on a number of proposals for changes to be made to primary legislation through a consultation process with all responses to the consultation being received by 7 November.  The consultation covered:-

·         Eliminating profit from the care of children looked after

·         Introducing Direct Payments for Continuing Health Care

·         Extending mandatory reporting of children and adults at risk

·         Amendments to regulation of service providers, responsible individuals and the social care workforce.

The draft response from Service Managers within Social Services were included within the report.  The views from other Portfolios within the Council would also be gathered and Members were also encouraged to submit any comments they wanted to be included to the Commissioning Manager before the response was finalised.

Councillor Mackie raised concerns about the effect the proposed change in legislation to eliminate profit making from Children’s Care Homes would have and suggested that if WG put more money into the service that the Council provided, they would be able to hold their own. The Chief Officer (Social Services) explained that the WG had a commitment from their programme to Government to remove the profit out of the residential care market in Wales. He added that in some ways the Council agreed with this in that they wanted to have a more in-house publicly controlled service but could not afford to destabilise the care market as they were reliant on the providers.

            The Chair asked for an explanation on direct payments between Health and Social Services.  The Chief Officer (Social Services) explained that if someone had local authority funded care, they could have direct payments which gave them the freedom to make their own decisions but this had not been possible with NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC) which he believed was wrong.  Many of the people supported by the Council moved along the spectrum from local authority to CHC and lost that right.

The Commissioning Manager explained that in some respect, direct payments with CHC were already on the way with the development of personalised trusts, which the Council welcomed as this would give individuals more flexibility and choice over their care and support.  However she advised that in order to get the system up and running there were some barriers to overcome and processes that need to be put in place.

The recommendation in the report was moved by Councillor Mackie and seconded by Councillor Owen.

          RESOLVED:

That Members support the response that Flintshire County Council have produced to provide to the Welsh Government in relation to the proposals for changes to primary legislation.