Agenda, decisions and minutes

Personal interests declared by:

Councillors Smith and Dunbobbin on Agenda Item 4

Councillor McGuill on Agenda Item 5

Councillor Hilary McGuill declared a personal interest on Agenda Item 5 ‘Year End Chief Officer Performance Report’ as her great nephew had been the recipient of a Disabled Facilities Grant.

The following Members declared a personal interest on Agenda Item 4 ‘Annual Report on the Social Services Representations and Complaints Procedure 2014-15’:

Councillor Ian Smith - due to his stepson living in an assisted living placement (out of county) funded by the Council.

Councillor Andy Dunbobbin - as a kinship carer.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 14 May 2015.

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

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 May 2015 had been circulated with the agenda.

RESOLVED:

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

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the recommendations/suggestions made by the Committee be taken forward; and

(b)       That officers be encouraged to share details on compliments received for their service areas.

The Senior Manager: Commissioning and Performance introduced the annual report on compliments, representations and complaints received by Adult and Children Social Services for the year 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015.  The information included a breakdown of complaints between service areas, and details of how these were resolved, timescales and outcomes.  Whilst there was a statutory duty on councils to adopt their own complaints procedure, the approach taken by Flintshire also included a more independent and personal element by listening to the views of service users and to learn from them.

Social Services for Adults

The Complaints Officer gave an overview of statistics for Adult Social Services for which 56 complaints had been received out of a total of 4,182 service users supported during the period.  As detailed in the report, the Disability Service Manager explained that the increase in complaints for the Learning Disability Service was due to the introduction of a toolkit assessment which calculated the number of respite nights for families.  Some of the 80 individuals assessed had seen a reduction in their allocation, however it was noted that a series of independent review panels chaired by an external independent person had upheld every decision made by the Council through this assessment.  It was reported that 95% of the complaints had been resolved within the required timescale for Stage 1 of the process; where this was not met, the complainant had been kept informed of progress.

On the Learning Disability Service, Councillor Hilary McGuill asked about the frequency of reviewing individuals’ needs/situations.  The Disability Service Manager explained that the statutory requirement was for a formal review to be undertaken annually, and that this would also be instigated for any reported changes in circumstances.  She confirmed that the complaints for that service area were mainly due to the recent changes implemented on respite provision and would therefore expect to see a reduction next year.

The Senior Manager: Commissioning and Performance explained that the review formed part of the efficiency programme and that individuals were assessed against the revised framework.

In response to a question from Councillor Mike Lowe, the Disability Service Manager said that there had been no further challenge from the complainants to the outcomes of the assessment, following the independent panel reviews.  However, she said that each case was considered individually and gave an example where respite allocation had been adjusted to support the situation of an individual.

The Complaints Officer highlighted the increase in the number of compliments received since 2013-14, but felt that the figure could be higher still due to reluctance by some officers to share this information.  Councillor Dave Mackie stressed the importance of capturing as much as this data as possible and encouraged officers to pursue this.  The Complaints Officer felt that the majority of compliments were being recorded and that managers and staff were regularly reminded of the need to supply this data.

Councillor Andy Dunbobbin welcomed the increase in compliments relating to Mental Health and Substance Misuse and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the comments/observations of the Committee are fed back to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee who are responsible for the overview and monitoring of performance, in particular the concerns around the ‘red’ risk areas which also relate to Health; and

(c)       That the comments on graph formatting and embedded documents be passed to the Performance team for future reference.

The Senior Manager: Commissioning and Performance presented the 2014/15 year end service performance report produced by the Chief Officer (Social Services) for his portfolio. He gave a short presentation on performance, outlining work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within the report.

During explanation on the two operational risks identified in the wider risk register on the resilience of the independent sector, reference was made to the lack of available beds in the county, the increasing demand to support individuals with more complex needs and work to progress more extra care facilities as an alternative to residential care.  As mentioned in the previous item, the challenges around recruiting quality nursing staff had resulted in heavy reliance on bank (agency) nurses and would be the subject of discussions with the health sector.  Information was also provided on measures to improve sickness absence figures.

The Housing Regeneration & Strategy Manager explained that timescales for Disabled Facilities Grants had been greatly affected by staff recruitment and retention issues in Housing over the past 12 months.  However, it was hoped that this would be resolved through the restructuring of teams.

On the review of care plans during the year, the Senior Manager: Commissioning and Performance pointed out that the Council’s achievement of 98% in the previous year had been the best performance across Wales, and was pleased to note that this level had been sustained for 2014/15.

The Senior Manager Safeguarding: Lead Children reported that all year end performance indicators for Children’s Services had improved, apart from two relating to the completion of initial assessments where there was evidence of the child being seen/being seen alone by a social worker and re-referrals rates.  She explained that the re-referrals rates were not straightforward as systems could capture multiple referrals relating to a single event and incorrectly reflect these as re-referrals, eg  referrals from multiple agencies attending a single event would appear as re-referrals.  Work has already commenced to review re-referrals and to revisit recording and reporting processes to provide a true reflection of re-referral rates.  As an update, she reported that of the 35 indicators for last year, 20 had shown improvement, seven remained the same and eight decreased.

On corporate reporting (Section 3), Councillor McGuill pointed out the need for percentage bands on the graphs between Quarter 3 and Quarter 4 to be consistent to enable proper comparison.  The Senior Manager: Commissioning and Performance said that this would be relayed to corporate colleagues who were responsible for producing the information.

Councillor Veronica Gay requested that the embedded document in Section 3 of the report be made available, if possible, and that any such documents be made accessible in future reports.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the comments/observations of the Committee are fed back to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee who are responsible for the overview and monitoring of performance, in particular the concerns around the ‘red’ risk areas which also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the areas highlighted as ‘red’ risks be referred to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny who are responsible for the overview and monitoring of performance; and

(c)       That the concerns around timescales for Disabled Facilities Grants for children/young people be referred to the Community & Enterprise Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

The Senior Manager: Commissioning and Performance introduced the report for the Committee to note and consider elements of the 2014/15 Year End Improvement Plan Monitoring Report relevant to the Committee.

A short presentation was given on performance within each of the sub-priority areas, highlighting work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within each report.

Independent Living

On the average days taken to deliver a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), the Senior Manager: Commissioning and Performance acknowledged that this was an area of particular concern for children/young people.  He said that officers were looking at measures to reduce the timescales, explaining that the outturn for 2014/15 was due to the two cases involving some complex issues.

Councillor Hilary McGuill asked what was being done to help individuals in those cases, pointing out that the delays represented a long time in the lives of those children.  She went on to stress the importance of ‘future proofing’ to plan for the years ahead where the child’s needs could become more complex.

The Disability Service Manager pointed out that the indicator was measured from the start of the process through to completion sign-off and that did not reflect a range of interim measures implemented to help families awaiting the installation of equipment.  In terms of forward planning, Occupational Therapists were responsible for co-ordinating a range of professional assistance which could be drawn upon, however it was not possible to accurately predict future needs in every case.

Councillor McGuill questioned the effectiveness of this approach and had previously raised with officers her concerns about the lack of forward planning for adaptations on a particular case.  The Housing Regeneration & Strategy Manager was aware of the case and referred to it being highly complex in terms of the adaptations required.  He went on to give assurance of forward planning as much as possible and said that the case highlighted would be reviewed again.

In response to further concerns raised by Councillor McGuill on improving timescales for DFG work for children/young people, the Disability Service Manager suggested that it may be helpful to share anonymised historic assessment data with the Committee to demonstrate the different elements of the process.

When asked how many DFGs had been completed for children/young people beyond 2014/15, the Housing Regeneration & Strategy Manager agreed to find out and respond to the Committee.

On DFGs, Councillor Dave Mackie suggested that it may be useful for future outturns to be accompanied by specific commentary including any feedback from the parent/carer, to satisfy Members of the support given and that perhaps a breakdown of the various elements of the process could help to identify where the problem was.  He also pointed out inconsistencies in the 2013/14 baseline data and 2016/17 aspirational target when compared with the previous year’s report.

In response to the concerns around DFGs, the Senior Manager: Commissioning and Performance suggested that he liaise with Internal Audit and request an assessment of the process to assure the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

That the information be noted.

No rota visits had been undertaken since last reported.

RESOLVED:

That the information be noted.

That the Forward Work Programme planning session be arranged for July 2015.

The Facilitator introduced a report to enable the Committee to consider the Forward Work Programme.  Following agreement from the Committee, she agreed to schedule a date in July 2015 for a planning session to populate the Forward Work Programme.

In response to a comment by Councillor Ian Smith on meeting times, the Chair pointed out that meetings were split between mornings and afternoons to accommodate the preferences of various Members.

RESOLVED:

That the Forward Work Programme planning session be arranged for July 2015.

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