Agenda and minutes

Councillor A. M. Lovatt attended in place of Councillor Anthony Gearing.

Councillor Dave Sexton attended in place of Councillor Tim Hallchurch MBE.

Councillor David Wilmshurst declared a personal interest at this Agenda Item in relation to Agenda Item 8 by virtue of being on the Management Committee of Chinnor Community Centre which runs a day centre three times a week.

Councillor Dr Peter Skolar declared a personal interest at this Agenda Item in relation to Agenda Item 12 by virtue of being Chairman of the Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 7 September (AS3) and to note for information any matters arising on them.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 7 September 2010 were approved and signed.

The Committee thanked Ms Coldwell for the comprehensiveness of the minutes and asked for it to be minuted that the Committee is of the view that this level of recording is essential.

Matters Arising

80/10 – Proposals on Day Opportunities for Older People – Mr Colling undertook to provide the Committee with the responses to its questions as detailed on page 5 of the minutes (actioned).

84/10 – Future Items for Possible Scrutiny Consideration – Councillor L. Sanders drew the Committee’s attention to the information which he had circulated regarding case law surrounding the application of NHS Continuing Health Care.

10.15

The Head of Adult Social Care will give an oral update on key issues on behalf of the Director for Social & Community Services.

The Committee noted the update from the Head of Adult Social Care as listed below:

·        Internal Home Support Service – the full proposals would be brought to this Committee’s December meeting for comment;

·        Adult Placement Service (Shared Living) – the Committee had previously requested data on the number of people receiving assistance, which was as follows:

-          21 people with mental health problems;

-          26 people with physical disabilities;

-          87 people with learning disabilities;

-          16 older people.

Net costs varied between £303 and £461 per week. The costs were at the higher end, as the service users were predominantly people with learning disabilities. However, this was a cost effective service. Officers had tried to increase the number of older people using this service in the past. The service was now under new management and it was probably timely to try to increase the number of people using the service, including older people.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Services stated that at the last panel meeting it had been encouraging to see that younger people were coming forward to offer the service to people, as well as older people. He further stated that there did not seem to be a problem with recruitment at the moment.

·        Prevalence of mental health problems in adults – the Committee had previously requested any empirical evidence on whether the number of adults with mental health problems had increased over the past few years. Some data had been circulated to Members via email, but overall the statistics were hazy as there was little data at a national or local level. The available data showed that there had been an increase in common mental disorders between 1993 and 2007, by 17% overall and by 20% for women. Work on gathering more evidence was being undertaken by Oxfordshire PCT. This was important as the Directorate could then take this into account in its medium term planning and any further data would be circulated to the Committee once available.

·        Carers Services – the procurement exercise for the new carers services was underway. Eight organisations had been shortlisted and invited to tender and two had dropped out.The intention is that the new contract will start on 1 April 2011.

The same amount of money would be spent on carers as previously, but it would be reallocated differently. Slightly less money would be spent on the new contracts to enable extra funds to be put towards personal budgets.

Officers were currently developing a service level agreement with the new Customer Contact Centre, who were engaging very positively with the brief. In two month’s time, the Committee would have the opportunity to see the final Service Level Agreement. All staff in the Customer Service Centre would be trained to a basic level and there would also be some staff who would be designated specialists. Mystery shopping would also be carried out for quality control. There would be a number of options depending on carers’ levels of need. If their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 91/10

10:45

Contact Officer: Alan Sinclair, Programme Director – Transforming Adult Social Care (01865) 323665

It has been agreed that a report on transforming Adult Social Care will be brought to every meeting of this Committee (AS6) and will include detail on self directed support.

Today’s report focuses on the Adult Social Care Information and Advice (and Advocacy) Strategy.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Mr Sinclair will attend to answer any questions the Committee may wish to ask.

The Self Directed Support Task Group is also invited to give its progress update to the Committee as part of this item.

[Task Group comprises Councillors J. Hannaby, S. Hutchinson, L. Sanders and D. Seale].

The Committee is invited to track progress and conduct a question and answer session.

The report before the Committee (AS6) focused on the Adult Social Care Information and Advice (and Advocacy) Strategy.

Mr Alan Sinclair (Programme Director – Transforming Adult Social Care) attended for this item, together with Ms Anni Thompson (Business and Customer Service Manager and Workstream Lead for TASC Information and Advice Workstream).

Mr Sinclair reported as follows:

·        Transition of all existing clients receiving long term support in the community to self directed support had started, with an expected completion date of March 2011.  However, there were still 3,500 clients to be moved;

·        Transferring the required number of people to self directed support by December was proving difficult and was the biggest challenge facing Adult Social Care at the moment;

·        The new Independent Support Brokerage Service had started on 4 October. Although the capacity was good, insufficient brokerage had been purchased to provide for the number of people that were being transferred onto self directed support as part of the accelerated review process. This was because the Brokerage contract had been set up before it was intended to transfer people in a shorter period of time;

·        The new Locality Teams were taking shape to meet the start date of 6 December 2010.  The Locality Managers had been recruited and officers would be confirming the social workers and occupational therapists that would be in post that week;

·        The TASC Team was running a series of Public Information Days on Adult Social Care (Refer report);

·        The Transforming Adult Social Care programme would be ending by April 2011 and handover to business as usual was scheduled for that date. Scrutiny needed to be supporting the Directorate to ensure that there was a “safe pair of hands” for work to be handed over to.

A member of the Committee asked in relation to the current lack of sufficient brokerage for people who were being transferred to self directed support whether the Directorate would be focusing on the “most needy” and whether there would be some people without brokers who would have to set up their own support.

Mr Sinclair responded that brokers would be targeted and that Care Managers would ensure that all other people would be undertaking the brokerage role and supporting people to have their needs met.

Ms Thompson then updated the Committee on the Information and Advice Project.

Key points are listed below:

·        The overall objective is to make high quality information and advice available to all adults and carers who need it;

·        A summary of the Adult Social Care Information and Advice (and Advocacy) Strategy will be placed on the county council’s website;

·        Oxfordshire County Council is the only local authority to have been accredited with the Information Standard and this means that a logo can be put on all publications. The website, leaflets and all other information must also go through the information standard process. All information must have been consulted with users and approved by Communications & Marketing before it goes live;

·        The Directorate tries to go for no cost publications  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92/10

11:30

Ms Margaret Melling (Oxfordshire LINk Researcher) will present the Oxon LINks’ report on the findings of the Self Directed Support Research Project (AS7(a)) and will be accompanied by Ms Sue Butterworth and Mr John Hutchinson.

The Committee will then be invited to conduct a question and answer session.

Members’ attention is drawn to the Executive Summary at the front of the report.

Mr Alan Sinclair (Programme Director – Transforming Adult Social Care) will also attend for this item.

The Committee is invited to conduct a question and answer session.

(a)                     Link report on Self Directed Support Research Project

Ms Margaret Melling (Oxfordshire LINk Researcher), accompanied by Ms Helen Grimwade (Oxfordshire LINk Researcher Assistant), Ms Sue Butterworth and Mr John Hutchinson (Oxfordshire LINk) presented the Oxon LINk’s report on the findings of the Self Directed Support Research Project (AS7(a)).

The Committee also had before it the Directorate’s response (Refer Addenda) which included the Directorate’s responses to the summary of findings and research recommendations, which the Directorate accepted.

Mr Sinclair stated that Social & Community Services welcomed the research, which added to research already undertaken by the Directorate. Communication did need to be improved and people did need to realise that there were people to assist with the administration of personal budgets.

The Committee thanked the Oxfordshire LINk for its qualitative research,  noted the Directorate’s response and noted the LINk research group’s wish to undertake further longitudinal research next year, which would also look at the impact of the Adult Social Care Information and Advice (and Advocacy) Strategy and the restructure of the Occupational Therapy Service and Care Management.

12:15

An update from the Oxfordshire LINk is attached at AS7(b).

The Committee is invited to receive the update from the Oxfordshire LINk.

SANDWICH LUNCH 12.30 – 13.00

The Committee received the update from the Oxfordshire LINk (AS7(b)).

13:00

Contact Officer:Paul Purnell, Head of Adult Social Care, tel: (01865) 323576

A report detailing the final proposals on the Strategic Commissioning Framework for Day Opportunities for Older People in Oxfordshire is attached at AS8.

Colour copies of relevant appendices will be brought to the meeting and are viewable online.

The Consultation is due to end on 12 November and the strategy will be considered by the Cabinet on 16 November.

It is anticipated that a detailed implementation plan will have been developed by the end of December 2010 and that implementation of the revised arrangements will have taken place by October 2011.

The Head of Adult Social Care will lead this item, accompanied by Mr Andrew Colling (Service Manager – Contracts).

The Cabinet Member for Adult Services will also attend for this item.

This Committee is invited to consider and comment on the final proposals.

A report detailing the final proposals on the Strategic Commissioning Framework for Day Opportunities for Older People in Oxfordshire was before the Committee (AS8).

The Consultation was due to end on 12 November and the strategy would be considered by the Cabinet on 16 November.

It is anticipated that a detailed implementation plan will have been developed by the end of December 2010 and that implementation of the revised arrangements will have taken place by October 2011.

The Committee was invited to consider and comment on the final proposals.

Mr Paul Purnell (Head of Adult Social Care), accompanied by Mr Andrew Colling (Service Manager – Contracts) and the Cabinet Member for Adult Services attended for this item. Mr Purnell reported as follows:

·        The Directorate spent £1.6m on transport out of a budget of approximately £5m (Older People). Most of this money was spent on special transport. This was not delivering the best service to people who might be sat on a bus for 1 ½ hours before they arrived at a day centre. Officers planned to leave £1/4m in the budget for community transport, such as Volunteer Linkup;

·        Mobile Services had worked well in other parts of the country;

·        The consultation period was still underway and there didn’t appear to have been any objections to the overall shape of this strategy;

·        As a result of the consultation the Directorate had decided to extend existing day services provision for another six months.

The Committee AGREED to advise the Directorate that it endorsed the final proposals for the Strategic Commissioning Framework for Day Opportunities for Older People, which in its view are very encouraging.

The Head of Adult Social Care undertook to pass on Councillor Seale’s suggestion that a podiatry service be installed in the mobile services.

14:00

Contact Officer: Paul Purnell, Head of Adult Social Care, tel: 01865 323576

The attached report (AS9) provides the following information:

• purpose of the report
• performance on Delayed Transfers Of Care in 2010/11
• recent actions
• medium term strategy to address DTOC
• conclusion

Mr Paul Purnell (Head of Adult Social Care) will attend for this item, together with Ms Sonia Mills (Chief Executive – Oxfordshire PCT) and the Cabinet Member for Adult Services, in order to answer any questions which the Committee may wish to ask.

The Committee is invited to conduct a question and answer session on Delayed Transfers of Care.

Mr Paul Purnell (Head of Adult Social Care) attended for this item, together with Ms Sonia Mills (Chief Executive – Oxfordshire PCT) and the Cabinet Member for Adult Services, in order to answer any questions which the Committee may have wished to ask.

The report before the Committee (AS9) provided the following information:

• purpose of the report
• performance on Delayed Transfers Of Care in 2010/11
• recent actions
• medium term strategy to address DTOC
• conclusion.

The Committee noted the update.

14:45

The Committee is asked to note any possible items of note on the current version of the forward plan which covers the time period November 2010 to February 2011.

The Committee was asked to identify any possible items of note on the current version of the forward plan which covered the time period November 2010 to February 2011.

No items were identified for consideration.

14:50

The Committee is asked to note the following items logged for future scrutiny consideration:

7 December 2010

·        Dementia Strategy – progress update

·        Services for Adults on the Autistic Spectrum – ongoing – including draft report to be used as the basis for the outline commissioning strategy

·        Report on Transforming Adult Social Care including Task Group update

·        LINK update

8 March 2010

·        Extra Care Housing

·        Carers Information Pack

·        Report on Transforming Adult Social Care including Task Group update

·        LINK update

The Committee noted the items listed on the face of the agenda.

Rescheduled and additional items are listed below:

December 2010

• Internal Home Support Service – discussion post Cabinet consideration.
• Update on NHS White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence – Liberating the NHS’.

March 2011

• Service Level Agreement for the Customer Service Centre.
• Services for Adults on the Autistic Spectrum – ongoing – including draft report to be used as the basis for the outline commissioning strategy.

14:55

·        Response to NHS White Paper – ‘Equity and Excellence – Liberating the NHS’.

This Committee considered the relevant aspects of the White Paper and consultation documents at its September meeting and submitted its response to the Cabinet as detailed in the Minutes.

The Council’s response was subsequently agreed by the Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Member for Adult Services and submitted to the Department of Health.

The Committee noted the information listed on the face of the agenda.