Agenda, decisions and minutes

Councillor H.J. McGuill declared an interest as a member of the Community Health Council. 

Councillor H.J. McGuill declared an interest as a member of the Community Health Council. 

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 28^th January and 28^th February 2013.

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

The minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 28 January and 28 February 2013 had been circulated to Members with the agenda.

Matters Arising

Councillor I. Smith indicated that he had not received a response to his question about how many children were affected by the Welfare Reform Act changes.  The Director of Community Services indicated that he would ensure that a written response was provided. 

RESOLVED:

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

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the proposal to allow Conwy County Council to join the partnership be agreed;

(c)        That update reports be submitted to future meetings of the Committee;

(d)       That further information on the breakdown of calls for children and adults, whether the calls were from hospitals because patients were being discharged and a breakdown of the 299 calls listed as ‘other’ be provided to Members. 

The Director of Community Services introduced a report on the update on the joint Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire Emergency Duty Team based in Wrexham.  He also introduced Mr. Mike Bell who was the Manager of the Emergency Duty Team based in Wrexham. 

The Director explained that the service was well established and stable and would reach its fifth anniversary in June 2013.  He reminded Members that this service was for emergency social work and should not be confused with Galw Gofal.  The aims of the report were to provide an update and to seek the views of Members and make them aware of the proposal to allow Conwy County Council to become a Member of the North East Wales Emergency Duty Team (NEWEDT). 

The Manager advised that the report highlighted the developments made in the NEWEDT and the action points which had been identified as a result of the workshop review.  Further enhancement of information systems had been achieved with the implementation of a new enhanced electronic data set which captured performance activity which in turn would inform future planning and service strategy to better target resource allocation.  Details of the review of 2012-13 service outcomes, performance indicators and performance data were reported along with the key service objectives for 2013-14.  The Manager explained that the performance data for staff attendance was not due to staff sickness (which was only 2% in the service) but to a range of reasons including the example of absence due to staff attending training.  He also explained that not all calls could be answered by the Out of Hours team as they were not able to be in the office all of the time but that when this was not possible, the calls were answered by the call centre who would contact the officers if there was an urgent need.

Councillor H.J. McGuill felt that the report did not include enough information.  She queried the number of social workers in the NEWEDT and whether the appointment of four additional social workers meant that the service had been operating below capacity.  In response, the Manager said that there were ten members of staff in the team and that the four sessional social workers had been appointed to provide cover so were in addition to the team of ten.  Councillor McGuill also requested further information on the breakdown of calls for children and adults, and whether the calls were from hospitals because patients were being discharged and requested a breakdown of the 299 calls listed as ‘other’.  The Manager confirmed that he would provide the information requested.  In response to a comment from Councillor McGuill that she wanted to ensure that the team were not taking on unnecessary referrals from hospitals, the Director of Community Services said that referrals from health would be monitored going forward. 

Councillor S. Jones queried the need to agree a common format referred to in the report as she felt that this should already be in place.  The Director explained  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

(a)       That Members endorse the final draft for consideration by Cabinet; and

(b)       That the comments on the styles proposed by “Double Click” be fed back. 

The Director of Community Services introduced a report to present the final draft of the Social Services Annual Performance Overview Report to the Committee and to seek any final views and comments on both the content and proposed layout before approval by Cabinet. 

                        The final version of the report had been prepared following an in-depth review of current performance by service managers, planning and performance officers and a period of consultation and challenge including a Member Task and Finish Group.  The report was a summary of the assessment of the Council’s overall Social Services performance, benchmarking the Council against the key areas identified in the Strategy for Sustainable Social Services for Wales in anticipation of the Social Services and Well Being Bill.  It also identified the targets for the year ahead.  The Director referred to “Double Click” Design Work scheme for Mental Health service users, who had prepared the mock up pages for the final version of the report.     

            The Senior Manager for Partnership, Development and Performance confirmed that the comments of the Task and Finish Group had been incorporated into the draft report. 

            Councillor S. Jones felt that the first priority listed within the draft report should include the word ‘care’.  The Director responded that the priorities listed were for 2012/13 and that the priorities for 2013/14 were being worked on and that he would feed back the comment.  Councillor H.J. McGuill requested that the pages numbers for each section be included on the contents page and that each section start on a new page.  Councillor D.I. Mackie said that it was difficult to read documents in landscape.  The Senior Manager for Partnership, Development and Performance said that the comment on the format of the document would be fed back to “Double Click”. 

            The Chair welcomed the report and spoke of the achievements by Social Services and the work that had been undertaken. 

RESOLVED:

(a)       That Members endorse the final draft for consideration by Cabinet; and

(b)       That the comments on the styles proposed by “Double Click” be fed back. 

(a)       That the reports be received; 

(b)       That Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board be advised about the concerns of Members about care for those with dementia and that they be asked for an update on the specialist dementia nurse; and

(c)        That a written response be provided on performance indicator SCY/001a in the Social Services for Children report (the percentage change in the average number of hours of suitable education, training or employment children and young people receive while within the youth justice system by children and young people of statutory school age).

The Environment and Social Care Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator introduced a report to request that the Committee note and consider the 2012/13 Quarter 3 service performance reports, note the update on the Strategic Assessment of Risks and Challenges (SARC) contained within the performance reports, note the progress made against the Improvement Targets and note the further detail relating to Disabled Facilities Grants.   

Social Services for Children

            The Head of Social Services for Children gave a short presentation on the performance within the service area, outlining work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within the report. 

            In response to a request from Councillor H.J. McGuill on further information on indicator SCY/001a, the Head of Social Services for Children advised that she would provide a written response.  Councillor M. Bateman felt that an explanation including the numbers of those affected should be shown alongside the percentage figures.  Councillor S. Jones asked about the average of 350 calendar days taken to deliver a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG).  The Head of Social Services for Adults said that said that adaptations for children were more complex than those for adults but said that it was hoped that there would be an improvement in the figure in the future.  The Head of Social Services for Children added that the adaptations had to be sustainable. 

            Councillor McGuill sought assurance that assessments were future proof but the Senior Manager for Partnership, Development and Performance advised that it may be obvious at the time of the assessment that a child would require a wheelchair in the future, but the parents may not be ready to accept that and therefore some of the delays in DFGs occurred because of the need to identify the right solution for the longer term. 

            Development and Resources

                        The Director of Community Services gave a short presentation on the performance within Development and Resources, outlining work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within the report. 

                        He explained that an open day for Llys Jasmine was to be held at the Daniel Owen Cetnre on 24 April 2013.  Of the 60 units at Llys Jasmine, 15 were designed specifically for people with dementia. 

                        In response to a question from Councillor S. Jones on the relationship with the Local Health Board and the impacts on public and primary health, the Director said that there were some signs of encouragement but that further work still needed to be undertaken.  He spoke of home enhanced care provision and on the issue of dementia, he said that there was a need to ensure that there was not significant movement of patients from hospital into the community without the required funding.  He spoke of proposals around a community based service and the Head of Social Services for Adults said that enhanced care was a challenge and that the resources needed to be in place to support those who needed assistance.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

That the Forward Work Programme be approved subject to the amendments identified.

The Environment and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Facilitator introduced a report to consider the Forward Work Programme of the Committee. 

            She explained that a joint meeting with Lifelong Learning Overview and Scrutiny Committee was due to take place on Tuesday, 11 June 2013.  The Facilitator also detailed the items which were due to be considered at the meeting scheduled for 9 May 2013 and advised that the Head of Adult Services had asked that a report on ‘Double Click’ be considered at that meeting. 

The items scheduled for the meetings on 20 June and 25 July were also detailed and the Facilitator explained that the Directorate Plan needed to be considered at a future meeting and that she would discuss this with the Chair and Vice-Chair.  The Ambulance Trust had agreed to attend the meeting on 25 July 2013.  Dates were still being discussed for the workshops which had been requested on Welfare Reform and Public Law Outline but all Members were to be invited to both workshops.  Following a suggestion by the Facilitator, Members agreed that it would be appropriate to delay the Welfare Reform workshop until September 2013. 

RESOLVED:

That the Forward Work Programme be approved subject to the amendments identified.     

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