Erik Scollay, Director of Adult Social Care and Health Integration will be in attendance to provide an overview of the work undertaken in Adult Social Care.
The Director will also provide an outline of priorities, key issues and
challenges for the year ahead.
The Panel will also have an opportunity meet service managers of the service directorate.
Minutes:
The Chair
welcomed the panel to the first meeting of the municipal year and a round of
introductions was provided. In attendance was Erik Scollay, Director of Adult social
care and Heath integration, who had been asked to provide a briefing in
relation to the service area, including key strategic priorities and challenges
for the coming year. The Director advised that he also had a statutory
responsibility for Director of Adult social service (DASS).
The
Director provided the panel with an overview of the following:
1. Adult social care and public protection
teams- who we are, what we do.
2. Overview of basic legislation
3. Current key issues.
Adult social care and public protection
teams- who we are, what we do.
The Panel were advised that in terms of
staff, the service had approximately 550 staff, with 115 full time social
workers. The service has a small senior staff team, consisting of the
following:
1. Judith Hedgley, Head of Public
Protection,
2. Ruth Musicka, Head of Access and
Safeguarding
3. Suzanne Hodge, Head of Prevention,
Provider and Support Services
4. VACANT - Head of Specialist and Lifelong
services. Sarah Disbury from North Yorkshire would be joining the Council in
the next few months.
5. Aside to the Heads of service for adult
social care were two further officer. Mark Adams, Director of Public Health
(Public Health South Tees) and Kathryn
Warnock, South Tees Integration Programme Manager.
The Heads
of service were in attendance and introduced themselves to the panel.
They
advised that they would return at a later date if requested by the panel.
The
Director advised the panel of the Directorate teams:
•
Social
Work Teams – Access, Adult Safeguarding, East and West Locality Teams, Hospital
at JCUH, LD and Transitions, Older People’s Mental Health, Psychosis, Affective
Disorder, Forensics, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Team (BIAs), Approved
Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs)
•
Estates
Team
•
Tees
Community Equipment Service
•
Occupational
Therapy Team
•
ACT
- Homelessness Team, Rough Sleeper Support and Domestic Abuse Support
•
Residential Respite – Levick Court
•
Day Care – The Orchard, North Ormesby Resource Centre,
Community Inclusion Service, Autism Day Unit
•
Independent Living Services – Staying Put Agency,
Connect and Assistive Tech, Staying Included, Rekindle Digital Inclusion,
Independence Hub, Blue Badge, Sensory Loss Service, Reablement Service,
Hospital to Home
•
Selective
Landlord Licensing Team
•
Public Protection - Environmental Health, Trading Standards, Housing Standards
Team
•
Licensing
Team
•
Metrology
Service
Overview of basic legislation
In terms of legal literacy, the Director
advised the panel that the service area work with many, however they are two
fundamental Acts which underpin the work within adult social care:
1. The Care Act 2014 (including the wellbeing principle for
eligibility)
The Care Act 2014 came into effect in
April 2015 and replaced most previous laws regarding both carers and people
being cared for.
The Care Act outlines:
·
the way in which local authorities
should carry out carers’ assessments and needs assessments (for
the looked after person)
·
how local authorities should
determine who is eligible for support
·
how local authorities should charge
for both residential care and community care
·
if they should charge
for carer support and
·
the local
authority obligations.
The Care Act is
mainly for adults in need of care and support, and their adult carers. There are some provisions for the transition of children in
need of care and support as they move to adult services, parent carers of children in need of
care and support, and some younger carers (https://www.carersuk.org
The
Care Act 2014 strengthens the rights of people with learning disabilities /
autism and their family carers. It promotes fairer, more personalised care –
and shifts the focus of local authorities from providing services for specific
groups, to supporting individuals to achieve the outcomes that matter to them.
Duties sit
within the
2. Mental Capacity Act 2015:
The
Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is designed to protect and empower people who may
lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care and
treatment. It applies to people aged 16 and over. It covers decisions about
day-to-day things like what to wear or what to buy for the weekly shop, or
serious life-changing decisions like whether to move into a care home or have
major surgery. The Act in essence, protects the rights of the individual.
Members
of the panel had a brief discussion regarding dementia and their rights. The
Director outlined that, wherever possible, the social worker will have a
discussion with the service user who is judged to have mental capacity
regarding power of attorney. If this is not in place, the social worker is
trained to have discussions with families in these circumstances.
Ongoing work and key current issues
The panel learnt that there were 12 key
areas:
1.
Preparations
for CQC inspections of Adult Social Care (beginning in Sep 23) – re-building of
capacity for reflection and continuous improvement. The CQC will inspect Local
authorities against part 1 of the Care Act 2014 and are currently working with
5 pilot local authorities.
The CQC will do as much inspection as
possible off site, in terms of inspection of safety and leadership. The CQC use
the same reward criteria as Ofsted. The local authority is currently looking at
an improvement plan.
As way of introduction, the Director
outlined he would return to provide an overview of the CQWC framework at a
later meeting.
1.
Management of complexity and demand – containment of
“in-year” spend and “transformative” action required to ensure sustainability.
More of a lean to trauma informed approaches and ensuring our services have
this in mind when dealing with complex cases.
2.
Market responsibilities – duty to ensure
sustainability of independent care provision.
3.
Reducing our reliance on residential care - we are a
national outlier.
Need to address ways of adapting
peoples’ homes so they are able to remain in their own properties. There is a
whole host of areas to address, including for example, housing providers,
temporary short term accommodation, strategic needs assessments, length of
assessment for adaptations etc.
4.
Development of housing/accommodation options –
sheltered; extra-care; temporary accommodation?
What does
Middlesbrough have to offer? What types of care homes do we provide?
5.
Development of workforce plans to address national
recruitment challenge across Social Workers/Environmental Health Officers.
There has always been an issue of recruiting and retaining social workers
within Middlesbrough, however this is not unique. A former scrutiny topic was
undertaken on this issue and the panel may request an update at a future
meeting.
6.
Further development of independent living support
services within the Staying Put agency and Staying Included – broad range of
independent living supports; aids and adaptations; groups to support social
inclusion and digital inclusion (the Rekindle Project) etc
7.
On-going work to develop the integration of
homelessness; domestic abuse and substance misuse services – Accessing Change
Together
8.
Planning work on the review of key policies such as
the Statement of Licensing.
9.
Continuation of Regulatory programme (housing; food
hygiene inspections etc.)
10. Need
to develop support for individuals with disability into employment.
11. Preparations for the implementation of
government’s social care reforms – work on charging (Care Cap) and provider
funding
12. Developing
further support to informal carers.
The Director was thanked for his informative
presentation.
AGREED- That the information be noted and
addressed by members at a future meeting to formulate the work programme for
the municipal year.