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

Lesley Acton, Project Manager- Learning Disabilities

The Chairperson welcomed the Invitees to the meeting, and the Head of Adult Social Care gave a resume of the report.

She advised that the purpose of the report, was to provide the Committee with an update on the development of preventative services and local community co-ordination, in line with the implementation of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014, and to describe the financial impact of this work.

The Head of Adult Social Care confirmed that today’s report was a follow-up to that which was placed before Committee on 6 April 2016. The report explained amongst other things, how local community co-ordination has developed as part of a Western Bay initiative, and similar projects were taking place in Neath Port Talbot and Swansea, called Local Area Co-ordination (LAC).

The above report also set out a number of next steps, and progress regarding these was set out in paragraph 4.1 of the report.

The Head of Adult Social Care confirmed that the Local Community Co-ordinators Project continued to develop links with partners in the voluntary sector, the emergency services and health. Recent developments in respect of this included:

• Strictly Cinema
• Memory Walks
• Mindfulness Group
• Try it Do it Sessions
• Creativity for Wellbeing (Arts on Prescription)
• GP Surgeries
• Craft Network
• Carers’ Creative Network

She confirmed that there had been further developments in the ‘Ageing Well in Bridgend’ initiative, with the Plan for this having been presented to Cabinet. The Plan would be linked to the Council website, and in addition, a bespoke “ageing well in Bridgend” web resource was being created.

The Head of Adult Social Care advised that the Halo Partnership had commenced support for armed force veterans free swimming, and was also making progress in terms of becoming a dementia friendly community, with training programmes for staff and partners commencing shortly.

She further added that since April and the coming into being of the Social Services and Wellbeing Act (Wales) 2014, a framework of principles of prevention had been developed, and this would be presented to the Western Bay Regional Partnership Board in November 2016 for consideration and a recommendation to adopt across the partnership. Expansion of roll-out of Local Area Co-ordination in Neath Port Talbot and Swansea and Local Community Co-ordination in Bridgend was continuing across the 3 Local Authorities, and a programme of implementation was being progressed in each local area.

The Head of Adult Social Care also confirmed, that a Western Bay website had been launched last year, and newsletters in respect of this were compiled and published quarterly and circulated via a broad distribution list.

She stated that as part of the review of the structure of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014, the Group Manager role for sport, play and active wellbeing services had been refocused to lead a prevention and wellbeing service that responds to Corporate Priorities and the requirements of the new Act.

There was also a Welsh social care and well-being information website for citizens which had been developed by the Social Services Inspection Agency, Data Unit Wales and the North Wales Single Point of Access Programme, called Dewis Cymru. This was launched nationally at the Social Services Conference last June the Head of Adult Social Care added. A number of ‘quick wins’ in terms of easily accessible Bridgend local information in a number of areas had been identified for uploading onto the Dewis website, and these were outlined in paragraph 4.23 of the report.

Paragraph 4.26 then gave the next steps regarding Prevention, Wellbeing and Local Community Co-ordination, with these actions being included in a LCC development plan and business case, which will set out detailed actions and timescales for the expansion of the project.

In conclusion, the Head of Adult Social Care referred to the report’s financial implications, which outlined the LCC team and costs which amounted to £208,400. Working in partnership with the learning disability team, the local community co-ordinator project had identified 71 people who can receive the support they need from the LCC’s or the community hubs.

Following the presentation of the report, the Project Manager – Learning Disabilities then read out a number of case studies for the benefit of Members.

A Member noted from page 12 of the report, that the Strictly Cinema project in the Maesteg Town Hall had been a big success. However, the Town Hall would soon close for refurbishment so she asked, if there was a proposal to place the cinema facility there elsewhere.

The Project Manager – Learning Disabilities advised that there was a proposal to continue this facility while the above works were going ahead, within the Maesteg Sports Centre. There was a further proposal to roll-out Strictly Cinema to the Garw Valley Workingmen’s Hall.

A Member asked how this and other Projects intended being funded. He was aware that Communities First were funding Strictly Cinema, however, they may soon cease to exist so he was concerned more for future funding rather than that which presently existed.

The Project Manager – Learning Disabilities confirmed that funding for these small projects was always considered up front, including how continued income could be generated. For Strictly Cinema customers did pay a nominal fee and that helped towards sustaining the project. Small grants and contributions were also obtained including the provision of food and beverages from large retail establishments..

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added that the whole agenda for prevention and wellbeing going forward as a new model would need to be sustainable. The model subject of the report before Members, had been funded throught Western bay monies and Officers were looking at avenues whereby this would continue in terms of longer term investments. This was for the whole programme, and not just Strictly Cinema. There would be opportunities in the future to re-skill employees in order to successfully move things forward within the existing infrastructure. There was a Western bay piece of work due to start whoch would be looking at the workforce.. A Business Case was being progressed and the Western Bay collaboration were also going to commit to part funding the infrastructure.

The Project Manager – Learning Disabilities further added that many projects failed due to the lack of  continued funding, and that’s why other forms of income generation were being pursued and a Social Enterprise would also be set-up as a form of income/funding generation.

A Member also recognised the fact that grant funding could not always be relied upon to be forthcoming, and even if they do, this was normally only for a specified period and when the funding was withdrawn, the local authority were then often faced with costs for staff redundancies. He also asked if the local authority signposted individuals to Sandville which was an independent, self-help centre that supported people with a disability/acute illness.

The Project Manager – Learning Disabilities confirmed that individuals were referred to Sandville, and the Authority had been evaluated by Swansea University in connection with  those people that had been referred to this facility for support. She added however that it was also important for service users to decide what forms of support mechanism suited their particular needs.

A Member noted form page 13 of the report that referral pathways were now in place with all nine GP’s in the North Network, and around 23% of LCC referrals were now coming from GP’s. As this developed, she asked if this would be financially supported by the NHS.

The Head of Adult Social Care confirmed that this initiative was in its early stages and the next development stage would take place in 6 months and between now and then, the above process would be evaluated and monitored in order to gauge its worth and success. If it did continue long term, then it would be discussed with partner organisations and a more holistic approach would be introduced, including the financial elements of these referrals.

A Member referred to paragraph 4.16 of the report, and enquired who the Western Bay newsletter was made available to.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing advised that this went to all partners in Western Bay and all Members. It was also available on line she added. She confirmed though that she would check this is correct and come back to the Member outside of the meeting.

A Member referred to paragraph 4.13 of the report where it stated that Swansea University had almost completed an Evaluation Report of the implementation of the LAC/LCC model which was in fact, due to be finalised this month and shared with partners. She asked if this had yet taken place.

The Head of Adult Social Care replied that it had not as yet, but would be very soon.

A Member referred to paragraph 4.19 of the report where it confirmed that the Dewis Cymru website went live across North Wales on 28 September 2015, and that arrangements were well developed to extend it to other parts of Wales. As this was over 12 months ago, she asked if this had now taken place.

The Head of Adult Social Care confirmed that this was work in progress in terms of Bridgend and its health partners and other key stakeholders.

A Member referred to paragraph 7.1 of the report where it confirmed the number of posts in the LCC team and the salaries for these through project funding by way of grant. However, paragraph 7.6 of the report, referred to there being a proposal in order to achieve savings by deleting a Social Workers post in Adult Social Care.

The Head of Adult Social Care advised that there were a total of 71 staff in Social Services that were managing care, with further options associated with sustaining support for LCC. This post she advised would remain in being should the LCC model not prove sustainable going forward. To accommodate all this, Officers were looking to enhance the different skill base of staff as well as, moving staff around to meet the needs of the service.

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 and stated how pleased they were to hear of the LCC projects succeeding in drawing people out from isolation.  However, Members did note how labour intensive some of the case studies were and expressed their concerns regarding the assurance of resources being able to meet demand.
• Members welcomed the fact that officers plan to concentrate on LCC services generating an income to sustain the work of the projects.
• In relation to the statement made regarding ‘ShedQuarters’ users, the Committee felt that the record could be detrimental to members of the group and asked that this be taken into account when reporting on the enterprise in the future.
• Members have requested that when an update of the Prevention, Wellbeing and Local Community Co-ordination is next presented to the Committee, that the LCC projects are referenced under a heading for each area – Ogmore, Llynfi and Garw Valleys – to ensure ease of reference to what projects are being carried out where.
• The Committee expressed concerns in relation to the deletion of a social worker post and stated that even though the projects had succeeded in reallocating support to the LCCs or community hubs, it did not mean that they would not require support in the future or that demand in this area would not increase.
• In relation to the Dewis Cymru website, Members have suggested that when the site is populated with work that is being progressed in the Borough, a link to the website should be inserted on the BCBC website.

Additional Information

·         Members asked Officers to confirm where the Western Bay newsletter is circulated and if it is found anywhere in hard copy.

·         The Committee requested that they receive a copy of the Evaluation Report undertaken by Swansea University with finalised.