Issue - meetings

(a)      That Members note the recommendations in the Audit Wales report on Direct Payments for Adult Social Care;

(b)      That Members agree the actions in the Flintshire Response to the national report and

That members note that Flintshire County Council are awaiting a response from Audit Wales to their feedback

The Senior Manager - Safeguarding and Commissioning introduced the report stressing that it was an audit of the general direct payment provision on all 22 Local Authorities in Wales written by Audit Wales in April 2022 and not a report on Direct Payments in Flintshire Adult Social Services.  She explained that the report looked into how direct payments had helped people live independently, sustained people’s wellbeing and how they had improved a person’s quality of life.  She emphasised that while the report was generic in some ways, it was specific in others and went through Flintshire’s response to the 10 recommendations as set out in the report.

The Senior Manager for Adults responded to an issue raised by the Chair concerning the stigma of direct payments by saying that this was an ongoing piece of work which was high on their agenda and that they were currently pushing for carers to receive the direct payments in their own right to enable them to carry on providing support for their loved ones.  She also advised that she was in the process of explaining across the authority how direct payments could be used in the carer’s own name as they felt it was important for the person to have the support they wanted from the person they wanted it provided by.

Councillor Mackie stated that Audit Wales had not recognised in the report the work that Flintshire had carried out and said that they should have put forward some of the processes that had been developed by Flintshire staff to show other councils the best approach as one solution did not fit every case.  The Senior Manager - Safeguarding and Commissioning responded and added to a further remark from Councillor Ellis about the simplicity of the system that Flintshire had in place.  She was unable to comment on what other authorities did but said that there was interest out there as they had been contacted by other authorities about their systems, processes and web pages.  She put the success of the service down to what the team had done by listening and putting into practice the feedback they had received from recipients of the direct payments.  The Chief Officer (Social Services) added that he also had been contacted by a North Wales Authority who had shown interest in using their direct payment portal.

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor Mackie and seconded by Councillor Buckley.

RESOLVED:

(a)          That Members note the recommendations in the Audit Wales report on Direct Payments for Adult Social Care;

(b)          That Members agree the actions in the Flintshire Response to the national report; and

(c)          That Members note that Flintshire County Council are awaiting a response from the Audit Wales to their feedback.