Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors David Jefferys and Catherine Rideout and from Angela Clayton-Turner. (Apologies were also received from Brian James after the meeting.)

Councillor Pauline Tunnicliffe declared that she was a foster carer for the Council.

Councillor Mrs Anne Manning declared that she was a member of the Fostering Panel.

Linda Gabriel declared that she was the chair of Bromley Mind.

Leslie Marks declared that she had a son in a care home funded by the Council.

Councillor Reg Adams declared that he was a member of the Bromley Community Counselling Service.  

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to this Committee must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Wednesday 29 August 2013.

One written question had been received from Susan Sulis, Secretary of the Community Care Protection Group – this is attached at Appendix A.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to the Portfolio Holder must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Wednesday 29 August 2013.

No questions had been received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 18^th June 2013, excluding exempt information, be confirmed.

Report RES13143

The Committee noted the following updates –

• The presentation on Mortality Rates was being arranged for the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee meeting on 14^th October 2013.

• It was confirmed that the reports on the Fostering Service would be an annual report with a six-month update.  

• A report on the Mobility Forum would be added to the work programme for the January 2014 meeting.  

RESOLVED that the work programme and matters arising be noted.

The Care Services Portfolio Holder to present scheduled reports for pre-decision scrutiny on matters where he is minded to make decisions.

The Committee considered the following reports for pre-decision scrutiny where the Care Services Portfolio Holder was minded to take executive decisions.

Report CS13020

Under the National Minimum Standards issued in 2011 adoption agencies were required to submit reports to their executives on the management, outcomes and financial state of the agency, to monitor the management and outcomes of services to ensure that they were effective and securing good outcomes for children and service users and to check that the agency was complying with the conditions of registration. They were also required to publish and update a statement of purpose.  

The Committee noted that there had been 153 inquiries from prospective new adopters in 2012/13; this was an increase compared to the previous year (133) and officers were expecting a further rise for 2013/14 given the national recruitment drive. It was confirmed that local advertising was used to promote adoption, including the local press.    

Members were informed that there were instances of children being adopted by their foster carers and the Government had introduced a scheme to make this easier. It was confirmed that adopters could apply to any adoption agency, not just their own Council, and there was a national register of adopters. Children were placed with adopters locally wherever possible, but it was sometimes necessary for them to be placed outside the borough, particularly where it was necessary to keep them away from family members; where this happened there was a transfer of funding to the new agency - currently this was £27,000.

Members discussed the demand for information on birth parents – it was suspected that this was fuelled by television programmes, but one other possible factor for the increase in interest was that in the past people were less likely to be told that they were adopted.  There were currently no charges for providing birth records; the Portfolio Holder asked officers to investigate whether charges could be imposed.  

It was suggested that people appearing before the Adoption Panel could be provided with profiles of the Panel members, as was already done with the Fostering Panel – officers would investigate this. It was confirmed that Panel members did receive training.

The report also set out proposals to draw down £140,100 of grant funding to support whole system reform of adoption services in 2013/14. In January 2013 the Department for Education had announced grant funding to local authorities to support adoption reform. Part B of the grant, totalling £148,840, was ring-fenced and was for the recruitment of adopters; the Executive had already approved proposals for this money. Part A of the grant, totalling £547,752, was not ring-fenced and was to support whole system reform.  This funding was in addition to existing budgets.

RESOLVED that the Care Services Portfolio Holder be recommended to

(1) endorse the annual report of the adoption agency and the revised statement of purpose;

(2) support the recommendation to the Executive on 11^th September 2013 that the proposed drawdown from central contingency of £140,100 of the adoption reform grant be agreed.   

Report CS13021

(This report was considered with item 1 on the Committee’s Information Briefing - Annual Fostering Panel report 2012/13)

The Fostering Services Minimum Standards issued in 2000 required that every Fostering Service should have a clear statement of purpose available to, and understood by, foster carers, staff and children. Bromley’s statement of purpose had been updated to take account of the new assessment and approval process for prospective foster carers required under the Care Planning, Placement and Review and Fostering Services (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2013.

Cllr Mrs Anne Manning drew the Committee’s attention to the heavy workload of the Fostering Panel; although the work was rewarding it required time and commitment. One possible measure to relieve the pressure would be to recruit more Panel members – officers would consider this.

The Committee considered the statement of purpose and made a number of suggestions, set out below. 

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be recommended to endorse the revised statement of purpose, subject to the following amendments –

Page 3: The statement about foster carers having a right to full information about their foster child should be qualified by stating that this should be provided where available.

Page 7: The bullet-point list of information sources about the Fostering Service should include reference to the information about Fostering Panel members provided to people appearing before the Panel.

Page 9: The order of the paragraphs at the top of the page should be reviewed, and mention should be made of references being sought from current and former employers.

Report CS13022

The Committee received the latest budget monitoring summary, based on activity up to the end of July 2013. This revealed that the projected overspend for 2013/14 had risen slightly to £2,536k, although officers were working hard to bring this down, and there were a number of carry forward draw downs which had not yet been applied.  The pressures were in three main areas – Adult Social Care, Operational Housing and Children’s Social Care. The report also included a number of requests for carry forward of funding into the 2013/14 budget.

The Executive Director of Education, Care and Health Services briefed Members on the community equipment budget. This was a pooled budget where the Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) each contributed £600k per annum, but the CCG had already prescribed £500k of equipment in the current year. The Director explained that staff were working with the CCG to ascertain the reasons for the high expenditure and to put more robust controls in place. It was also important to follow up on equipment that was loaned to make sure that it was returned and re-used. The Director explained that this was a new contract that, for the first time, provided extensive activity information and that he was not aware of any complaints about the quality of the service.

Due to changes in legislation that pushed costs from the Youth Justice Board down to local authorities, Youth on Remand was another area of budget pressure; the Portfolio Holder confirmed that ministers were being lobbied on this. It was also confirmed that on the Tower Hamlets judgment regarding  payment of allowances to kinship carers, Tower Hamlets had already appealed and had lost. 

RESOLVED that

(1) The projected overspend of £2,536k on the controllable budget and the full-year effect for 2014/15 of £2,214k, together with the management action being taken, be noted.

(2) The Portfolio Holder be recommended to approve the carry forward of £657k as recommended in the report.

Report CS13142

On 24^th July 2013 the Executive had received the first quarterly monitoring report on the capital programme for 2013/14 and agreed a revised capital programme for the four year period 2013/14 to 2016/17. The Committee received details of the changes as they affected the Care Services Portfolio capital programme.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be recommended to confirm the changes to the Care Services capital programme agreed by the Executive. 

Report CS13028

In July 2012 the Executive had requested that a review of short breaks for disabled children be undertaken in order to meet the increasing demand. The review had now been completed and it was proposed to hold a consultation with stakeholders. Officers confirmed that they would be working with Bromley Parent Voice on the format of the documents that would be circulated, and would be producing an easy read version.

Members discussed whether the increase in children diagnosed with Aspergers was a real increase in these conditions or the result of greater awareness and better diagnosis. The Executive Director, Education, Care and Health Services commented that there was a real increase in people presenting with Aspergers and there was undoubtedly better diagnosis than in the past, but these people were presenting with real needs.

The Committee questioned officers about the arrangements for emergency places at Hollybank. It was confirmed that there was a policy of reserving capacity for emergencies, which was normal practice across most authorities. Members suggested that savings could be made if resources were pooled with neighbouring boroughs so that less capacity had to be reserved for emergencies. This would be discussed with partners during the consultation. 

The Chairman reported that she had asked officers to arrange a visit to the St Quentin Centre in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which had been identified as an excellent model of specialist care.

RESOLVED that the intention to carry out consultation with all relevant stakeholders on the proposals for short breaks be supported.

Report CS13027

The Committee received a report outlining the current arrangements for the provision of general advice and information services provided by Bromley Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) and in particular the change from a traditional building based service to a model of service based on outreach provision, telephone and web access (there was now a national website and local information kiosks with limited online information). The Chairman commented that it was positive that the service had successfully moved to this new approach and that this showed that it was the service that was important, not a particular building. 

Councillor Charles Rideout asked whether CAB could hold sessions at the Mottingham Community Learning Shop, as there was now a significant need for debt management advice in particular in his ward. Officers undertook to follow this up with CAB.

It was proposed to extend the current contract for a further year from 1^st April 2014, and it was confirmed that the contract would be the subject of a gateway review to consider longer term options in due course.

RESOLVED that the proposal to extend the current contract for a further year from 1^st April 2014 be supported.

Report CS13031

In September 2012 and May 2013 the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) announced changes to be made to adult social care data collection by local authorities with respect to 2013/14 and 2014/15 which in due course would be supported by additional funding. The Department of Health had announced new burden funding for all local authorities to support the new data collection requirements in July 2013. It was proposed to draw down £59,058 from central contingency and proposals were set out in the report for how this money needed to be spent.

RESOLVED that the proposed drawdown of the non ring-fenced grant from central contingency be supported.  

Report CS13034

In 2011 the Executive had agreed to allocate a total of £1.191m from NHS funds for social care over a two year period (2012/13 to 2013/14) for invest to save projects relating to adult social care services. The projects would result in cumulative net savings of £675k in the second year after which a full evaluation would be carried out to establish that the savings could be achieved. The projects were now under way, but were not complete and a sum of £1.054m remained unspent at the end of 2012/13. It was proposed to carry this forward in order to complete the invest to save projects.

The Portfolio Holder commented that more detail on each project was available in the original reports which the Committee had received in 2011. Officers explained that some of the projects had been delayed as it had taken time to recruit the additional staff required - the situation was now much improved with a number of additional staff on time limited contracts in post and contracts in place with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and Bromley Mind.

A Member queried whether the projects were entirely about adult’s services, or also included some children’s/education services. Officers explained that the intention of the learning disability project was to improve the transition from children’s to adult’s services, initially working with sixteen year olds, extending this approach to fourteen year olds at a later date. 

RESOLVED that the proposed carry forward of £1,054,000 from 2012/13 to complete the adult social care invest to save projects be supported. 

Items marked for information only will not be debated unless a member of the committee requests a discussion to be held, in which case please inform the Clerk 24 hours in advance indicating the aspects of the information item you wish to discuss. Any questions on the information briefing should also be addressed to the clerk 24 hours in advance of the meeting.

The briefing comprises:

• Annual Fostering Panel Report 2012/13
• Bromley Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2012/13
• ECS Contract Activity Report
• No Recourse to public funds

Members and Co-opted Members have been provided with advance copies of the briefing via email.  The briefing is also available on the Council’s website at the following link:

http://cds.bromley.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?XXR=0&Year=2013&CId=559

Printed copies of the briefing are available on request by contacting the Democratic Services Officer.

The Information Briefing had contained four updates on (1) Annual Fostering panel Report 2012/13 (see discussion at minute 122 (b)); (2) Bromley Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2012/13; (3) ECS Contract Activity, and (4) No Recourse to Public Funds.

Although Angela Clayton-Turner was not able to be present at the meeting, in respect of item (2) she had asked officers to inform the Committee about work now being planned with the Fire Service to train firemen to work with people with dementia on fire safety issues.

The Chairman to move that the Press and public be excluded during consideration of the items of business listed below as it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that if members of the Press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

RESOLVED that the Press and public be excluded during consideration of the items of business listed below as it was likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that if members of the Press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

The Committee confirmed the exempt minutes of the meeting held on 18^th June 2013.

The Committee considered a report summarising lessons learnt from a recent appeal hearing.

The Committee supported proposals to extend two contracts for short break provision by six months pending the completion of consultation on the Short Breaks Review.