Agenda and minutes

Councillor L. Brown was appointed as Vice Chair.

No members of the public were present.

Context

The purpose of the report is for the Adults Select Committee to scrutinise the 2016/17 performance information under its remit, this includes:

•           Reporting back on how well we did against the objectives which the previous         Council set for 2016/17:

•           Information on how we performed against a range of nationally set measures for Adults Social services used by all councils in Wales.

Key Issues

The council currently has an established performance framework, this is the way in which we translate our vision - building sustainable and resilient communities - into action and ensure sure that everyone is pulling in the same direction to deliver real and tangible outcomes.  This is shown at appendix 1. Further information on the council’s performance framework is available on the hub.

Over the coming years the shape of public services in Wales is likely to change significantly influenced by two very significant pieces of Welsh legislation, The Well-being of Future Generations Act and The Social Services and Well-being Act as well as financial pressures, demographic changes, changes in customer needs and expectations and regulatory and policy changes. Services need to continue to think more about the long-term, work better with people and communities, look to prevent problems before they arise and take a more joined-up approach.

The council has recently completed two substantial assessments of need as a result of this legislation and these are available on www.monmouthshire.gov.uk/our-monmouthshire. This information has provided a much deeper evidence base of well-being in the county and, as required by the Future Generations Act, this has been used to produce the council’s well-being objectives and statement  2017 available on www.monmouthshire.gov.uk/improvement.

The shift in focus in the well-being objectives means that activities will need to be focused on longer term challenges at a community level rather than some of the internal process issues and outputs that could sometimes be found in its predecessor, The Improvement Plan. When dealing with more complex societal challenges it will take longer for measurable change to come about and longer still to be able to evidence those changes in a meaningful way. In the short-term there will continue to be milestones that can be used to track our improvement journey. This will be supported by a range of performance reports select committee can request as part of their work programme and the structure of performance reports received by committee will be revised to reflect this emphasis.

Appendix 2 sets out performance achieved in 2016/17 against the actions and performance measures approved by Council in May 2016 as part of its Improvement Plan. As well as being presented to select committees the objectives will be included alongside a further evaluation of performance in 2016/17 that will be reported to Council and published by October. The Welsh Government have recently consulted on plans to repeal the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 which means this is likely to be the final plan and report in this format. 

Appendix 3 provides a report card on Adults social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Context:

A ‘planned approach’ to Scrutiny Forward Work Programming in order to maximise the effectiveness and added value of scrutiny activity, ensuring focus upon topics of the highest priority for the Council and those which reflect the public interest.

Key Issues:

Work programme discussion meetings have taken place between the new Chair of the Select Committee and the relevant chief officer for social services and topics that have been highlighted as requiring scrutiny are as follows:

Future Commissioning of Adults Services ~ linked to “Turning the World Upside Down”

Budget Pressures within services and spend analysis

Community Development and Well-being

Supporting People Strategy

Welfare ~ Discussion with Monmouthshire Housing Association on current stock and new home development, support for welfare reform

Housing: (suggested September 2017)

         Housing Support Gateway

         Cold Weather Homeless Policy

         Severe Weather Emergency Protocol’

         Removal of the Temporary Accommodation Management Fee

         Homeless Accommodation Report (Future of Private Leasing)

         Local Housing Market Assessment

         Melin Private Leasing Scheme

Gypsy and Traveller Services

Homelessness Prevention Strategy ~ early 2018

Disabled adaptations further to the additional funding for 2017/18

Annual Complaints Report for Social Services

The following items were identified for Joint Scrutiny with Children and Young People’s Select Committee:

“Information, Advice and Assistance Service ~ responsibility of the Social Services and Well-being Act 2014 ~  (January/February 2018)

The implementation of the Social Services and Well-being Act 2014 ~  (October 2017)

Mental Health and Learning Disabilities ~ linked to implications of the DOLS (Deprivation Liberty Safeguards) Grant

Well-being ~ responsibilities of the Social Services and Well-being Act 2014 around connected communities and meeting needs

Implementation of the Social Services and Well-being Act 2014 ~ review post 18 month together with the duties around prisons ~  (March 2018)

Progress of Regional Safeguarding Boards ~ Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015 

Regional Integrated Autism Service

Member Scrutiny:

Select Committee Members commented as follows:

·         Housing is a priority;

·         Removal of the Severn Bridge toll and the consequent forecasted rise of private rents and property prices was raised a priority.  This will be considered by all Select Committees led by Economy and Development.

·         Care at Home was suggested as a topic for scrutiny, in particular, how this is provided and the training received and the turnover of carers.  It was agreed that these issues will be added to the work programme as part of the consideration of Future Commissioning of Adults Services ~ linked to “Turning the World Upside Down” 

·         That as the 65+ population is rapidly growing, loneliness and isolation will be more widespread and there is a need to identify gaps across the county that voluntary groups don’t meet to assess when more care is required.  It was agreed that this will be added to the work programme as part of the discussion on Community Development and Wellbeing.

·         A Member identified five overarching themes affecting Health and Social Care in Wales in terms of models of care, service and quality.  He questioned how best the public sector  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The decision was taken to defer consideration of this matter and to revisit it at the next meeting.

Two elected Members expressed concerns about the White Paper “Services Fit for the Future” published on 8^th June 2017 referring to the role of Community Health Councils across Wales.  Of particular concern was the proposed removal of the access to independent Patient Voice and the support of the Committee was sought. A paper was circulated summarising concerns accordingly. The Committee agreed that this is a very serious issue.   A Member agreed that the proposals appeared to weaken not strengthen Patient Voice and questioned how service users will report complaints noting dissatisfaction that spending on health is being reduced in Wales. 

The effectiveness of the Patient Advisory and Liaison Service (PALS) in England.  It was explained that the CHC distribute leaflets but that approach can be seen as low profile.

A response from the Council is required by the end of September and it was suggested that an e mail is sent to all Members for opinions in view of short timescales, taken to the Cabinet Member for Social Care, Safeguarding and Health and that a question/motion or agenda item is put to Council to enable a debate with the full support of this Select Committee.

Further concerns were expressed regarding the unavailability of CHC minutes that prevents public scrutiny.  The Scrutiny Manager agreed to circulate the minutes of the Adults Select Committee in April when it was established that the CHC minutes are not published.

The forward work programme was discussed earlier in the meeting.

The Council and Cabinet Forward Plan was noted.  It will be e mailed to all members each Friday.  It was advised that a Special Cabinet meeting will be held on the 9^th August 2017.

No declarations of interest were made.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20^th June 2017 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

Arising from the minutes, the Chair sought confirmation of the affordable housing allocation, in particular where a specific number of affordable homes are to be delivered and are then sold, and queried if the figures are adjusted accordingly.