Issue - meetings

That Social and Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee receives the report for information and notes the consultation response.          

The Director of Community Services introduced a report to provide an update on the draft Social Services (Wales) Bill and Flintshire County Council’s response to the recent consultation paper.  The Director introduced Alison Kulkowski, the Planning & Development Officer, to the Committee and explained that she had prepared the response shown as appendix 2.   

                        The Director detailed the background to the report and explained that appendix 1 gave a summary of the Bill with appendix 2 showing the responses provided to the consultation.  It had not been not possible for the response to be discussed by Committee before the deadline due to the Election and formation of a new Committee, however copies of the bill had been sent to previous Members to provide any comments or feedback to officers prior to the deadline.  The six main areas were reported in paragraph 2.05 and the key points for each area were summarised in appendix 1 to the report.  The Director explained that not all of the 98 questions had been answered in the response.  In particular he highlighted responses to questions in section 2.2 on Assessment of Need, section 2.3 Portability of Assessments and section 3.4 Collaboration in Integrated Social Services. 

                        It was reported in paragraph 3.02 that the Bill repeatedly stated that Welsh Government (WG) did not see the need for any additional resources.  However Flintshire’s response raised concerns about whether there would be sufficient resources available to meet increased commitments and expectations in the face of growing demand for services.  Paragraph 3.03 also reported that Flintshire’s considered response also advocated for flexibility in how local authorities delivered services in order to be responsive to local need and protect local democracy.  The Director explained that the response highlighted that the proposals in the Bill could not be achieved by Social Services alone and that commitment by all statutory partners would be required to fully take forward and implement the change programme. 

                        He concluded by informing the Committee of the statement made recently by the Deputy Minister that a significant decision had been made that the Bill would not include an element in the regulations of inspection of Social Services and that this would be the subject of a separate White Paper.  It had also been agreed that the Bill would be introduced into the National Assembly in January 2013 instead of October 2012 as had been indicated in appendix 1. 

                        The Chair felt that the introduction of a common IT system would be required to allow all statutory partners to work together but she felt that this would be a major cost.  She also expressed her gratitude for the comments of the Deputy Minister on the issue.   

            Councillor S. Jones welcomed partnership working but said that a number of colleagues had reservations about decisions being made by others and the issue only being brought back to Overview & Scrutiny for rubber-stamping.  She felt that there had to be an opportunity for Scrutiny Committees to be able to discuss issues and have an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12