Invitees:

 

Councillor Hailey Townsend – Cabinet Member, Childrens Social Services and Equalities

Susan Cooper – Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing

Laura Kinsey – Head of Children’s Social Care

Pete Tyson – Planning and Contract Management Officer

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing presented a report, that informed the Committee of the work that has been undertaken as part of the Children with Disabilities Transformation programme, and to introduce the proposals and new models in moving forward for specialist 52-week provision for children and young people with complex needs, and overnight short breaks services for children with disabilities.

 

She confirmed that the report demonstrated that good progress was continuing to be made on the back of the initial work previously carried out, as alluded to in paragraphs 3. of the report, containing background information relating to the transformation programme.

 

She explained that the aim for BCBC, was for children and young people to remain within their local community with friends/family, for reasons of stability and continuity in their lives , and to comply with  the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014, the provisions of which came into force in April 2016.

 

There was a need to provide specialist 52 week provision available In-County for children and young people with complex needs, with the only option currently being an Out of County placement, which often proved very expensive and meant that young people were moving from their local area and their family.

 

An initial consultation exercise had been carried out with services users and key stakeholders etc, which confirmed that this proposal was supported, and particularly by families of children who already had  been placed Out of County.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that the potential models considered for such specialist 52 week provision for children and young people with complex needs included:

 

·          Commissioning an independent In-County provider to deliver this provision, though following market testing and detailed discussions, it had been concluded there were limited opportunities to do this at this time;

·          Refurbish and utilise buildings at Heronsbridge School, in order to provide the 52 week provision, with staff there delivering the extra service. This option was not pursued due to  considerable registration and staffing implications.;

·          Refurbish and utilise buildings at the school in order to secure the 52 week provision (In-County), with further BCBC staff delivering and staffing the service. This was the Option that was supported and endorsed by the project team who developed the Options appraisal.

 

She proceeded by advising that during the last 10 years, there had been an average of 3 Out of County placements every year, at a cost of £4 – 5k a week to the Authority.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that in terms of the preferred option, a Programme Board had been established to manage the option and prepare a Business Case going forward, for which a capital bid had been approved by Council earlier this year.

 

She then referred to the Short Breaks (respite) service for Children with Disabilities, presently being provided through a combination of services, that included Bakers Way, Family Link (disabled respite foster carer service) and Direct Payments.

 

The establishment at Bakers Way, provided an overnight short break service through the provision of a 5 bedded home providing regular, planned short break overnight stays for disabled children and young people aged 0 – 18 years, together with an Outreach service.

 

A review of this service had been undertaken however, and this revealed that although the service provided at this location was generally effective, there were changes that if introduced, could improve provision at this facility.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing, confirmed that following engagement between the relevant staff and stakeholders, an Options Appraisal was developed for short breaks for children with disabilities in moving forward. The options considered were:

 

1.    Remodelling overnight short breaks (Baker’s Way)

2.    Commission the overnight service from an independent provider

3.    Stop providing the overnight service from Baker’s Way

 

A Consultation exercise was undertaken and following feedback from this, Officers developed the ‘Remodelling the overnight short breaks service’ option, (ie Option 1 above), and further consultation was scheduled to take place on this during July/August 2016, so that views could be invited on this new proposal.

 

She then advised Members of the longer term plan for short breaks services, and these were proposed in paragraph 4.24 of the report.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing, concluded her submission by advising that paragraph 7.1 of the report outlined the savings that would be realised through the development of a specialist 52 week provision for children and young people with complex needs, avoiding the need for Out of County placements, whilst paragraph 7.2 of the report confirmed the savings that could be achieved through remodelling the overnight short break service at Baker’s Way.

 

The Chairperson then opened up the meeting for questions.

 

A Member noted that one of the main drivers behind providing an In-house facility for children and young people with complex needs, was to ensure that the best interests of service users were met, as well as to save costs under the MTFS. He noted that mapping and profiling recently undertaken, also showed that there were a number of children/young people currently receiving other forms of care, whose needs and complexities were increasing to such a degree, that 52 week specialist provision may be required for them in the near future. Hence the change from the current 38 week provision. Considering the above against paragraph 7 of the report and the potential savings that could derive from the proposed change, he asked for clarification that such savings were being based upon 3 Out of County placements year on year recurring, with this estimated amount being provided for instead In-house at Heronsbridge school (as opposed to Out of County), at a reduced cost. He asked also if dialogue had taken place with current providers Out of County on the proposed changes and neighbouring local authorities, on models that may meet future needs of the service not just for young people in the County Borough, but those within other neighbouring authorities that could use the new service, and in doing so bring in income for BCBC per se, or through a shared service. To accommodate some of the above, he also asked if there was scope to increase the number of 3 bed units, should in future the demand arise to do so.

 

The Group Manager, Children’s Regulated Services, explained that based on the current provision a 3 bedroom facility was being fully utilised based on the present 38 week provision. One of the reasons to extend the provision to 52 weeks, was to accommodate young people for longer periods as they became older, for example aged 15,16 and 17. The reasoning behind this, was that their parents whilst being able to cope with challenging behaviour from their children when they were younger, often struggled to do so as their child started to enter into adulthood, as they were then larger individuals and in extreme cases could become unmanageable. A 52 week provision would also maintain a better occupancy rate than the current 38 week provision.

 

A Member added however, that provision for 3 placements, would only cater for what presently existed, rather for any increase in this figure.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing, reiterated that the current 3 bed provision at Heronsbridge School was based on patterns that had applied consistently over the last 10 or so years, and it was estimated that, this was therefore not anticipated to significantly increase. This provision was also supplemented by a Family Link service that could support young people with complex needs and/or challenging behaviour. The situation would be monitored as developments progress, and if necessary, some modifications could be made to the proposals if or when this was required in the future.

 

A Member referring to paragraph 4.7 of the report, enquired if there was evidence to suggest that as part of the consultation process, efforts had been made to look at the existing service facility being provided by Out of County providers (as there was no interest In-County), or the service being provided jointly with a neighbouring authority, which would be part of a cost sharing exercise, to go toward obtaining the necessary savings required.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing, confirmed that a huge piece of scoping work had been carried out in respect of options such as those referred to by the Member, including with a company called Western House who provided care support, but not to the extent for young people that required this on a specialist basis. However, this work had not proved to be successful for a number of reasons, and this was why Officers had pursued the model that had been recommended in the report.

 

The Group Manager Children’s Regulated Services, confirmed that there was very little in the way of choice of providers that would be suitable to support young people with the needs subject of those presently being supported. There had been one in Cardiff but this had now closed, and a further such facility in Brecon which had expanded to cater for an increased number of cases. She had made other enquiries in order to ascertain if an establishment to support young people with complex needs was going to be introduced In-County within the immediate or short term future, but she was not aware of any on the horizon, so therefore this meant that options were not available, and that is why it had been agreed to extend the current provision at Heronsbridge School. There would be scope to commission placements to neighbouring authorities however, such as the Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff and Rhondda Cynon Taf, should places become available.

 

A Member noted the proposal to provide a 52 week specialist provision of support care at Heronsbridge School, as opposed to a 38 week care package, and she asked are there minimum staffing levels within which to cover this increased level of care. She also asked if the staff would be permanent, temporary or agency, and if the staffing compliment existed or was yet to be recruited.

 

The Group Manager Children’s Regulated Services confirmed that the 52 week care provision was something that was entirely new, and therefore, some new staff were likely to be introduced through the probable advertisement of posts. There was scope however, for existing staff at Heronsbridge to apply for any new jobs, should they so wish, as well as extending their shift patterns to cover the extra hours of provision. In terms of the total number of staff required to support the service she confirmed that as of yet this was not known.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing added that the Commissioning Team had been carrying out a scoping exercise regarding possible staffing proposals. She reiterated that there was a possibility also as well as recruiting new staff, to call upon existing staff who worked in Adult Social Care and other Adult Respite Units to assist the support of service users in Heronsbridge School. The scoping exercise included financial profiling of services, and it had been established that increased savings could be made if extra resources for Heronsbridge were found in-house rather than externally or through extra recruitment of staff. As had also been discussed previously, supporting individuals in-house rather than them going Out of County, would also achieve considerable savings in itself.

 

The Group Manager Children’s Regulated Services further added, that there were national minimum standards that had to be statutorily complied with when supporting individuals in Care Homes in terms of staffing numbers, and therefore, these had to be in place regardless of any staffing arrangements being proposed through any recruitment exercise.

 

The Chairperson asked the Invitees when the Project at Heronsbridge School was due to go live.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that that the new provision would hopefully be up and running by the next financial year.

 

A Member referred to paragraph 3.1 of the report, where reference was made to it being identified that local delivery, instead of Out of County placement for delivery of Autistic Spectrum Disorder provision, was identified as a potential source of savings. He understood that savings had to be made within different Directorates under the terms of the MTFS, but hoped Officers were making plans to realise these, without any compromise to the safety and wellbeing of young people that relied on long-term and sometimes specialist support.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that the wording of the above paragraph of the report did possibly give rise for Members to think that the changes proposed both at Bakers Way and Heronsbridge were purely due to a cost cutting exercise. However, she gave an assurance to Committee that this was far from the case. It was incumbent upon her to achieve the savings that the Council had required her to make under the MTFS, but these savings would be achieved through methods that would not in any way compromise young people who required specialised care.

 

There was considerable work in progress to achieve the above, and not implement changes proposed to Bakers Way and Heronsbridge School, but also to look at the way in which other  types of care packages are provided. One of these proposals, was to see if there was any merit in combining some respite services for adults and children together/young people entering adulthood, and possibly looking to engaging support for this outside of the Authority, ie through commissioning an external provider and firstly establishing if this was financially viable. These were longer term options with regard to care packages the Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing added, and that more work would be carried out on this in the autumn, especially in respect of different methods of care support for adults.

 

A Member, whilst noting that one of the reasons proposed for bringing young people out of an Out of County placement, was due to the fact that they could be closer to their family and friends which would benefit all parties, in that the young person was nearer to home. However, he felt that Invitees should note that some individuals may wish to remain Out of County due to them being settled in an environment which was familiar to them and one which they were happy in.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that all Out of County placements would be assessed, in order to ascertain issues such as that which the Member referred to, and the extent of their individual needs, taking into account their state of health. She added that continuity in terms of support was very important in young (and older) people with autism for example. Care requirements were also examined to establish if any changes were required, during transition from children to adults.

 

A Member referred to page 6 of the report and paragraph 4.20, which advised that a public consultation had been undertaken in respect of the  changes to Bakers Way Care Centre, ie to invite views on the proposal to review short breaks services at this establishment, to which 71 responses had been received. He asked what the percentage was of these responses compared to the number of people who accessed the services. Also, with reference to the type of questions that were asked as part of the consultation exercise, for example those listed on page 21 of the report’s Appendix, he felt that some of these questions were very personal in their nature and he wondered whether this was both suitable and relevant. He hoped that any information completed as part of the consultation remained confidential, and that this could not be accessed by departments other than Social Services.

 

The Cabinet Member Children’s Social Services and Equalities advised that this information was retained as confidential information, and that people who completed the form did not have to fill in those sections of this that they weren’t comfortable completing, for example, the disclosure of very personal information. The form was completed also for Equalities monitoring purposes she added, and information submitted by persons who completed the form was also used to establish or amend certain Council policies. It was not mandatory that the form be completed at all she further added, it was down to the individual if they wished to complete this. She proceeded by advising that the first consultation undertaken, was carried out in order to shape what changes were required along the lines outlined in the report and supporting document, and what clientele would be affected by these changes. She would ascertain from Officers what the 71 responses equated to, in percentage terms when compared with the number of people who received services, and provide this figure to the Member outside of the meeting. A further consultation was also due to be initiated and the Council’s Marketing Engagement team had been involved in these consultation exercises, the results of which when fully known, would be made available with certain information also being placed on the Council’s web site.

 

The Member felt that a considerable response was required from service users, in order that their views and observations could be considered fully, with regard to any future re-shaping of services along the lines detailed in the report.

 

The Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing, confirmed that there had been both considerable and meaningful consultation and engagement with families that would be affected by changes in the way services would be provided in the future at Heronsbridge School and Bakers Way, and this would be continued and widened as further proposals were made and subsequently consulted upon.

 

This concluded debate on the above item, and therefore, the Chairperson thanked the Invitees for attending  and responding to questions on this item. 

 

Children with Disabilities Transformation Programme

 

       Specialist 52 week provision

 

1.    The Committee asked for further information on the staffing numbers required for the additional weeks under the new 52 week provision proposed for children with disabilities, as well as detail of where these staff will be coming from and how they will be funded?

 

2.    The Committee concluded that there was insufficient evidence of dialogue with the current providers out of county as well as other Local Authorities on models that would meet current and future needs.  Members questioned whether three places would be sufficient given that there could be opportunities for income generation from other LAs utilising more spaces. 

 

The Committee also questioned how savings could be identified despite not knowing the cost of the future provision.  Members asked for clarification and evidence of where the projected savings were coming from and what information has been sourced from current providers and other LAs.

 

Short Breaks (respite) Services

 

3.    The Committee expressed concern over the presentation of the consultation data in that it was reported that there were 71 responses but no detail as to how many people were consulted in total.  The Committee asked for further detail of the number of participants, who they were and how they were consulted.

 

4.    Members queried the changes to staffing in Bakers Way in that the plan was to look to existing staff to extend their shifts.  Members questioned how agreeable staff had been to this in the consultation and expressed concern over whether agency staff could have to be utilised to meet the minimum requirements under the legislation.  The Committee asked for clarification including the associated costings.

 

Further comments

 

5.    The Committee commented on the need for caution when asking for generic personal information in consultation exercises to ensure that potential consultees are not deterred from participating.  The Committee proposed that enhanced confirmation be incorporated within any consultation document that the information is strictly confidential.