Agenda and minutes

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

The minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 19 July 2022 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

 

The minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 21 September 2022 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

 

The Chief Executive submitted a report which identified the forthcoming issues to be considered by the Executive, as outlined in Appendix A to the report. 

 

The report provided the Overview and Scrutiny Board with the opportunity to consider whether any item contained within the Executive Forward Work Programme should be considered by the Board, or referred to a Scrutiny Panel.

 

A Member of the Board queried whether the items on the Forward Work Programme allocated to the department of Children’s Services would progress as indicated given the forthcoming departure of the Executive Director of Children’s Services and the Director of Children’s Care. In response the Monitoring Officer advised that confirmation on this would sought and written confirmation provided to the Board following the meeting.

 

NOTED

The Executive Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health, Public Protection and Digital Inclusion, Cllr David Coupe, was in attendance to update the Board on his aims and aspirations, progress made to date and to highlight any emerging issues relating to his portfolio.

 

The Director of Adult Social Care and Health Integration, the Director of Public Health (South Tees) and the Director of Legal and Democratic Services were also in attendance. The Executive Member opened by thanking the Board for the invite and advised that he would highlight some of the key areas he had been working on, as well as some of the emerging issues relating to his portfolio. During the presentation the following key points were made:-

 

·         In terms of the broader context it was advised that it was becoming an increasingly challenging local environment for staff within these service areas, as they were dealing with increasingly complex “chaotic” users of services, the impact of the increasing cost of living and the on-going impact of COVID-19. They were managing these challenges in the context of the current financial restrictions for both the Council and for partner organisations. There was also uncertainty around the impact and resourcing of central government’s reforms of Adult Social Care (charging reforms and changes to the ways in which care providers are funded – would they go ahead and how would they be funded?).

·         It was advised that plans were in place for the commencement of CQC inspections of Adult Social Care from 2023 and the Council was connecting into the emerging Integrated Care Board (ICB) work programme in order to support the delivery of shared aspirations to reduce health inequalities and improve population health. In addition the   delivery of the national drugs strategy “From harm to hope: A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives” was also high on the agenda.

·         The Executive Member highlighted the on-going work and key current issues in which he was involved and all of the issues were detailed in his PowerPoint presentation, which had been shared with Members and was available via the modern.gov system.   

 

Following the presentation Members of the Board were afforded the opportunity to ask questions and the following queries were raised:-

 

·         In response to a query regarding the monies received by the Council during the pandemic for the provision of workforce support in Care Homes it was advised that the Council had developed a mechanism to disperse the funding, which had been monitored through the contracting and commissioning teams. The Member was advised that if the question could be submitted in writing a detailed response in respect of the figures could be provided. 

·         In terms of the way in which the Council and its partners were responding to the cost of living crisis it was advised that a multi-agency response was in place and the cold weather plan would also soon come into effect. The Council was working with the NHS to identify those at particular risk of being unable to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/127

Adult Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel

Councillor J. Platt (Chair)

 

Children & Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel

Councillor D. McCabe (Chair)

 

Children & Young People’s Social Care and Scrutiny Panel 

Councillor D. Davison (Chair)

 

Culture and Communities Scrutiny Panel

Councillor C. McIntyre (Chair)

 

Economic Development, Environment and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel

Councillor J. McTigue (Chair)

 

Health Scrutiny Panel 

Councillor D. Jones (Chair)

Each Scrutiny Chair provided an update on the work undertaken by their respective panel’s as follows:-

 

Adult Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel

 

The last meeting of the Adult Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel was held on 5 October 2022.

 

The panel received an update from the Director of Adult Social Care and Health Integration in respect of integration work that had taken place between health and social care.

 

Members then heard from both the Director and the Head of Strategic Commissioning and Procurement in relation to ‘The Impact of the Energy and Cost of Living Crises on Caring for Vulnerable Adults’.  Following receipt of this information, the panel agreed that rather than continue with this topic as a short term scrutiny review, because issues would be present for the foreseeable future, updates would be provided periodically.  The next update would be received on 30 November 2022.

 

The panel’s next meeting will take place on the 2 November 2022, when consideration of the draft final report of ‘The Role of the VCS in Supporting Adult Social Care (With a Focus on COVID-19 and Recovery)’ would be undertaken.

 

Children & Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel

 

The Children & Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel’s last meeting was held on 10 October 2022.

 

In respect of the scrutiny panel's 2021 review of Behaviour, Discipline and Bullying in Schools, Caroline Cannon - the Council’s Strategic Lead for Inclusion and Specialist Support Services and the Head of Inclusion, Assessment and Review had attended to provide:

 

·         an update on the progress made with the implementation of the agreed recommendations / actions; and

 

·         information and data demonstrating the impact of the 0-25 Inclusion and Outreach Model.

 

The information received had demonstrated to the panel that there was emerging data, case study and impact evidence to suggest that the Inclusion and Outreach Model was having a positive impact for children, families and schools.

 

At the meeting, the scrutiny panel also considered and agreed the Terms of Reference for its review of Youth Offending and Partnership Working with Schools.

 

Children & Young People’s Social Care and Scrutiny Panel 

 

The Children and Young People’s Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel had last met on 24 October 2022.

 

The South Tees Safeguarding Children Partnership Manger had attended the meeting to present the STSCP’s Annual Report for 2021/22. The Panel had heard details of the Partnership’s work over the previous year, including details of the numbers of serious case reviews and training provided to strategic partners.

 

The Scrutiny Panel’s next meeting was scheduled to be held on 14 November 2022.

 

Culture and Communities Scrutiny Panel

 

The last meeting of the Culture and Communities Scrutiny was held on 20 October 2022 and the panel discussed the Council’s strategies for dealing with off road bikes.

 

The Council’s Operational Community Safety Manager was in attendance to provide the update but unfortunately the representative from Cleveland Police had been unable to attend. 

 

The Scrutiny Panel’s next meeting was scheduled to be held on 14 November 2022.

 

Economic Development,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/128