Agenda item

This report proposes options available to address the waiting list for Care Act assessments ensuring the service is assessing individuals in a timely manner and taking every opportunity to prevent, reduce and delay the need for adult social care.

Resolved: That the Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care:

·       Agreed agree to procure an external agency to provide Care Act assessments, Reviews, Carers assessments and Occupational Therapy assessments.

Reason: To enable Adult Social Care to meet its statutory duties under the Care Act 2014.

The Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Integration presented the report.

The report proposed options available to address the waiting list ensuring that individuals were assessed in a timely manner and that every opportunity was taken to prevent, reduce, and delay the need for adult social care; it was highlighted how people’s needs may also increase as they waited for these assessments which emphasised the need to reduce waiting lists.

The Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Integration reported how by commissioning an external agency to provide Care Act assessments, Reviews, Carers assessments, and Occupational Therapy assessments through a strength-based method the level of support and need will be reduced.

In response to questions from the Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care, the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Integration confirmed:

·       Key clear expectations for progress would be considered when reviewing the contract additional scrutiny was provided for the first 30 cases for reassurance.

·       It would be a priority to ensure individuals were being helped to be as independent as possible within their care.

·       Clear clauses would be built into the contract to allow for the contract to be suspended if quality of work was not where it was needed to be.

·       Heads of Service would detail where they were with their teams to see where progress is required on reducing waiting lists.

·       There was an Improvement Advisor appointed by Department of Social Care and was monitoring CYC with reports being taken to the Improvement Board

·       Contact points were being redesigned to include qualified social workers and Occupational Therapists within teams to enable qualified help at first point of call.

·       Early interventions had made improvements and it was likely that in the longer term, the transformation work planned for the service would reduce referral rates in some key areas; in the longer term plans were in place to have more Occupational Therapists and assisted technology technicians, and there was a desire to fill existing vacancies with full time staff to reduce reliance on agency staff who would be beneficial in the short term

·       There was a priority to bring about systemic change rather than focussing on bringing down the waiting list once to then be brought back up again without real changes being made.

Resolved: That the Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care:

·       Approved the procurement of a new contract for assessments, reviews and carers assessments up to a maximum value of £400,000 funded from Adult Social Care budget growth as allocated at Budget Council on 12 February 2026.

·       Delegated authority to the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Integration (and their delegated officers) in consultation with Chief Finance Officer (and their delegated officers in Commercial Procurement) to award a contract via a process and evaluation criteria in compliance with the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules.

·       Delegated authority to the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Integration (and their delegated officers), in consultation with the Director of Governance (and their delegated officers in Legal Services), to determine the provisions of the new contract, and the provisions of any subsequent modifications.

·       Delegated authority to the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Integration (and their delegated officers), in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer (and their delegated officers in Commercial Procurement) and the Director of Governance (and their delegated officers in Legal Services), to award and conclude the new contract for the Sensory Support Service following an open, fair, and transparent competitive process and evaluation criteria in compliance with the Council’s CPRs and (where applicable) the Procurement Regs.

Reason: To ensure compliance with CYC’s Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs) and because the provision of the contract ensures the Council can meet statutory duties under the Care Act 2014 to carry out assessments and reviews.