Agenda item

That the report be noted.

The Chief Officer (Social Services) gave a brief summary of the Recovery Strategy and stated that the vast majority of services were maintained at a high level throughout the emergency period maximising the support to vulnerable people.  Some services had a change in demand while others were business as usual.  He explained that, where needed, service delivery had been adapted to use blended approaches with some people in the office as needed.   Also there had been recent significant pressures on Care Homes and Home Care availability but things were now more stable and hoped that this would be sustained before vaccines commenced. He and the Cabinet Member had been meeting with all operational teams to show appreciation to their commitment.

The Chairman asked what had not returned to normal and the Chief Officer (Social Services) explained that some respite services for older people had not been possible to run, some day services had not opened in full, Children’s respite services – Arosfa and face to face training courses had not been running but were held virtually.  Some were now being held face to face.  He added that some changes would be reviewed and may be kept.

Councillor Gladys Healy asked if there was enough staff to monitor the situation of children who were not attending school and were being home schooled which she added she would also raise with Education and Youth Overview & Scrutiny.  The Chief Officer (Social Services) said that Education Social Workers were the front line services for when children did not attend school and from a Social Services point of view they had not encountered any problems.  He stressed that it was important to work with them to support people and families of those children who were not able to attend school.  Welsh Government had asked if we were monitoring Children on the Child Protection Register which we are doing pro-actively.

The Chairman was interested to know what had been lost by not being office based from a safeguarding point of view.  The Chief Officer (Social Services) didn’t think that they had lost that much, which they need to learn from for the future and that they adapted really well as young people were much more comfortable with technology and digital methods. From a health and wellbeing point of view allowing small groups of staff to go into the office to form a pod was a proactive thing that they had done as staff had missed the support that they got from office contact in terms of unloading cases.

In a response to the points that Councillor Ellis raised about the risk register references and discharges from hospital the Chief Officer (Social Services) said that he was concerned about the pressures but that they had done everything they could to respond and maintain good quality services which he praised the staff for.  He explained that the ones that had an underlying risk rating of red was a fair rating because of significant pressures.  The risk rating of yellow suggested that there had been improvement that had strengthened that area of service.  The protocol on hospital discharges had been followed to the letter resulting in moves to Residential Care Homes not being as easy as they were which lead to having to be more flexible and develop new services i.e. The Oaks in Shotton and Ty Treffynnon which were still being used.

When asked by Councillor Cunningham how Ty Treffynnon was running the Senior Manager – Integrated Services and Lead Adults confirmed that it had been working well although it did have an outbreak but was now back open.  It had a fantastic response in terms of discharge to assess and recover resulting in the majority of people going back home and very few people having to move into long term residential care which was a great measure of success.  A review to decide what to do next was due this month as the 12 month lease ends in April 2021.

In response to a question asked by Councillor Bateman about proof of vaccination the Senior Manager – Safeguarding and Commissioning said that medical records would be updated as it would for any other vaccination but that testing would still continue for those who had had the vaccination as it was only 90-95% effective and it was unknown if the virus would change in its presentation as time progresses like the flu virus does. 

The Chairman asked if it was a requirement in recruiting staff for Nursing Homes that they have had the vaccination.  The Senior Manager – Safeguarding and Commissioning said that her understanding was that as the vaccine was not compulsory it could not be a requirement and colleagues within BCUHB had been talking about NFC registration and the importance of doing the right thing.

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

RESOLVED:

That the update be noted.