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SUPPORTING PEOPLE COMMISSIONING BODY – 16 DECEMBER 2005

ADDENDA

Item

6. Review of Five-Year Strategy: Services for Older People

Please find below the "Summary of Individual Review Conclusions" relating to Oxford City Council. (para 3.2 of report SP6):

3.2 Oxford City Council

      1. Over the next 5 years look at remodelling the level of support available to provide more consistency and equity of service between providers. Ensure that the support service received by older people is based upon need rather than accommodation currently lived in. Service users should be able to receive one of the following levels of support based on need, rather than receiving an average level of support which is both inflexible and tied to the provider.

        1. Alarm only (expected to be £2.50 per week) with either call to emergency services or warden visit, depending on needs assessment.

        2. Alarm plus 5 minutes of visiting warden support at £10 per week.

        3. Alarm plus 10 minutes of visiting warden support at £19 per week.

      1. Whilst it would be ideal to be able to offer any of the above levels of service to residents based upon need, it is also acknowledged that to do so at present would destabilise funding for providers-particularly the City Council who provide out of hours support to 6 other providers.

      2. For those providers who currently provide under 5 minutes of warden support per week, look at either negotiating increasing support or re-commissioning. If the contract is to be negotiated, the contract would continue at its present level of funding until agreement had been reached with the provider. In view of this, it is likely that further saving in excess of 15% will be made, which should be used to pilot community-based support.

      3. Commission a pilot based on the Community Support Model using any savings made in excess of 15%, to improve access to support and ensure that support is available to older people regardless of tenure. This is expected to be approximately £45,000 and be commissioned with Oxford City Council, to ensure stability to this service as they provide out of hours support to a number of other providers.

      4. Move towards a common needs-based assessment for residents to ensure that support is provided on need.

      5. Where possible, replace resident wardens with mobile wardens.

      6. If additional funding becomes available over the long term, increase the supply of support to the frail elderly. There are a number of schemes with high enough design standards and full disabled access that suitable accommodation for the frail elderly.

      7. Where contracts are re-commissioned with the same provider, use current service take-up rates to value the contract. These vary between just under 40% to over 75%, with an average take-up of 60%.

      8. Ensure that where hard-wired alarm services falling within this review are re-commissioned, that the new contract is in line with the recommendations of the Community Alarms Strategic Review.

  1. Review of Five-Year Strategy : Services for Young People and Teenage Parents Request to address the Meeting

The Chairman has agreed to a request from 2 representatives from the Banbury Young Homelessness Project to address the meeting. They have been invited to do so at the item itself prior to discussion.

    • Mr Vic Collette (service User)

    • Mr Ron Barnett (Chairman of the Project)

Representatives from the Project will also present a petition to the meeting.

8. 24/7 Homeless 2 Housed (service 934) & 13. Agenda Items 8 (for decision) and 13 (for information)
Papers SP8 and SP13

Correction to the agenda:

The papers referring to the Strategic Review of Young People and the outcome of the Service Review of the 24/7 (a service in Banbury provided by BYHP) both use the term "Decommissioning". The Administering Authority and Cherwell District Council agree this is not correct.

Paper SP8 is correct in saying the number of accommodation-based services in Cherwell able to deal with young people with high support needs will be reduced from 3 to 2 - one for teenage parents, and one for young people at risk. However, there will be a continued need for a 12-unit accommodation-based service for young people using the same 12 units currently used for 24/7 - but as a medium support service, intended as move-on accommodation to ensure the remaining high support service increases its throughput and is therefore able to meet the needs of young people in Banbury. This service will cost up to £70,000 per year.

The following two amendments to the papers are therefore required:

SP8, page 2: amend "£350,000 full-year saving" to £280,000 full-year saving".

SP13, page 20: amend "Decommission" to "Major changes or remodelling".

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