Agenda and minutes

Adult Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel - Wednesday 13th January, 2021 10.30 am

Contact: Susie Blood 

Items
No. Item

20/2

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

20/3

Minutes- Adult Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel - held on 9 December 2020

To follow

Minutes:

The Chair advised that the minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2020 would be submitted to the meeting on 10 February 2021 for approval.

 

20/9

SUSPENSION OF COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULE NO. 5 - ORDER OF BUSINESS

Minutes:

AGREED - in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 5, the Chair agreed to vary the order of business as follows; item 5,6,4,7 and 8.

20/5

Integration of Health and Social Care- Verbal update

The Director of Adult Social Care and Health Integration will be in attendance to provide a verbal update.

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed the Director of Adult Social Care and Health Integration to the meeting to discuss issues relating to integration of health and social care.

 

These updates continue to be different pre -Covid as the priority of the work is response to Covid pandemic and the recovery framework. The position nationally is the delivery of the vaccine on the horizon.

 

The department has been receiving questions in relation to the vaccines and although this the responsibility for the NHS, the Council commission services where there are vulnerable groups and where there are the top priority groups, the department have a lot of preparation work to do and working very closely with the NHS (through the local clinical commission group and the local acute hospitals/ primary care networks) to ensure we have plans in place to get them through the system.

The Director outlined that he was delighted that a number of the front line staff within Adult Social Care had begun to be vaccinated, which has begun in James Cook University Hospital. We have also been supporting the roll out of vaccine with Care home staff and this has now been rolled out through the Primary Care networks to the over 80s and care home residents. It is hoped that we will see a massive acceleration of the vaccine programme within the next few weeks. National Government , and the Health Secretary has outlined a plan, which outlines the top 4 priority groups, including the health and care staff will be vaccinated by the end of February 2021.

 

K Warnock outlined that to date (as of 12 January 2021) 6,500 James Cook Hospital staff have been vaccinated to date, 12,000 vulnerable adults (including over 80’s and care home staff) have been vaccinated across Redcar and Middlesbrough.

 

As well as the Covid response, the Director outlined that the services are continuing to function, whilst dealing with more people self-isolating. The NHS and Council services are under pressure and the Country still do not know the impact of the Christmas relaxation. However he advised that it was as important as ever to ensure residents and staff abide by the guidance to ensure everyone is safe.

 

A panel member outlined that they had come across a request for a housebound resident to attend a clinic for the vaccine within a surgery, however they are completely housebound. The Director outlined that there will be issues that faced and the Health Secretary had mentioned rolling out mobile vaccination units, however as yet there has been no further information.

 

AGREED- that the information be noted

 

20/6

The LGB&T Community and Elderly Care- update pdf icon PDF 631 KB

The Director of Adult Social Care and Health Integration will be in attendance to provide an update on the recommendations of the Panel’s final review on the LGB&T Community and Elderly Care which was completed in 2018.

 

Please note that the update from the service area on the recommendations will be provided prior to or at the meeting.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Adult Social Care and Health Integration was in attendance to provide an update on the recommendations from a 2019 review on LGBT&Q Community and Elderly Care. The review came about following an observation that there was little conversation in the care homes and LGBT and there was some work completed by the Mayor to identify whether residents felt comfortable identifying themselves as LGBT.  The Director did however stress that the actions set out within the recommendations needed to be continued, and to a degree the service has been able to do this.

 

In terms of the recommendations the progress to date was as follows:

 

SCRUTINY

RECOMMENDATION

 

Update – January 2021

That activities which raise awareness

and celebrate LGB&T be undertaken in

care settings to encourage participation in open discussion.

Care homes as

independent businesses

have final control over this

but encouragement has

been provided through the

Care Home Forum. Action

Complete.

That training and development sessions be undertaken with care providers.

Training should focus upon general

awareness raising of LGB&T matters,

as well as more specific training around

the promotion of engagement and open

discussion between clients and care

staff.

Training on equality and

diversity, including LGB&T

issues is now part of the

mandatory training

undertaken by care providers. Action complete.

That work be undertaken by officers in

Commissioning and Procurement to

ensure that contracted providers have

policies in place to support the

anticipated increase of openly LGB&T

residents in the future.

The requirements for care

homes to have equality and

diversity policies in place

that reflect the needs of

LGB&T residents have

been reviewed and are

monitored though the

normal contract monitoring

processes. Action Complete.

That an online LGB&T awareness raising module be introduced and

implemented for all Elected Members

and Council employees, which could

also potentially be part of the induction

process. The Panel would also

encourage staff to undertake additional

offline training, where possible.

Corporate Induction has

been reviewed since the

scrutiny report to include

updated content on equality

and diversity issues,

including LGB&T and an

online equality and diversity

training module has been

created for all staff; this is

accessible to all Elected

Members. Action complete.

That consideration be given to the use

of the LGB&T acronym across the

Council.

The Council’s Equality and

Inclusion Working Group gave consideration to the use of LGB&T as an acronym and is content to use this. Action complete.

That engagement work be undertaken

with all communities to raise awareness

and understanding of LGB&T issues,

which would promote community

cohesion and group interaction whilst

challenging negative behaviours. This

would also assist the relatives and

friends of LGB&T individuals who are

receiving care support.

Meeting undertaken, May

19, with Director of Culture,

Communities and Communication and agreement reached that

C,C&C would develop

engagement programme

aimed at addressing community cohesion issues focussed on LGB&T issues.

 

Action complete, however this will be readdressed.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/6

20/4

Palliative and End of Life Care- Future Work pdf icon PDF 758 KB

A representative from NHS Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group will be in attendance to provide further information on the initial scoping work and plans regarding key engagement sessions to begin the collaborative conversation around end of life care.

 

 

Minutes:

The Chair invited Katie McLeod, Head of Commissioning and Strategy at the CCG. The Head of Commissioning advised that she supported the adult 18-64 age range postfolio which covered acute, community services and those with long-term conditions, cancer services and end of life care.

 

At the last meeting held in December 2020, the Panel heard from Craig Blair and the information provided by the Head of Commissioning was to build on this information and focus on the future of the programme and to provide further information.

The Head of Commissioning restated the aim, which was to:

 

To make the last stage of people’s lives as good as possible by aligning systems and processes so that everyone works together confidently, honestly and consistently to help that patient and the people important to them.

 

The Panel were advised that the Tees valley CCG is one of the four sites nationally to be identified as a commissioning exemplar site.

 

It was explained that exemplar sites were selected by NHS England to support the national overarching agenda of:

 

•               Publication of a clear commissioning model, supported by national levers and incentives to commission, contract and fund the best Palliative and End of life Care for their area.

•               Integrated and seamless care across providers and organisations

 

The Panel learnt that NHS England would support the local sites and this  support would focus on plans to address national drivers, alongside development of an environment  which supports co design and implementation of a Palliative and End of Life Strategy by 2022.

As part of the opportunity and NHS support, Tees Valley CCG have an opportunity to build this vision and in return, the Tees Valley CCG will test out new models, work with service specification ideas and work in collaboration to meet the aims of the agenda.

 

The time scale is set from January 2021- March 2022, in this time the CCG hope to carry out meaningful engagement processes and develop our vision and work through detailed actions of where we are now and where we want to be.

 

Since December 2020, the following progress has taken place:

 

•               NHS England have issued a Memorandum of Understanding to the CCG for review and feedback by early January

•               Plans in place to sign the Memorandum of Understanding by mid – end January and funds will be transferred to the CCG thereafter (expectation is that funding is spent on programme management, events, clinical consultation time etc and it not to be used for delivery of services)

•               CCG are in the process of developing a job description to recruit to the project support role which was identified in their bid.

•               CCG team part of national project groups to drive the agenda forward and provide meaningful feedback into the commissioning and finance modules of the overarching programme.

•               CCG to form part of and be instrumental in the development of a team that support peer

•               learning across the country.

•               Locality areas previously undertook a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/4

20/7

Chair's OSB Update

Minutes:

The Chair provided an update on items discussed at the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 18 December 2021.

 

Agreed- That the update be noted.

20/8

Any other urgent items which in the opinion of the Chair, may be considered.

Minutes:

Forward Work Programme

 

The Chair expressed at the panel was now in a position to move onto a new topic and in previous meetings the panel had shown an interest in examining the support for carers.

 

Panel members agreed and one member asked whether the financial support could be looked at.

 

AGREED-

 

·         That the Democratic Services Officer invite an officer to attend to provide an overview on support for carers to the next meeting.

·         That once the introductory information had been received, detailed terms of reference for the review would be drawn up for the panel to consider.