Agenda item

Buckinghamshire Council’s Better Lives Strategy 2022-25 reiterates the direction of travel set out in the original Better Lives Strategy 2018-21.  Committee Members will examine the progress made through the first strategy and the scope of the second phase of the transformation programme.

Presenters

Cllr A Macpherson, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing

Ms G Quinton, Corporate Director, Adults and Health

Papers

Covering report

Appendix 1 - Better Lives Strategy 2022-25

Appendix 2 – case studies

The Chairman welcomed Cllr Angela Macpherson, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, and Ms Gill Quinton, Corporate Director, Adult and Health, to the meeting.

During their presentation, the following main points were made:

·       The Council’s refreshed Better Lives Strategy (BLS) for 2022 – 2025 was published on 19^th January 2022. The strategy focuses on how services would be delivered to help people to achieve independence at home.

·       The BLS strategy had already achieved £10 million in savings and a further £6.9 million of savings were forecast over the next budget period.

·       Case studies to highlight the impact of the strategy on people’s lives had been included in the agenda pack. 

·       The report sets out key areas of priority in terms of transformation projects, most of which were currently in the early stages.

During discussion, Members made the following comments and raised the following questions:  

·       A Member asked whether the strategy delivers the correct balance in terms of independent living and the provision of care. Concerns were also raised around costs in terms of domiciliary care and residential/nursing care. The report compared the costs which were estimated at an average of £285 per week for domiciliary care and £1000 per week for residential and nursing care.

·       The refreshed strategy builds on the tiered approach.  Tier 1 focussed on living independently, with services provided through referrals and signposting to universal services (around 70% of adult social care clients). The second tier focussed on reablement, where many short-term packages were provided to enable people to return to their home environment (e.g. disabled facilities grants), (around 20 % of clients). The refreshed strategy aimed to reduce this number. Tier 3 focussed on long-term support for clients, which tended to be the high-cost services (around 10 % of clients were in this tier).

·       A Member pointed out that although savings have been achieved, the adult social care budget had increased.   The Cabinet Member explained that this was due to an increase in demand for services, particularly from younger people with disabilities.

·       A Member commented that the Care Advice Buckinghamshire website was not well publicised. The Cabinet Member acknowledged that this was the case and agreed to review this.  She went on to say that the website does provide many useful resources and signposting to other services.

·       The report stated that 3 % of people were dissatisfied with the service they had received. A Member asked how this issue was being addressed. The Cabinet Member advised that Cabinet was continually monitoring this issue through performance indicators. A monthly report was in place which records compliments and complaints, and it was noted that more compliments were now being recorded.

·       A Member asked whether there had been any progress with developing services for people with dementia. The Cabinet Member explained that this project would be a co-ordinated one across many areas, including health care providers, housing and the voluntary sector.

·       A Member raised an issue around future proofing houses to minimise potential changes later in life, for example, making the doorframes wide enough for wheelchair access and that planning teams should be brought into the conversations around this. It was noted that discussions were taking place with some housing providers, but they were at the early stages. The Committee asked for any progress to be shared with them.

·       It was agreed that this issue should be discussed with the Chairman of the Growth, Infrastructure and Housing Select Committee.

·       A Member suggested that a Committee should be set-up to review and challenge the Buckinghamshire Local Plan. The Cabinet Member agreed to discuss this with the Leader.

Action: Cabinet Member

·       A Member mentioned that self-funders were not mentioned in the strategy and asked what services were available to them.  Ms Quinton explained that the recent White Paper would give self-funders the opportunity to access care services through the council. She went on to say that the council does signpost self-funders to a number of services, including a brokerage service which helps to find the right care.  Members felt that the information for self-finders needed to be more clearly communicated.  The Cabinet Member agreed to look into this.

Action: Cabinet Member

·       In response to a question about staffing, Ms Quinton explained that the recent restructure was aligned with the deliverables in the Better Lives Strategy. There was an ambition to reduce the number of agency staff but there would always be a need for agency staff.

·       A Member raised concerns in relation to the quality of domiciliary care provided to residents by independent companies. Ms Quinton explained that the sector was currently under a lot of pressure. All care providers were registered with the Care Quality Commission, which carried out inspections around every four years (or more frequently if there were concerns). If complaints were received, these were investigated by the safeguarding team and any information was shared with the commissioning team to ensure the issues were resolved.

·       Ms Quinton advised that the council commissions many voluntary organisations to support people, such as the Red Cross, but there was a need to further promote these and to be clear that these support services were funded by the council.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and Corporate Director for attending the meeting.