Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any Declarations and advise Members accordingly.

None were received.

None were received.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 4 November and 9 December 2021.

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Chairman made reference to a matter arising on page 9 of the minutes of 4^th November, 2021 concerning the strengthening between the Council and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.  She reported that there would be an update in September once the new Continuing Health Care Officer was appointed.

The minutes of the meeting held on 4^th November, 2021 were approved and moved by Councillor Jean Davies and seconded by Councillor Gladys Healey.

                      The minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2021 were approved and moved by Councillor Gladys Healey and seconded by Councillor Mike Lowe.

          RESOLVED:

          That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

(a)       That the Committee considers the draft Forward Work Programme and approve/amend as necessary;

(b)       That the Facilitator, in consultation with the Chair of the Committee be authorised to vary the Forward Work Programme between meetings, as the need arises; and

(c)       That the Committee notes the progress made in completing the outstanding actions.

The Social Care and Environment Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator presented the current Forward Work Programme stating that the next meeting would take place in the new municipal year on 9^th June 2022 and that the regular items would be factored into the Forward Work Programme once the new Committee dates had been agreed.

            The Social Care and Environment Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator reported that most of the items on the action tracking report were completed apart from the item on primary care engagement events which was ongoing.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the Committee considers the draft Forward Work Programme and approve/amend as necessary;

(b)       That the Facilitator, in consultation with the Chair of the Committee be authorised to vary the Forward Work Programme between meetings, as the need arises and

(c)       That the Committee notes the progress made in completing the outstanding actions.

That the Committee review and feedback on the refreshed content of the themes for the Council Plan 2022-23 prior to sharing with Cabinet in June 2022.

The Chief Officer (Social Services) introduced the report and stated that the 2022/23 Draft Plan had been reviewed and refreshed for content following on from the response to the pandemic and the Recovery Strategy.  He said that the themes and priorities remained the same as 2021/22 but there were some developments with sub-priorities.

The Strategic Performance Advisor advised that the report had been agreed by Cabinet and following consultation by Committee today and Education Committee in February any changes to the report would then be made following feedback.  He then gave a more detailed account of the report.

Following concerns raised by Cllr Gladys Healey regarding empty homes and the impact of homelessness on the health and wellbeing of people, it was agreed that the Community Housing & Assets Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator would send an email to the relevant officers enquiring about what help is available to families before they are put into B&B establishments.  She added that if the report going to the Community Housing & Assets meeting in February didn’t address the issues raised, she would ask for a further response to be provided.

Councillor Ellis questioned as to why Mental Health Services were not in the plan following a number of requests she had had from residents about access to the Service.  The Chief Officer (Social Services) stated that the plan was ongoing for the year going forward and didn’t include services which were “business and usual” which Mental Health came under.  He advised that any comment about priorities around mental health and social care would need to be fed into the plan.  The Senior Manager – Integrated Services and Lead Adults added that one of the difficulties was that the Council was measured against its performance within the plan, but mental health was a joint service with health who they worked with as well as voluntary organisations of which a number of them they funded.  The Strategic Performance Advisor said that he would incorporate Mental Health Services into the plan recognising that it was a joint service delivered with health.

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor Dave Mackie and seconded by Councillor Paul Cunningham.               

RESOLVED:

That the Committee review and feedback on the refreshed content of the themes for the Council Plan 2022-23 prior to sharing with Cabinet in June 2022.

That Members support the progress of the Flintshire Young Carers Support Service and development of the new Young Carers ID Card.

The Senior Manager – Children and Workforce reminded the Committee that back in July 2020 the Young Carers Service was transferred to NEWCIS and as requested by the Committee this report was an overview of the positive outcomes that had been achieved for young carers within Flintshire.

The Planning & Development Officer – Children and Workforce gave an overview of the key successes as listed in 1.10 of the report since the Service had been operational.

Alice Thelwell – Young Carers Project informed the Committee of some of the highlights of the last 12 months:-

·         Launch of the Carers ID Card in March 2021  

·         Events that had been held

·         Planned events to be held

·         Production of Wellbeing Booklet

·         Counselling Sessions

·         Grants for respite

The Chief Executive – NEWCIS reported that with the help of partnerships Young Carers have eased smoothly into Adult Services.  She thanked the Senior Manager – Children and Workforce and the team for their continued support and advice on funding which had helped in offering different services.  They were hoping to hold a North Wales Young Carer Festival this year along with other breaks away as unfortunately things were cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

Councillor Mackie stated that this was a well run, much needed service provided by enthusiastic people but questioned the budget that was reported in the report compared to the demand.  In response the Chief Executive – NEWCIS stated that that was the Contract that was in place and that they had received additional money in the last 12 months which enabled them to appoint a temporary member of staff which she was confident would now be secure due to the help from the Senior Manager – Children and Workforce in gaining more funding and she hoped to be taking on another member of staff. They did have problems in the summer with unavoidable staffing issues but had assistance from Children’s Services to help them through.  She stated that if ‘Action for Children’ are successful with the Family First Tender this would enable NEWCIS to gain an additional post which would be a positive move going forward. 

The Senior Manager – Children and Workforce agreed that it was a fair question that was raised by Councillor Mackie and that the service was commissioned on funding they had. He stated that they were victims of their own success due to the excellent service they provided. 

The Committee agreed that it was an excellent report and thanked all staff involved in the running of the service. 

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor Paul Cunningham and seconded by Councillor Dave Mackie.                  

RESOLVED:

That Members support the progress of the Flintshire Young Carers Support Service and development of the new Young Carers ID Card.

(a)          That Members accept and note the report, and agree that the annual CIW return on the performance of the service and meeting regulation should be an annual report to the Committee; and

(b)          That members’ rota visits are re-established, pandemic allowing, in 2022.

The Senior Manager – Integrated Services and Lead Adults introduced Mark Holt who was the Registered Manager - Resources and Regulated Services for the Council which is a statutory post that all regulated services have to have to collect evidence by means of visiting services a minimum of 4 times a year to observe and also talking to families, residents and services users to measure services against the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act (2016) - (RISCA).  The Responsible Individual explained that there were 84 different regulations covering:-

·         Older People’s residential care homes

·         Extra Care Housing

·         The Flintshire Homecare Service

·         Short-term Care Services for people with learning disability

·         Supported Living Services

The Chairman commented on the excellent standard of care that had been given to residents due to there being no COVID cases within Supported Living.

In response to a question raised by the Chairman concerning the 17 supported living houses the Registered Manager - Resources and Regulated Services confirmed that here had been a change over the last 5 years as an additional house was opened to accommodate an individual.  There were no plans to change over the next 5 years as any review of the service would be need to be comprehensive.

            Councillor Mackie was eager to see the return of rota visits as recommended in the report and would like an update on progress on digital records in the next report.  Cllr Dave Mackie expressed the view that investment in digital records needed to be given priority.  He also asked that progress in this area should be monitored by the Committee going forward.   He also showed concern and would like to see further information on the newly introduced pre visit check for short term care in a future report.  The Chair of the Committee, Cllr Hilary McGuill concurred that it was about time records went digital, and all members were in agreement.   

In response the Chief officer referred to the Digital Strategy Group and said that the Senior Manager – Children and Workforce make the group aware that the Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee had requested that this area of service be prioritised by the Council.

Recommendation (a) in the report was moved by Councillor Jean Davies and seconded by Councillor Dave Mackie.

Recommendation (b) in the report was moved by Councillor Gladys Healey and seconded by Councillor Mike Allport.

RESOLVED:

(a)          That Members accept and note the report, and agree that the annual CIW return on the performance of the service and meeting regulation should be an annual report to the Committee and

(b)          That members’ rota visits are re-established, pandemic allowing, in 2022.

(a)          That Members support the North Wales Population Needs Assessment, prior to submission to Full Council in February 2022; and

(b)          That Members support the process for the approval of the Regional Market Stability Report and receive an information report when available.

The Chief Officer (Social Services) firstly gave thanks to Emma Murphy and Katrina Shanka on producing the report which was a requirement of the Social Services Well-being Act 2014 on the North Wales Population Needs Assessment 2022 which assesses the care and support needs of the population and the support needs of carers covering North Wales.  He stated that this report would be used to inform service developments in future years.

                         The Senior Manager - Safeguarding and Commissioning explained that the document had been though the Regional Partnership Board before coming to this Committee and would then go to the Chief Executive Committee of the Health Board.  He stressed that timescales had been tight due to the impact of the pandemic and that publication was due in April.  He reported that feedback had been very positive and that the document had been well received.

                        The Planning & Development Officer – Children and Workforce reassured Members that the document was not just based on results of the online survey but also from a wealth of reports and knowledgeable staff as well as consultations that have taken place over the last 5 years.

                        The Chairman and the Committee agreed that it was an excellent document which would be well used as a reference document.

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor Gladys Healey and seconded by Councillor Dave Mackie.

RESOLVED:

(a)          That Members support the North Wales Population Needs Assessment, prior to submission to Full Council in February 2022 and

(b)          That Members support the process for the approval of the Regional Market Stability Report and receive an information report when available.

That Members continue to support the progress made in rolling out the innovative Micro-care pilot and the positive contribution the scheme is making in meeting the demands for care in Flintshire.

The Senior Manager - Safeguarding and Commissioning reported that many local authorities faced pressures in meeting the increasing demand for social care, with the growing older population and care agencies finding it difficult to recruit and retain employees and that delivering care into more rural parts of the County could be problematic.  Micro-care enterprises were established following a feasibility study and gaining funding from Cadwyn Clwyd and the Welsh Government.

Councillor Mackie said that it was a brilliant report with clear significant success stories and had identified the need in two areas being the need for support and the need for providers as had been show in the statements in the report.  In response to a question he raised about RISCA Legislation and the rule of 4, the Senior Manager - Safeguarding and Commissioning stated that they have had many conversations with CIW pushing for Micro-care which wasn’t included in the Legislation at the time.  CIW were very supportive but obviously were tied by the legislation.  It was hoped that in time the Legislation would catch up if more local authorities provided Micro-care.

Councillor Christine Jones stated that she was very proud to be one of the first authorities to implement the scheme.  The Chairman was pleased that two Micro-care providers had been so successful they had formed their own domiciliary agencies.

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor Gladys Healey and seconded by Councillor Paul Cunningham.

RESOLVED:

That Members continue to support the progress made in rolling out the innovative Micro-care pilot and the positive contribution the scheme is making in meeting the demands for care in Flintshire.

That Members note the progress and associated delivery plans for the Transformation Fund.

The Senior Manager – Children and Workforce gave an update to the Committee on Phase 2 of the Transformation Programme as requested at the last Scrutiny Committee.  He explained that the programme would be delivered in 2022.  Key issues were:-

·         An independent Evaluation of existing MST Team

·         The opening of a joint Flintshire/Wrexham Registered Residential Assessment Centre “Ty Nyth”

·         A joint Flintshire/Wrexham crisis flat providing registered emergency accommodation and support in emergencies

·         A second MST Team providing assessment and therapy to build resilience and support family reunification and ‘move on’ from Ty Nyth

·         A registered Children’s Home providing long term placements for up to 4 Flintshire Children in a settled, homely environment.

In relation to a question raised by the Chairman the Senior Manager – Children and Workforce anticipated that they would be operational by autumn 2022 once CIW registration had been approved.  A further progress report would then be provided.

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor Gladys Healey and seconded by Councillor Jean Davies.

RESOLVED:

That Members note the progress and associated delivery plans for the Transformation Fund.

The Chief Officer (Social Services) wished to thank the Chair and Vice-Chair for their leadership along with member of the Committee for their support.  The Chair and Vice-Chair responded by saying that they were very proud to be members of the Committee and would like to thank all staff and participants who had made Social & and Health Care Overview & Scrutiny a successful Committee.

There were no members of the press or public in attendance.