This item will be supported by a presentation from the Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to approve the Western Bay Population Assessment in accordance with the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014, and appoint the City and County of Swansea as the Lead Co-ordinating Body to submit the Assessment to Welsh Ministers on behalf of Western Bay.

 

In support of the report, a joint power point Presentation was given by Sara Harvey, Regional Programme Director, Western Bay, and the Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing, entitled ‘The Social Services and Wellbeing Act (Wales) 2014 – Western Bay Population Assessment’.

 

The report and Presentation, covered the following themes:-

 

Legislation

 

Section 14 of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 requires that local authorities and Local Health Boards must jointly carry out an assessment of:

 

•       the needs for care and support,  and

•       the support needs of carers

 

The assessment must also identify:

 

•       the extent to which those needs are not being met

•       the range and level of services required to meet those needs

•       the range and level of services required to deliver preventative services; and

•       how these services will be delivered through the medium of Welsh

 

The purpose of the Population Assessment is to create an evidence base that will support the delivery of the statutory functions on organisations and also inform planning and operational decisions. The Assessment must be published by 31^st March 2017

 

The report for the Western Bay area consists of three layers of detail:

 

•       A suite of web-pages  - high level summary and key issues;

•       A suite of downloadable chapters  - more detailed description of arrangements;

•       A suite of technical reports-contains the evidence and analysis 

 

The 10 Core Themes

 

•          Learning Disability and Autism

•          Mental Health

•          Health/Physical Disability

•          Sensory Impairment

•          Carers

•          Violence Against Women, Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence

•          Secure Estate

•          Older People

•          Children and Young People

•          Safeguarding and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards

 

What we Did (ie Western Bay)

 

•          Established a regional Steering Group

•          Set up regional sub-groups, to undertake:

 

Ø  Data and analysis

Ø  Engagement

Ø  Provide an Editorial

 

•          We used:

 

Quantitative information – Data from various sources

Qualitative information – What people told us

 

Data

 

•          The data used was published data – this meant that due to timing, the main data was from year 2014/15

•          Data came from the Data Unit Wales’ data catalogue, as well as other sources

•          Published local data (eg.PI’s) was also used

 

Engagement

 

•          The Population Assessment  was carried out at the same time as the Wellbeing Assessment  (part of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015).

•          Engagement took place across the region for both assessments at the same time

•          Miller Research Ltd.  was commissioned to carry out the engagement activities

•          The Western Bay Regional Citizen’s Panel received updates and the final report has been shared with the Panel

•          The ABMU HB Stakeholder Reference Group has also been part of the engagement exercise. 

 

Editorial Work

 

•          The Editorial Group oversaw the production of both the webpages and the downloadable chapters

•          The work involved drawing out the main themes from the technical documents produced by the Data Sub-Group and the findings of the Engagement Sub-Group

•          An external provider was engaged to create the web resources

•          Draft outputs were reviewed and signed off by the Editorial Group members.

 

The Final Report – In 3 Layers

 

1. Website with summaries of key messages

2. Chapters for each of the ten topics in PDF format giving more details

3. Technical reports / Topic Papers which are available on request and include considerable finer detail

 

Emerging Themes

 

•          Paragraph 4.19 of the report lists the emerging themes broken down into:

•          Needs relating to demographics

•          Demand which is increasing

•          New population demand

 

•          Paragraph 4.20 of the report detailed the key messages

 

Next Steps

 

•       The Population Assessment has demonstrated that there is a commonality across the four statutory organisations in delivering health and social care services 

•       It is going to provide the opportunity to focus on high level regional working priorities going forward which add value 

•       The webpages will be hosted by the City and County of Swansea on behalf of the Western Bay partnership (with links to/from partner websites as required in the Act).

•       The Steering Group and its sub-group members intend to carry out a “lessons learned” exercise to inform the process going forward 

•       An Area Plan will be developed by the Western Bay Regional Partnership Board – to be produced by April 2018

•       The Population Assessment is a ‘live’ tool and will be reviewed as part of the development of the Area Plan

 

The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help commended the  report which was expanded upon in an excellent Presentation, and in particular, the level of information and other data that had been shared with Members at today’s meeting.

 

He further added, that he was the grateful that a budget had been established by the Regional Partnership Board to complete the Population Assessment, and was funded from the Welsh Government’s Delivering Transformation Grant, together with in-house staff resource and in-kind contributions from partners. The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help stated that more investment was required to support older people however, as service demand was increasing due to people staying healthier and living for longer.

 

A Member echoed the point made above, that the Presentation and report was very comprehensive in terms of its detail whilst at the same time being user friendly, and that they both covered the mapping of all areas and different themes that comprised the Population Assessment. He felt it would be advantageous if this could be correlated with other statutory assessments undertaken in areas such as illicit drugs and areas of social deprivation etc, to establish the causes of these, and to be more preventative than reactive. This would also assist in closer working with other bodies such as the Police, Home Office and Welsh Government on resolving problems that are often common to all in some degree or another.

 

The Regional Programme Director for Western Bay advised that this could be investigated further as part of a wider area of joint working.

 

The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations felt that the part of the assessment that reflected domestic violence by men against women should also stress that this could also be an issue albeit on a lower scale, the other way around.

 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing advised that the Assessment could be slightly amended to reflect this point.

 

A Member asked if any reference was made to child exploitation in the Population Assessment.

 

The Regional Programme Director for Western Bay confirmed that this was referred to in the section of the document that related to children and Young people.

 

RESOLVED:          That Council:-

 

(1)      Approved the Western Bay Population Assessment.

 

(2)          Authorised the Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing to publish a link to the Population Assessment on the Council’s website.

 

  Appointed the City and County of Swansea as the Lead Co-ordinating Body to submit the Population Assessment to Welsh Ministers on behalf of the three local authorities and the Health Board in the Western Bay region.