Agenda, decisions and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

The Executive Member was invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests he might have in the business on the agenda. No interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Member for Housing and Adult Social Services and Advisory Panel held on 16 March 2009.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Member for Housing and Adult Social Services and Advisory Panel held on 16 March 2009 be approved and signed by the Executive Member as a correct record.

Councillor Simpson-Laing had registered to speak on Agenda item 4. She welcomed the report on the Progress on the Improvement Plans for Adult Social Care and stated that it was important to have regular updates and public discussion on this matter. Of the 20 recommendations and 12 areas for development noted in the report, she commented on the following areas:

• Safeguarding - that it was good to see that the recommendations were in place.  She hoped that the leaflet on this would also be available in printed format for those who did not have access to the Internet.
• Personalisation - that she was pleased to see the pilot and asked the officer for an update on the pilot scheme.
• Prevention - the speaker welcomed the inclusion of services aware of ethnicity issues.
• Equality Standards - the speaker noted that some targets had been missed.
• Performance Management, she welcomed the better buddying with Sunderland Authority, but asked that a report on this be brought to a Scrutiny meeting or to the Decision Session – Executive Member for Housing and Adult Social Services at a later date. The speaker also stated that she would welcome comments on this from the Executive Member.
• Welcomed the work of frontline staff working in this area.
• That she would like to see a further officer report on this to coincide with the next inspection. 

This report seeks the Executive Member’s approval of progress on the improvement plans agreed following the Independence, Well-Being and Choice inspection (by the former Commission for Social Care Inspection [CSCI] in June 2008) and the Annual Performance Assessment by CSCI in November 2008.

Decision of the Executive Member

RESOLVED:             (i) That the Executive Member approves the progress on the improvement plans for adult social care as set out in this report.

REASON:                  So that the Executive Member is engaged in monitoring and approving the progress on the improvement plan for adult social care.

RESOLVED:             (ii) That the Executive Member approves the proposed six broad areas for future improvement set out in paragraph 34.

REASON:                  So that these can be incorporated in a refresh of the Directorate Plan and be used to drive future improvement.

The Executive Member considered a report on the progress on the Improvement plans agreed following the Independence, Well-Being and Choice Inspection by the former Commission for Social Care Inspection [CSCI] in June 2008) and the Annual Performance Assessment by CSCI in November 2008.

The Director of Housing and Adult Social Services introduced the report. He reported that there had been 20 recommendations arising from the Commission for Social Care Inspection social inspections and 12 areas for development following the letter from the Annual Performance Assessment. He stated that the recommendations were themed and he addressed some of those key themes.

He noted that Safeguarding was the single biggest issue and the original inspection had recorded this as “Adequate”. He noted that the new Safeguarding Adults Board had attracted high-level representation from the Primary Care Trust (PCT), the police, fire and rescue, probation and others, and two subgroups to help in its work. The Director of Housing and Adult Social Services noted that there had been an increase in referrals in the 08/09 year from 88 to over 200, which was felt to be due to greater awareness, but was also a worrying trend.  He stated that Safeguarding had an element of prevention and that a leaflet about this was available as a paper leaflet and also online.

On the issue of Personalisation, the Director stated that this was part of a national programme. He noted a successful year with regard to hospital discharges despite pressure with regard to admissions. He further stated that this was an area for coverage of the single information base through the Single Assessment Process (SAP) and that there had been agreement to help with GP groups, with the details to be confirmed with the Executive Member.

On the issue of Prevention, this had been rated as “Good”. However, other areas had now been included and the importance of making services more available and with more individualised responses to black and minority ethnic groups (though low in number in York) was being developed. He referred the Executive Member to table 1 on page 15 of the agenda with regard to this and also stated that City of York Council had a corporate focus on equalities issues.

In terms of Performance Indicators, the Director noted that City of York Council had looked outside to other authorities, including Sunderland and Bolton. A development day had been held with these authorities and staff and managers had come away with improvement targets. Investment in a new manager had been made to get the new infrastructure in place, together with monthly meetings to look at performance and progress. He noted that improvements had been seen across the board, but stated that the “journey to excellence” would probably take more than one year.

The director referred the Executive Member to pages 18 and 19 of the report, which showed an increase in demand and in performance. An area for concern was the timeliness of new assessments, as this had previously been operating  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.