Agenda item

Responsibilities under the Social Services and Well-being Act to provide information, advice and assistance ~ Report to outline current compliance and to present a future approach for Monmouthshire.

Context:

Members received a report which determines how Information, Advice and Assistance (IAA) is currently delivered across Monmouthshire (to ensure this meets the requirements of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act and to set out proposals for the future model of IAA provision across the county.

Key Issues:

The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 came into effect on 6th April 2016. Wellbeing and prevention are at the centre of the Act and the provision of IAA will ensure voice, choice and control for people in meeting their personal wellbeing

outcomes and remaining independent of statutory services for as long as possible.

Part 2 of the Act requires local authorities to have in place an information, advice and assistance service as from April 2017 Data capture is required for which there are performance indicators and aggregated data measures.

Regional discussions have highlighted a difference in the interpretation of the duty to provide an information, advice and assistance “service” and models range from delivery at the front door of social services to multiple points within and across communities. As a result it is anticipated there will be a degree of incongruence in reporting and measurement across Wales. It may take some time to ascertain what good looks like in terms of Monmouthshire’s quantitative measures if comparisons are made with differing models of provision.

Initially the authority intends to measure advice and assistance from a point of delivery at statutory front door(s) but, as the attached report illustrates, this is not a complete picture of activity. Through the development of place based approaches, information, advice and assistance provision will continue to be mapped and co-ordinated and systems developed which will measure both the numbers of people who access this and, more importantly, the impact this has had on wellbeing at individual and community levels.

Monmouthshire has excellent foundations on which to build but there are challenges. The model for IAA proposed, incorporates

Future Monmouthshire work streams and the development of place based community wellbeing approaches.

5.6 Members are requested to approve the next steps to take forward this work and to engage in early debate with Welsh

Government civil servants to ensure our compliance with the SSWBA.

Member Scrutiny:

A Member commented on the Council’s website and found it sadly lacking. The Chief Officer commented on the importance of being able to find information easily and spoke of the DEWIS website which will be launched for Monmouthshire County Council in January 2017.

The Head of Adult Services spoke of a website they are modelling on the Eden Project’s website with help with the council’s communication team. It will initially be trialled on an internal basis and when it is ready to roll out the team will bring the site to Adults Select for scrutiny.

A member asked if the information will be put in leaflet form and we were told that would be useful driver to get the message out. It was stressed that not everyone has access to the internet and that it is important that the message is available to all.