Meeting documents

Purpose:

The Council’s Adult Social Care transformation plans were reviewed by the Committee at its November meeting.  This item will provide Members with more detail on the transformation projects and provide progress on the delivery.

Attendees:

Lin Hazell, Cabinet Member for Health & Wellbeing

Ms K Jackson, Service Director, Operations

Ms T Ironmonger, Assistant Director of Public Health

Ms J Bowie, Service Director, Integrated Commissioning

Mr M Everitt, Interim Business Intelligence Business Partner

Papers:

Power point presentation attached

Intended outcome:

For Members to gain a greater understanding of the details around the transformation projects and to seek reassurance that the transformation plans are on track for delivery.

The Chairman welcomed officers Ms T Ironmonger, Assistant Director of Public Health, Ms K Jackson, Service Director for Adult Social Care (ASC) Operations, and Ms J Bowie, Service Director for Integrated Commissioning. Lin Hazell, the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing joined part way through the item.

An overview of the presentation circulated with the agenda was given by officers.

The following issues and questions were raised by the Committee: 

• In response to a question about how adult social care works with the NHS to improve delays in transfer of care out of Hospital, the Cabinet Member and officers confirmed that they work very closely as a system to minimise delays.  The number of delays due to adult social care was relatively low compared to the national figures.
• A Member asked whether the regular ASC six monthly update to Cabinet could provide more specific and informative details on the transformation plans, including evidence of improved outcomes and delivery timeframes. Members enjoyed client case studies but wanted to understand the impact of change on the different tiers from how the service was now delivered to how it will be delivered in future. In response to a question about the new Integrated Care Service (ICS) User Group, Ms Jackson agreed to share more information on this Group.
• A Member asked whether the ageing population had been reflected in the plans for more care homes in future.  The officers confirmed that modelling had taken place to ensure predicted growth was reflected in the plans.
• A Member asked whether other local authorities had been going through similar transformation and whether information sharing had taken place.  The officers confirmed that they had spoken to, and visited a number of other authorities, including Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire and discussions were also taking place at a national level through the Association of Directors in Adult Social Services Group. In response to a question about whether the workforce was trained to take on this new approach and whether the Service was working with local universities and colleges to provide the right level of training for the future, the officers confirmed that this was happening and 94% of the current workforce had received training,

·         There were £5.2million projected savings linked to the transformation plans.  The officers confirmed that they were confident that these savings would be made. The slide in the presentation highlighting the new social care contacts and established client base shows percentages for "now" and "in the future".  The Committee asked to see the raw data behind these percentages in order to understand the proposed shifts in the different tiers in terms of actual numbers of clients.

• A Member commented on the heavy reliance on IT in order to successfully deliver the transformation plans and asked how the IT system integrates with the health sector; Ms Bowie explained that significant progress had been made in IT.  Mention was made of the Airedale model which uses Assistive technology in care homes and this was currently being looked at.  
• A Member raised concern about the pressures being placed on the community and voluntary sector and asked whether work had been undertaken to establish the sustainability of this sector.  Ms Ironmonger explained that the Council had been selected to be part of a project around "Prevention at scale" and a number of stakeholder meetings had already taken place.  The Council works closely with many organisations and would continue to do so.

·         Transport was identified as an integral part of the transformation plans and the Committee would like to see transport solutions included in future presentations. The Committee would like more detail around the Assistive technology service, including how technology was being used to continually improve what was available and how other innovations are being developed, the costs associated with this, the number of clients using the service and details on how future demand will be met.

·         The Committee continued to have concerns around Transitions and would like to receive regular updates on the development of the proposed 14-25 service as well as evidence that planning was starting earlier in the process.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and the officers for their time and confirmed that a letter would be sent to the Cabinet Member requesting a response to the points raised above. 

A new joint health and social care IT Director would be joining the Council in September and it was agreed to invite them to a future meeting.