To receive apologies for absence (to include reasons, where appropriate) from Members / Officers.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor L Morgan as he had a hospital appointment.

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008 (including Whipping Declarations)

The Chairperson, Councillor D Sage, confirmed that that he had a personal interest in Agenda Item 5., in that he was a recipient of Homecare. He added that if Members went into any great detail on this item, for example on the charges associated with this provision, he may decide to declare a prejudicial interest and leave the meeting.

To receive for approval, the minutes of the meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee of 22 April 2015.

RESOLVED:                        That the Minutes of a meeting of the predecessor Health and  Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny be Committee be approved as a tru

A Member in relation to Minute 157, asked if the proposals in respect of B leaf were still going ahead. The Scrutiny Officer replied that there were.

A Member referred to Page 5 of the Minutes and the second paragraph, and asked if information was now available with regard to data on the numbers of women who misuse drugs and alcohol during pregnancy, and if this could contribute to dementia when the unborn child is elderly. The Scrutiny Officer once more advised that she would investigate this matter with the Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing

Finally, a Member referred to the point regarding available of new funding to deliver the Dementia Strategy and Delivery Plan. She asked what the timescale would be before this funding is able to be utilised. The Scrutiny Officer confirmed that she would also investigate this, and send an email to members outside of the meeting.

Invitees:

Councillor P White – Cabinet Member Adult Social Care, Health and Wellbeing

Susan Cooper – Corporate Director Social Services & Wellbeing

Ian Oliver – Group Manager Commissioning and Transformation

The Chairperson welcomed the Invitees to the meeting.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing advised Members that when a report was initially presented to Cabinet on the subject of Homecare, it asked for regular updates on the topic in the form of quarterly reports for progress in respect of the service which was a fragile area, and also to share information as and when matters developed, with Scrutiny.

The report before Committee today, included a considerable amount of information, including the number of hours being committed to this service area, different trends of the service, and looking where the service presently stood and where it wanted to get to.

In terms of staffing in relation to the future of the service, the Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that Members would be kept fully up to speed on this as the service area changed its shape in the future. Trade Unions were being updated on a monthly basis as to any proposals to alter the staffing complement of the service to meet its future needs accordingly. Regular consultation was also ongoing regarding this with staff, and Independent providers.

She referred to Paragraph 3.6 of the report, that reminded Members that in November 2014, Cabinet had endorsed a detailed Transformation Plan for the service which set out the arrangements to retain specialist and complex care internally (2518 weekly care hours), and to outline that generic homecare hours would be commissioned from the independent sector.

Paragraphs 4.1 and 4.2 of the report, respectively outlined details of the Transfer Plan – Internal Homecare Services hours, showing current hours (Baseline) and future hours (Target) in accordance with the proposed changes to the service.

These hours obviously did not take into account any urgent hours for critical cases that come up from time to time unexpectedly.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing advised that as hours of the service committed internally would reduce, hours that staff were working reflected would reflect this. Further details regarding this were shown in Paragraph 4.3 of the report.

She concluded her submission by referring to the report’s financial implications.

A Member asked if there was any data available that reflected client satisfaction (or otherwise) in terms of service provision.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing advised that this hadn’t been progressed yet as part of the change in arrangements, though such information could be shared with members in due course. Engagement with service users and/or their families etc was undertaken on whether or not they were happy with the service, by way of Customer Satisfaction Forms. Records of these and other complaints or positive letters of comment made in respect of the service, were kept on record in the Wellbeing Department, and acted upon as necessary. A Consultation exercise was also undertaken with clients, and feedback received from this could be put in the next quarterly report.

The Group Manager Commissioning and Transformation added that when the Authority went out with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Invitees:

Councillor P White – Cabinet Member Adult Social Care, Health and Wellbeing

Susan Cooper – Corporate Director Social Services & Wellbeing

Ian Oliver – Group Manager Commissioning and Transformation

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing submitted a report, the purpose of which was to provide the Committee with an update on the work being undertaken to develop new models of service for older people, through the transformation of traditional forms of residential care into Extra Care Schemes for the future.

She confirmed that this latest update report confirmed the present situation regarding progress made to date, and concentrated in particular, in respect of land issues ie where there were suitable areas upon which to provide an Extracare Housing facility; discussions with Registered Landlords and market values etc, in terms of any potential land sales.

She referred to the report, where details were outlined as to preferable areas of the County Borough where new Extracare Housing facilities could be provided, including suitable areas of land that could adequately accommodate these facilities.

She explained that timescales previously set had now slipped, as the Authority had planned to appoint an RSL by January 2015. The original timescales were shown in paragraph 4.14 of the report.

There was a proposal, the Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing explained, to provide two Extracare facilities that would replace three Care Homes that currently existed. She emphasised to Members that there was no intention to close any of these three existing homes, until such time that the two new facilities had been fully completed and were ready for occupation.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Housing added that a considerable amount of thought had been given to where the new facilities should be built, and it had been agreed that one would be constructed in the north of the County Borough in the Maesteg area, though a location for the second facility had not as yet been decided upon, though the site of the Archbishop McGrath school had been discussed as a possible option. There was an obvious need to ensure that there was a geographical split in terms of the placing of the facilities after considering that there was already an existing facility in Kenfig Hill.

In terms of the facility being placed at Maesteg, an option had been discussed to place this upon the Lower Comprehensive school at Maesteg, though advice was being sought from Counsel on this, as there were procurement and state aid issues to overcome. Discussions on matters such as this, were going to pursued tomorrow with Legal and Finance Officers. If the state aid problem could be resolved, then this would in all probability assist the timetabling programme for the provision of the facilities to advance and be more on target in terms of the scheduling of the developments.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added that there was a third option as to the location of one of the new facilities, namely within the Ogmore Valley, and discussions were ongoing with Linc Cymru regarding this.

The Group Manager Commissioning and Transformation explained that an attraction of placing a facility at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services presented a report to Committee, outlining suggested topics for consideration in the development of its Forward Work Programme for 2015-16.

The Committee considered the suggested topics for inclusion in the above, and to identify 12 primary topics for inclusion in the Programme.  It was acknowledged that some of the dates for the items on the Forward Work Programme may be subject to change following the meeting and Members were asked for their contribution to be received in time for inclusion in the Forward Work Programme Update to be reported at the Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 8 September 2015.

RESOLVED:                          That the report be noted

The Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services submitted a report, that requested the Committee to nominate one Member as its Corporate Parenting Champion to represent the Committee as an Invitee to meetings of the Corporate Parenting Cabinet Committee, and secondly to seek nominations for the Budget Research & Evaluation Panel in line with the Corporate Resources and Improvement Overview & Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations made as part of the 2015/16 budget setting process

RESOLVED:                    (1)   That Councillor E Venables be nominated as the Committee Champion to represent the Committee as an Invitee to meetings of the Corporate Parenting Cabinet Committee

                                        (2)    That the following Committee Members be nominated to sit on the Budget Research and Evaluation Panel, on behalf of the Committee:-

                                                 Councillor D Sage

                                                 Councillor M Thomas

The Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services, submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to present the items due to be considered at the Committee meeting to be held on 8 September 2015; seek confirmation of the information required for the subsequent scheduled meeting to be held on 11 November 2015, and finally to present a list of further potential items for prioritisation by the Committee.

RESOLVED:                     That the report be noted.

To consider any items of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency. 

None