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)

Cllr Nicole Burnett declared a personal interest in item 4 as co-parent of a child who had just entered the transition process.

To receive for approval the minutes of a meeting of the Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 2 of the 21 04 21

RESOLVED:                      That the Minutes of a meeting of Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 2 dated 24 April 2021 be approved as a true and accurate record.

Invitees

Claire Marchant - Corporate Director Social Services & Wellbeing

Councillor Nicole Burnett - Cabinet Member for Social Services & Early Help  

Councillor Dhanisha Patel - Cabinet Member for Future Generations and Wellbeing

Jackie Davies - Head of Adult Social Care

Laura Kinsey - Head of Children’s Social Care

Andrew Thomas - Group Manager - Sports and Physical Activity

Pete Tyson - Group Manager - Commissioning

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing gave a presentation ‘Resetting the SSWB Strategic Programme’ and explained that the Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help, Head of Adult Social Care, Head of Children’s Social Care and Group Manager - Prevention and Wellbeing would all be happy to take questions from Members following the presentation.

Following the presentation of the report, Members of the Committee asked the following:

A Member referred to the commitment to pay the real living wage for all carers, and asked how was this going to be achieved in commissioned services. She liked the person centred approach, but asked what would it look like once achieved. The Member was aware of the problems in relation to recruitment and retention around social care and social workers particularly around market supplements and acknowledged this was a massive problem. She also asked how would net zero and carbon neutral, be achieved in relation to SSWB and how would Health input into that.

A Member also asked, in relation to recruitment, whether the local authority was reliant on agencies and how much more would be paid for agency staff.

The Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help confirmed that a commitment had been made and there had been a report to Cabinet about how the real living wage was being pre-set as part of the commissioned process. Therefore, the way the local authority commissioned had changed and there was a report going to Cabinet on how the process would be changed for respite care. Rather than going out and commissioning and there being a race to the bottom in terms of price and pay, the local authority was setting the expected pay rate and then the rest of the tender would be marked on quality. The feedback was that this would really make a significant difference for workers and would go a long way to retaining staff within the care sector. She had asked for a timescale as to when funding for the introduction of the real living wage would come though, following a meeting with the Deputy Minister for Social Services, who had confirmed she would ensure it would be prioritised and would be rolled in. The Cabinet Member said that from her perspective it was about rewarding those people that looked after people. The local authority was doing as much as it could but this was a huge budget pressure that would need to be taken forward.

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing explained that as Director, she had a responsibility for workforce right across the whole sector and it was her most important responsibility, so it was very assuring to have the support from Scrutiny around some of the things trying to be progressed. In terms of the person centred approaches, a lot of the targets and measures were qualitative targets, with a review of the quality assurance framework taking place and the way case file audits are conducted, as well as listening to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 145.

Having considered the report the Forward Work Programme Update the Committee made the following Recommendations:

1.    A letter be sent from the Chair of the Committee to the Chair and Chief Executive of Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board to request a response for information requested regarding the Safeguarding report received at the April Committee.

There were no further items identified for consideration on the Forward Work Programme having regard to the selection criteria in paragraph 4.3, and this could be revisited at the next meeting.

There were no requests to include specific information in the item for the next meeting.

RESOLVED:          That the Committee approved the Forward Work Programme in Appendix A, noted that the Forward Work Programme and any updates from the Committee would be reported to the next meeting of COSC and noted the Recommendation Monitoring Action Sheet in Appendix B.

To consider any item(s) 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