Meeting documents

No apologies.  The group introduced themselves.

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 14 May 2012

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 May 2012 were agreed.

With regard to the budget for the Learning Disability Service, Nadiya reported that the Learning Disability Partnership had raised the issue of the cut in the budget.  Trevor Boyd agreed to look into this issue and provide a breakdown.  It was agreed that Ian Cormack and Nadiya Ashraf would follow up on this and email out the breakdown.

Action:  IC/NA

With regard to attendance at the Prevention and Wellbeing Board, Steve Archibald said he had not been able to attend the last meeting as the representative of the Carers Partnership Board, but would be attending the next one.

Margaret Morgan-Owen referred to the work on the NHS Carers Breaks and her wish to be involved.  It was noted that Zita Calkin would be updating the Carers Partnership Board on the process.

Ian Cormack spoke about the upcoming SDS Information Event being held for Carers of People with Learning Disabilities.  Flyers had been sent out advertising the event.

Presentation from Amy Moore, Joint Commissioner Transitions, CYPS and AFW

Ian welcomed to the meeting Amy Moore, Joint Commissioner Transitions.  Amy gave a presentation on the Transitions Protocol and Pathway which was jointly funded by Adults and Family Wellbeing and Children and Young People Services.  The following was noted:

·           Amy’s role is to embed the Multi Agency Transitions Protocol and Pathway from work done by Multi Agency Transitions Board.

·           The Board is chaired by Rachael Rothero and has multi agency representation. The project champion is Chris Munday. 

·           The Board was keen to see the protocol and pathway embedded in the care programme and cascaded to parents, carers and families. 

·           It covers age range 14-25 and whilst it has been suggested it should start earlier, there is a statutory obligation for agencies to have a transition review at age 14 years to help move young people into adulthood. 

·           This is not about transition into Adult Social Care Services.  Government has made it clear it is about transition to adulthood and for professionals to ensure young people get the appropriate support.

·           The transition review begins before a young person’s 17^th birthday, when Adult Services becomes involved, including Mental Health, in looking at what support needs to be provided in planning for the future.  This includes work around education, employment, training and independent living.

·           Guidance for professionals is also included in the protocol.

·           Whilst the guidance has been signed off and agreed by the Multi Agency Transitions Board, further work is needed with regard to the pathway, and part of Amy’s role is to work with parents and carers to ensure the pathway is more user friendly.  This includes work with the Youth Service to make it more interactive.

·           There will be a Carers/Parents workshop looking at The Community Care Act and parents rights.  In this connection it was hoped to have parent champions in connection with the transition work.

·           There will be person centred reviews and it was noted that South Bucks has carried out person centred review training.  A person centred review should take place at age 14 years, but it was noted the young person is not always there and there was a move to change this through training, to give a better idea of the needs of the young person.

Ann Whitely expressed concern that the parents of the young people do not appear to have a say once the person has reached the age of 18.  Whilst there are legalities around this, it was different for people with learning disabilities.  There was a feeling that the families should still be involved, but they do get marginalised. 

Amy said in light of Government guidelines, they were looking at continual assessment from 0 – 25 years and ensuring that this was bedded into practice.  This process was in place in some areas, but currently not in Buckinghamshire which was not a pathfinder area.   She said they also want to look at the level of need and were looking at spending over the next couple of years in relation to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

This was an additional item and not sent out on the agenda.

Ian welcomed to the meeting Ted Piker, Wycombe District Council Scrutiny Officer and Matt Knight, Wycombe District Councillor and a member of the Task and Finish Group.

The membership of the group and the terms of reference were circulated.  It was noted particularly that the recommendations coming from the Task and Finish Group needed to be cost neutral, based on current budgets and these recommendations would be presented to Wycombe District Council in the first instance.  If accepted, they will then be implemented.  It may also be that some recommendations would be made to outside bodies.  Those interviewed included officers from Housing and taxi licensing and written reports had been received from Customer Services.  The purpose of presenting to the Board was to seek comments and collate them for inclusion in the work of the Task and Finish Group.  Comments from the Physical Disabilities Partnership Board were also being sought.

The Chairman said this would fit in with one of the priorities set by the Carers Partnership Board, which was ‘To open a dialogue with the District Councils to establish their housing provision, allocation and support policies in relation to carers and the people they care for.’  In this connection, there was a need to understand that role and how issues were being addressed.  It was hoped the Task and Finish Group Report would help in this respect. 

One issue to address was to ensure the wider community could access information easily and this included awareness from staff in Customer Care.  Members agreed provision of information was important and needed to be given proactively.  Whilst the ordinary resident can access information through the internet, many disabled people and carers don’t want to use IT facilities.  In this connection, Ted Piker said that support was also offered through the district council offices in High Wycombe and also the Marlow and Princes Risborough Information Offices.

Action:  Debi Game to get information regarding consultation and send out to members via the Clerk.

Ted Piker referred to the questionnaire that had been sent out during the consultation process, and whilst the timescale for this had been missed, they had spotted gaps by attending this meeting.  David Jack asked for more recognition with regard to autism, particularly Asberger’s Syndrome and suggested there may be certain requirements under the Autism Act that may need to be considered.  Ted said they were not just looking at the traditional interpretation of disability, but some areas had not been covered because of timescales, however they would endeavour to do what they could.

Ian thanked Ted Piker and Cllr Matt Knight for their briefing.

Report from either Gill Manning-Smith, Service Manager, Safeguarding, or Charles Owen-Conway, Chairman of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Board.

The BSVAB Annual Report 2010/11 can be viewed and downloaded from this web page: http://www.buckinghamshirepartnership.gov.uk/partnership/sva/about_the_board.page

The BSVAB Annual Report 2010/11 direct document link:http://www.buckinghamshirepartnership.gov.uk/assets/content/Partnerships/sva/docs/10_11bsvabannualreport_final.pdf

Ian welcomed to the meeting Charles Owen-Conway, Chairman of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Board, who gave members a briefing on the work of the Board.

The following was noted:

·           The Board consists of 12 organisations operating across Buckinghamshire.

·           Its objective is to scrutinise and monitor activities across Buckinghamshire to understand the definition of vulnerable adult.

·           To identify people at risk, put in harm’s way or subjected to harm and look at what action needs to be taken, either away from or in the home.

There are six main areas of operation to provide a means of reducing the risk of abuse:

·           Promotion, through raising awareness;

·           Prevention, through robust employment practices and working with communities and mainstream providers

·           Protection – robust multi-agency policy and procedures and standards of best practice

·           Monitoring

·           Promotion of learning

·           Partnership working

Further information can be accessed through the website, including guidance and where to go for help and guidance.

There is an awareness campaign throughout the County and there was a need to keep sending out messages.  Charles Owen-Conway said if was difficult to know how to reach all carers, but they were lucky to have Alison Lewis on the Board.  Members noted that it had taken some time to get the Annual Report for 2010/2011 published, but the Report for 2011/12 would be published buy the end of September 2012.

Richard Brook asked about the reporting mechanism to the Board for carers issues, particularly where the carer may be the perpetrator.  He said he was keen to put to the Board whether it was satisfied that it had the right representation of service users, how comments should be collected and imparted to the Board and how these concerns can be taken forward.  The Chairman suggested this could be done through a consultation on carers priorities, possibly through a workshop.  Richard said that Gill Manning Smith was suggesting ongoing dialogue throughout the process to ensure the carer knows the outcome. 

Some of the members of the Partnership Board agreed that the feedback process needed to be more robust and it was noted that there had been an increase in budget to look at these issues. 

With regard to levels of abuse members agreed that they considered a service user receiving personal care from an excessive number of domiciliary care staff from a care agency, amounted to a form of abuse.  Charles Owen Conway agreed with this and sited an incident involving a company providing services that fell short of what was required under their contract, and the fact that action was taken on this.

The following was agreed:

·           Ann Whitely to work jointly with services users regarding referrals, but to have an initial session with carers to understand the current process.  Ann said they already have a Service User and Carers Group that works well.  However, it was emphasised that the carer can also be the perpetrator.

·           Ann Whitely and Richard Brook to work on creating a mechanism for ongoing channelling of carers issues to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

There were no updates to report.

Update from Zita Calkin, Joint Commissioning Manager

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting Zita Calkin, Joint Commissioning Manager, who gave an update on Short Breaks and the work done so far.

Budgets of £400,000 each from the NHS and £400,000 from Carers Grant money have been identified to form a pool of money for short breaks for carers, and a joint plan will be in place by September 2012.  In discussion the following was noted:

·           The funding is to provide a break for carers for whatever duration they deem necessary.

·           An amount of £500 - £750 would be provided for a break

·           The co-ordinating service will be going through an independent brokerage service and there will be robust monitoring regarding spending and outcomes, as well as a support plan.

·           Further develop the process for BCC Social Care funds - It will be a phased process

·           The Buckinghamshire County Council element of the Breaks for Carers funding would be awarded to eligible Carers as the result of a Carers Assessment.  It is intended that the process will, as far as possible, mirror the PCT Breaks for Carers Scheme.  Further work needs to be done on self assessment and eligibility in respect of Carers.

·           Finalising documents for Health breaks i.e. easy to fill in and ensuring clear pathway.

·           A working group has been established to develop the process for carers breaks, which will include a self-assessment questionnaire and objectives and outcomes to measure performance.

·           Further work will include finalisation of documents and templates, the process for payment to carers, developing a carers’ pathway for the model; developing carers self assessment forms/questionnaires and outcomes for the service, production of simple expenditure sheets and an agreed reporting and monitoring mechanism for the service.

It was noted that the allocated money for the break would not be means tested.  The process for issuing the funding had not yet been finalised for Buckinghamshire but it was suggested that the brokerage service would record what the carer wants from the break.  However, a questionnaire could still be sent out which would ensure the process was robust and the outcome properly recorded.  Nadiya Ashraf emphasised the need to collect data regarding the impact and outcome of the breaks.  Ann Whitely said one of the main benefits from the funding is that the amount does not need to be spent in one go.

Zita Calkin said they were trying to reach groups of carers that they were not currently engaging with.  The PCT’s half of the process would enable GPs to identify and acknowledge the effect the caring role has on the health of the carer and it would include those who may not have received a service to date.

Richard Brook said this was a big step forward and the Board should be supportive of the initiative.  There had been a constriction of resources in Buckinghamshire in the last 18 months and many carers were relying on accessing services to have a break, and these were limited in relation to day services.  Margaret Morgan-Owen  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Attached is the list of priorities agreed at the last meeting.

Nadiya Ashraf asked members to look at the list of agreed priorities and decide on which could be taken forward immediately with a view to implementation, ownership of each of them and how they can be delivered within this financial year.

Richard Brook said he was receiving funding from BCC with regard to his work, part of which is to compile a guide to self funding.  He said the funding enabled him to provide one to one and a half days a week to work on the Carers Partnership Board’s priorities, by either supporting people or investigating resources himself and reporting back to the Board.

Members looked at the priorities under each outcome and these are set out in the attached table of Priorities.

Action:  It was agreed that Lou Patten would be invited to the November meeting.

Update from Carers Bucks

Members noted there would be a BAME focus event on 18 June 2012 which would have a health focus.  The timetable would be emailed to members.

It was suggested that The Law Society: Carers Assessment be put on the agenda for the September meeting.  It would present an opportunity to comment on giving legal rights to carers.  Nadiya Ashraf said it would be a culture shift for organisations in terms of delivering services.

Action: Item for September meeting

Update from Carers Bucks

Item not discussed.

12 September 2012 at 9.30am in Mezzanine Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury, HP20 1UA.  Future Dates:

14 November 2012 at 9.30am in Mezzanine Room 1

12 September 2012 at 9.30am in Mezzanine Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury, HP20 1UA.  Future Dates:

14 November 2012 at 9.30am in Mezzanine Room 1