Agenda item

Council were presented with a report, the purpose was to provide Council with the Annual Report of the Statutory Director of Social Services.

The Chief Executive reminded Members that this was an opportunity to put questions to the Chief Officer who would provide a straight professional view, rather than directing through a Cabinet Member.

During discussion we noted:

·         A Member thanked the Chief Officer for a professional, clear report which identified wins and successes but also noted areas for improvement. 

·         A question was addressed to the Chief Officer regarding resources.  In response we heard that it was thought that social services in Wales has improved since resources had started to become more limited.  Adversity had taken the service to a different place in terms of the service offer.  The challenge was now to see how much further this could continue, particularly in terms of Adult Services with the challenging demographics.

In terms of Children’s Services, the aim was to achieve a sustainable financial position, and not coming back to Council year on year requesting more money.  Overall, the feeling was dismayed but optimistic.

·         A Member made the following comments:

Ø  Page 14 – the infographics did not provide enough information.

Ø  Page 16 – inappropriate nature of workforce training, the workforce had not felt supported through the scale of change.

Ø  Page 18 – request for consistency in reporting.

·         A Member noted that the report had been presented to Adults Select Committee and raised the issue of variation and variability.  There were concerns if residents in Chepstow and Abergavenny were receiving the same benefits as those in Caldicot and Monmouth, and if not how far away were we from achieving that.  The Chief Officer advised that when looking at Community Coordination, the assets within different communities will differ, therefore the service would not be identical offer but the principle needed to be the same.

·         In terms of commissioning services, care services in particular, many are a low margin business and providers would have been affected by a number of factors.  A question was presented that, should providers increase their pricing structure, how would we respond to that, and was there a danger some providers may disappear.  The Chief Officer responded that MCC had responded to the National Living Wage, which had been reflected in the fair price of care paid to care homes and domiciliary providers.  The issue regarding how we work with the provider market on a sustainable basis, is referred to in the Turning the World Upside Down work, and is the biggest challenge, but good progress was being made.

·         It was suggested that the report identified areas for improvement in Children’s Services and a Member referred particularly to page 30 The percentage of initial assessments where the child has been seen alone by the Social Worker.  It was questioned if it was preferable for the initial assessment to be alone or accompanied, or had there been a policy change.  The Chief Officer advised that this related to an audited indicator and appropriate reasons were recorded.  It was noted that there had been a high level of agency which was not best practice and could impact on the quality

·         The Leader thanked the Chief Officer on behalf of all Members for the forensic insight of the service, enhanced by the answering of questions.

We resolved to agree the recommendations:

·         That Council consider and endorse the analysis in 2015/16 Annual Report of the Statutory Director of Social Services concerning the performance, and impact, of adult and children’s social care and health services over the last financial year.

·         Council also consider and endorse the 2016/17 areas for improvement set out in the report to address the critical risk and developmental issues in social care and health.