Invitees:

Cllr P White, Cabinet Member - Adult Social Care and Health & Wellbeing

Sue Cooper, Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing

Jackie Davies, Head of Adult Social Care

Scott Pickrell, Day Services Manager

The Chairperson welcomed the Invitees to the meeting.

Prior to Officers presenting the report, the Day Services Manager gave a power point Presentation entitled “The Community Hub – Localised Services and Active Citizenship”, which included an example of a service user who had autism and due to this, received Day Opportunities for Adults with Learning Disabilities.

The Head of Adult Social Care then gave a resume of the report, which was to provide Committee with an update on developments in day services for adults with a learning disability.

The report gave some background information following which, it explained that people with a learning disability are referred to a day opportunity service by a Social Worker in the learning disability assessment and care management team.

The Head of Adult Social Care then referred Members to paragraph 4.6 of the report, where it explained that day services provided a range of activities both in the service setting and in the community which included:-

In service:

• Hydrotherapy
• Sensory Stimulation
• Arm Chair Aerobics
• PC Sessions (safe use of internet/educational and cognitive programmes)

In the community:

• Cinema Club
• Swimming
• Model Boat Club
• Shopping Projects

She then referred to the service provided at Bridgend Resource Centre, which was designed for people with complex needs and/or challenging behaviour, and that many of the people who used this service were provided with personal care. The Head of Adult Social Care reminded Members that localised services were designed to provide a platform from which people could engage in community activities and develop their independence skills.

Paragraph 4.14 of the report then confirmed that as part of the Learning Disability Service Development Plan for day services there were two key work streams, details of which were included in this part of the report.

The Head of Adult Social Care advised Members, that by developing the community hubs and supporting people to be more independent, the service was contributing to the wider prevention and wellbeing work.

She then concluded her submission, by advising of the reports financial implications as were reflected in paragraph 7.1 of the report.

A Member was aware that localised service bases such as Cwm Calon were often used for other purposes, for example PACT meetings. She asked if the service were charging for such hiring.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing advised that if it was a voluntary or not for profit organisation then no charge was made, though if it was a private organisation then a small charge was made for the hire of the facility.  In both instances donations would be welcomed.

A Member asked Invitees if the Authority were using Direct Payments as a way to integrate service users into the community.

The Day Services Manager confirmed this to be the case.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added that the Direct Payment Scheme would be developed further and this new model would be available by commencement of the new financial year.

A Member enquired if B-Leaf and Wood-B were now entities that were attached from the local authority and governed solely by Awen Trust.

The Day Services Manager advised that both of these had now become a Social Enterprise as opposed to service models. The services that they both provided however, were agreed by way of an Agreement between the Trust and Social Services.

A Member referred to the Day Opportunities services and Rota Visiting and stated that she had only conducted visits to 3 of the 5 buildings where these services were provided and she enquired if it would be possible for her to visit the bases where she had not visited sometime in the future.

The Corporate Director – Communities confirmed that Members could, and should in turn, visit different localised service bases. However, such rota visits were avoided at Heron House, as there were individuals based there with acute autism and challenging behaviour and who relied on familiarity, and did not like any change in their environment including people who supported them. In terms of the Bridgend Resource Centre this was presently being re-modelled to cater for older service users, so therefore, rota visiting was currently not taking place there. She added that she would come back to Members outside of the meeting, on how the rota worked in terms of the rotation of Members visiting these establishments.

A Member referred to page 22 of the report and paragraph 3.7, which related to adapted vehicles that transported people who used day opportunity services to and from their homes/care establishments, and she asked if a benchmarking exercise had been undertaken in order to secure best practice, and also had the savings proposed for the use of this form of transport been realised in terms of a previous budget cut under the MTFS.

The Day Services Manager confirmed that there had been a reduction in contract transport costs compared to previous years, where costs for this had been as high as £680k, which after a re-tender exercise, had since reduced to £170k through varying methods.

The Head of Adult Social Care added that BCBC did examine other authorities for the purpose of adopting methods of best practice where this was considered necessary, and more so since the introduction of the new Act. As well as the above savings in transport costs having been achieved, the Department were also actively looking at minimising high cost Out of County Placements wherever this was possible.

As this concluded the business of the Invitees, the Chairperson thanked them for attending and they then retired from the meeting.

Conclusions: 

Following the Committee’s consideration of the report, Members wished to make the following comments and conclusions:

• The Committee recognised and commended the work that was being undertaken within the service, along with the savings they have made which have contributed to the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

·                                           Members questioned whether a future meeting of Adult Social Care could be held at one of the establishments (Trem Y Mor was provided as an example) where a site visit could be undertaken by Members following or prior to the meeting.

Additional Information

·         Members have requested clarification on which buildings and localised service bases are included on the rota visiting system and further queried how the rota worked in terms of the rotation of Members visiting these establishments.