Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Ruth Bennett and Councillor Diane Smith.  Apologies were also received from Lynne Powrie and Leslie Marks: Maureen Falloon attended as her alternate.

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

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

Brian James declared an interest as a Shared Placement Provider and had a son in a supported living scheme.

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 23^rd October 2013.

3 questions were received from Mrs Sue Sulis and these are 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 23^rd October 2013.

No questions were received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd September 2013, excluding exempt information, be agreed.

Report no. RES13194

The Committee noted the following update:

An additional Health Scrutiny Sub Committee meeting might be needed in April 2014.  This was proposed by Councillor Mrs Anne Manning and seconded by Councillor Catherine Rideout.

The Chairman provided feedback on her recent visit to the Bromley Autistic Trust.  She was impressed by the work undertaken.  The Trust received a £35,000 grant from Bromley.

Councillor Mrs Anne Manning had attended the St Paul’s Wood Day Centre which was a provision for people with Dementia across all age groups.  She was pleased to see the attendees enjoying many activities.

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 was reminded that in February 2010 the Executive agreed a package of measures to better support recruitment and retention of children’s social workers.  The main aims of the recruitment and retention strategy were to:

§  Increase the recruitment of qualified Social Workers

§  Decrease the number of qualified Social Worker leaving the Council

§  Reduce the dependency and costs incurred through engaging 

     expensive Agency Workers

An initial review of the strategy was carried out after two years of operation and the findings presented to the Executive Working Party for Child Safeguarding and Corporate Parenting. The strategy entered its final year of operation in April 2013. 

Evidence from the comparative salaries data suggested Bromley needed to have an enhanced employment package to retain its profile in the job market for qualified social workers.  The current package of measures was successful in increasing the appointment of new staff in the first two years of operation and the number of leavers had started to reduce.  However in 2012/13 this progress had slowed and there was a risk that the Council would see a return to the vacancy levels of 2010.  If the package was removed Bromley salaries would not be competitive in relation to neighbouring London Boroughs and Local Authorities. Without the current enhanced package Bromley recruitment and retention would fall below unacceptable levels with disproportionate impact on the quality of frontline services. Therefore, the retention package needed to remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Action was being taken to raise the profile of Bromley jobs in the employment market. There had been some positive signs in the first five months of the 2013/14 financial year as the number of starters had increased. It was also noted that Bromley was anticipating the appointments of several newly qualified Social Workers from its “Grow our Own” and Bursary schemes later this year.

In relation to higher salaries in neighbouring boroughs the Director was pleased to report that, despite the lower remuneration, social workers chose to stay in Bromley for other reasons which indicated that they enjoyed working in the borough. 

The Director explained the main problem was at senior practitioner level as staff could “cherry pick” where they wanted to go and, given that other boroughs had a higher remuneration package, Bromley needed to be more competitive.

Under the “Frontline” scheme Bromley had gained 5 staff in the previous year all of whom had stayed at Bromley. The scheme, once established, had been very successful.

The Committee was informed that the new package needed to be reviewed and funded and officer needed to ensure it attract the right candidates.  Officers requested the committees support to work up a proposal in the next 6 months. This would be brought back to the committee once it had been agreed by the finance team.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder is requested to:

1.  Extend the current scheme for the 2014/15 financial year by utilising the residual funding from the agreed recruitment and retention package for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 134a

Report no. CS13036

The Committee considered a report which which set out expenditure on the Tackling Troubled Families Programme being delivered in Bromley. In addition officers requested agreement to drawdown additional grant funding from the central contingency.

Bromley received the ring fenced grant allocation for 2012/13 which totalled £535,200. The total grant allocation of £535,200 for 2012/13 was held in the central contingency.  In September 2012, a report went to Executive to draw down £270,120 leaving £265,080 still unallocated.  Inevitably there was a time delay in spending the funding in 2012/13 because of the need to identify specific families locally and recruit staff into the programme.

For the remaining unspent £522,727 from the TTF Year 1 grant allocation.  The Executive agreed, in June 2013, the grant could be carried forward into 2013/14 and held in contingency pending approval of its release by the Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee. £258k of this was released by the Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee in September 2013 as part of the budget monitoring report. It was now recommended that £218k of the remaining 2012/13 funding be approved by the Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee to be drawn down to cover expenditure.

Bromley submitted a bid to Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for the grant payment for 2013/14.  DCLG encouraged local authorities to be ambitious when setting their targets for Year 2; Bromley increased the number of families it intended to target in Year 2 from 163 to 245 in order to optimise the Attachment Funding available as this would reduce year by year.

The attachment funding for Year 2 totalled £489,600.  The central funding to cover the cost of the Coordinator, Data and Administration Posts as well as a contribution towards senior management time remained fixed at £100,000 and was in addition to the attachment funding.  Consequently, for 2013/14, Bromley submitted a bid of £589,600 to DCLG. DCLG approved the 2013/14 bid.  This would be paid in two stages by the end of July and end of September 2014.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be requested to approve the drawdown of the remaining carry forward from contingency of £218,193.

Report no. CS13030

Officers presented a report which outlined changes to the Youth Remand framework introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Section 3).

The Committee were also presented with the indicative costs arising from the changes.

Under previous arrangements the Youth Detention Accommodation placement costs had been shared between the Ministry of Justice and the Local Authorities, with Local Authorities only responsible for a third of the costs for secure children’s homes and secure training centres. Under the New framework Local Authorities were expected to meet all the costs of remands to Youth Detention Accommodation.

Local Authorities across England and Wales had raised concerns with the Ministry of Justice and the Youth Justice Board about the level of funding being transferred to Local Authorities to pay for the new responsibilities.  In Bromley an estimated £500,000 full year pressure was identified for placements and other costs associated with children achieving Looked After Children Status as a result of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LAPSO).  The allocated grant for Bromley of £73,734 was considered to be insufficient and as a consequence, a sum of £500,000 had been set aside in central contingency for 2013/14 should officers’ forecasts regarding demands be proven.

Members asked how may actual individuals the numbers of bed nights referred to and were informed that it was a small number of approximately 6 people.

It was agreed that future reports would include more details on the numbers of individuals involved.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be requested too:

1. agree to the drawdown of the Ministry of Justice youth remand grant allocation of £73,734 from the Council’s central contingency into the Children’s Care Service budget and refer to the Executive for their approval;

2. agree to the drawdownof £500,000 which has been set aside in the Council’s central contingency to fund anticipated volume of remand placements and refer to the executive for approval.

Report no. CS13038

Members were updated on Homelessness pressures during 2013/14 and noted a summary of the range of initiatives being pursued to reduce the rising budget pressures wherever possible.

Homelessness prevention work was mainly funded through the annual DCLG homelessness grant of £500k and was used to cover a number of preventative measures including debt advice, benefit and welfare reform and mortgage rescue/sustaining home ownership advice. 

Members were pleased to note that 90% of those approaching homelessness were diverted away from statutory homelessness and temporary accommodation. But despite this level of work, the situation continued to deteriorate with the number of households in temporary accommodation rising to 850 (of which around 40% were placed outside of the Borough boundaries) at the end of September 2013.  Of these 437 were in nightly paid forms of accommodation, which was the area of budget pressure. The current position presented a £1.1m in year budget pressure (£1.6m full year effect).

Members thanked the team for their excellent work and felt that part of the problem was that people did not seek assistance until the situation was irreversible.

When asked about vacant units Officers explained that monitoring of the housing stock was the key to having a minimal amount of vacant units.  In Bromley, the number of vacant units was kept to a minimum and Officers reported that there were currently approximately 15 to 23 vacant units in the borough. The other element was to ensure units were affordable. 

The chairman felt that homeless statistics needed to be closely monitored and that the Housing Woking Party may need to be re-convened.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder request the Executive to:

1.Release the £1m set aside in the contingency for homeless pressures.

2.Note that the additional funding of £1.2m will be included in the 2014/15 draft budget for new costs pressures.

Report no. CS13039

The Committee received a report on the drawdown of the Social Housing Fraud Initiative Grant.

In February 2013 the Department of Communities and Local Government invited local authorities to bid for ring fenced funding of up to £200,000 over a 2 year period to support housing associations with stock in their areas to identify and tackle incidents of social housing fraud. Following approval by the Portfolio Holder for Care Services, a successful funding bid was submitted achieving the maximum funds available for the 2 year period.

Officers now requested approval for a drawdown of this successful funding bid of £200K over 2 years.

The Committee noted there had been a great deal of success with identifying the incidence of fraud.  The pilot referred to in the report suggested that up to 10% of housing stock could be subject to an element of fraud, such as tenants sub letting the property.

Members agreed greater publicity of how the department was tackling fraud could act as a deterrent to tenants.

Part of the grant would be used for training fraud officers at a cost of around £5k.  The benefit of having trained fraud officers was they would have access to data that was not available to housing officers.

The Chairman praised officers for their hard work in reducing housing fraud.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder requests the  Executive to approve the proposals for planned expenditure of this grant and approve drawdown of the grant funding totalling £200K, payable in two instalments of £100K. The initial instalment had now been received and was awaiting approval to drawdown to proceed with the project. Drawdown of £100k was required to meet the expenditure requirement in 2013/14

Report no. CS13040

This report set out recommendations for the future delivery of welfare benefits advice services in the London Borough of Bromley. The report reviewed three contracts providing advice for a specific client group as follows: Broadway – Mental Health, Bromley Mencap – Learning Disability and Age UK Bromley and Greenwich – Older People. These services provide advice and support to vulnerable people on their benefits to maximise personal income.

Following the Care Service Policy Development and Scrutiny in December 2011a group was convened by Community Links Bromley to engage the Department for work and Pensions (DWP) and the Voluntary sector organisations in looking at how organisations could work together to provide support to vulnerable people around benefit changes. Progress had been slower than anticipated due to capacity issues with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the volume of changes to the benefits system. The group was now working with the Universal Credit Delivery Working Group.  In addition a workshop involving Stakeholders and partners, who worked with those affected by the changes, took place on 17^th October 2013.  The outcomes of this workshop would be contained in a future report.

The Broadway service was contracted via tender and started in April 2010.The original contract ended March 31^st 2013 but with an option to extend for 2 years; a one year extension option was exercised in 2013/14.The Bromley Mencap and Age UK Bromley and Greenwich contracts were let for a 1 year term and would expire on March 31^st 2014.

Officers explained that discussions with DWP were ongoing and they would expect more involvement once the benefit changes had been completed.  There was also a need to discuss training with the department to ensure the needs of vulnerable people were met.

The Portfolio Holder for Care Services was minded to agree the recommendations but had reservations that the DWP should and must do more to provide the necessary support for vulnerable people.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder is requested to:

1. agree a 12 months extension of the three specialist welfare benefits advice service contracts until 31^st March 2015.The extension option is already available with the Broadway Welfare Rights contract.

2. request officers to urge the DWP to progress its work in offering benefits advice to vulnerable groups.

Report No. CS 13043

The Committee received the latest budget monitoring summary, based on activity up to the end of September 2013. This revealed that the projected overspend for 2013/14 had decreased slightly to £2,027k, although Officers were working hard to bring this down. 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 report contained a number of comments on the budget from the Director for Education, Care and Health Services that set the context for the latest budget position. The Portfolio Holder for Care Services expressed his concerns at the projected overspends, whilst taking into account the reasons for the budget variations.

Members found the Director’s comments very helpful.  Following concerns raised by the Committee in relation to community equipment, the Director for Education, Care and Health Services explained that when residents no longer had a need for particular aids they were advised to dispose of them.  The Government provided a list of aids which could not be re-used as they were difficult to “make safe”.

In addition the cost of recovering some items was greater than the value of the actual item and in these cases recovery was not cost effective.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be requested to:

 (i)  approve the projected overspend of 2,027k is forecast on the controllable budget, based on information as at September 2013 before the release of any contingencies.

(ii)  note the full year effect for 2014/15 of £2.499m before the release of any contingencies;

(iii)  Refer the report to the Portfolio Holder for approval; and,

(iv)  Note the comments of the Executive Director in paragraphs 5.3 – 5.13.

Report No CS13047

Members noted that in November 2013 and June 2013 the Executive agreed a strategic approach for dealing with Public Health contracts post transfer to the Local Authority. Members considered a paper that focussed on the Category A: Standard contracts identified in the June report which would come to an end in March 2014 and now required retendering.

These contracts covered the 5 key Public Health Improvement Programmes. The contracts were managed within Bromley’s normal corporate procurement regulations and were therefore subject to be retendered accordingly under our Contract Procedure Rules. 

The Committee noted the details of the programmes and the positive impact they have had on service users and how Public Health intended to re-tender these services under a framework agreement that allowed a greater degree of flexibility during a period where Councillors and service heads were reviewing and making decisions around budget spend.

Other Boroughs had taken a keen interest in how Bromley proposed to handle the re-tendering of these contracts as they were also looking for a flexible and innovative solution. For a fee Bromley had agreed for Bexley to join their procurement framework. Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark had also expressed an interest.

Members asked about the cross border General Practice issues and officers explained that it was possible that as services were allocated according to patients registered with GPs there would be transference of patients between boroughs.  However the numbers of out borough patients accessing Bromley GPs was in line with the number of Bromley residents going out borough for treatment.

RESOLVED that the report is noted and the Portfolio Holder be requested to:

1.  Approve the creation of a Public Health Framework which allows Public Health leads to commission services across these core programmes;

2.  Approve this procurement approach as it provides the flexibility and assurance Members are seeking with regard to not committing a defined spend on these areas for 4 years, Instead it allows the Director of Public Health to prioritise spend and respond to baseline reviews and other corporate savings programmes; 

3.  Allow Public Health Leads to continue to work with other London Boroughs to achieve efficiencies through sharing best practice and opening up the framework to other local authorities.

Report no CS 13046

The final budget outturn report presented to Care Services Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee in June 2013 highlighted social care funding via the PCT under s256 agreements, the report requested that £583k be drawn down so that it could be carried forward into 2013/14.  Officers requested that £44k be approved from this funding to support two projects identified to maximise the effectiveness of the NHS Health Check programme.

The first project would focus on the prevention of diabetes and the second would evaluate the NHS Health Check Programme against the Pan-London quality standards and achievement of specific health outcomes. 

The Committee expressed concern the report referred to Bromley not performing well in terms of identifying patients with non-diabetic hyperglycaemia.  An audit highlighted that there were gaps in the data which suggested that patients may not always be receiving the diabetes assessment element of the NHS healthcheck.  The reason for this could be that it is not always apparent when looking at summary data and therefore an in depth audit would be needed

Members queried the use of the funding if GPs were not conducting the NHS health checks correctly.  Officers explained that in some cases GPs did not follow the guidance. Consequently the funding would be used to establish a clear picture of what was actually happening and a number of GP practices would be identified to pilot a pre-diabetic prevention protocol.

It was agreed that once a full protocol had been developed it would be reported to the Care Services Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder for Care Services is requested to:

1. note the report.

2. approve the drawdown of £44k to undertake the two projects outlined in section three of the report.

Report no. CS13049

The Committee considered the second in a series of reports on the future of Adult Social Care, the first of which was considered by the Executive in July 2013 (Report CS 13017 Adult Social Care – Gateway review). The work on the market testing of Bromley’s Direct Care Services report was now underway. Members were now asked to consider further information on the potential impact of the changes to adult social care proposed in the Care Bill which was published in May 2013, and to consider the changes now made necessary by the Government’s proposals to integrate further health and adult social care. Officers also outlined proposals for a programme of detailed modeling of the impact on adult social care in order to be able to address the challenges arising from the Care Bill and the proposals from the Department of Health relating to the Integration Transition Fund and offers a way forward to allow the London Borough of Bromley to be best placed to exploit the opportunities presented by further integration with the NHS in the coming years.

Carrying out the detailed modelling would allow Bromley to be better prepared to implement the changes in 2015.  The cost of this project would be £276k and officers proposed to request that the Executive agree to the allocation of the funding from the NHS social care funds held in central contingency. The current contingency budget was just in excess of £3.5m.

The Director highlighted that the report should, in all cases should refer to Integrated Transition Fund”.

It was agreed that a further progress report would be brought to a future meeting.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder for Care Services requests Executive to:

a)  Note the proposals for the future of adult social care services contained in the Care Bill and the proposals for the Integration Transition Fund (ITF) and the potential implications for services and budgets from 2014;

b)   Support the allocation of £276k from the NHS social care funds to enable detailed financial and activity modelling of the implications of the Care Bill, the ITF and the Independent  Living Fund to be carried out;

c)  Require a further Report to be brought to Executive in the early summer of 2014 to allow options for the future delivery of adult social care to be considered; and,

d)   Support the proposal  that the Health and Wellbeing Board should be able to authorise the s256 agreement for 2013/14 at its meeting of 30^th January 2014, and provide governance on behalf of the Council for all future work on integration between the health and social care sector.

Report no 13035

As part of the London Borough of Bromley Children’s Social Care continuous improvement programme, the London Borough of Bromley volunteered to be a pilot authority to test the introduction of the Local Government Association (LGA) Looked After Children Diagnostic Assessment. Officers provide the committee with the key findings of the diagnostic and the recommendations for future improvement.

In agreeing to be a pilot authority Bromley hoped to be assisted in planning in areas of:

·  Achieving excellent outcomes for children in care and care leavers

· Quality  of practice within Children’s Social care

· Service user engagement

· Placement choice and stability.

A team of peers used their experience and knowledge to reflect on the quality of services and outcomes for children in care and care leavers within the London Borough Bromley. The purpose of the review was to help inform future improvements in services and to build on the current improvement programme.

The London Borough Bromley invited the Review Team to undertake the Pilot Care Practice Diagnostic as it had spent considerable energy working to improve safeguarding practice and had re focused attention to improving the outcomes for Looked After Children (LAC) and care leavers. The team undertook the review in June 2013.

Highlights from the executive summary indicated the Peer Team identified that the London Borough of Bromley understood and presented its context well. Overall the service was achieving key objectives and had made significant strides in improving services for looked after children however as expected, there was more that could be done to increase the pace of change and improve outcomes.

The Peer Reviewers considered senior Councillors gave a strong lead on the priority of children’s services, including a focus on Corporate Parenting.

It was the Peer Team’s belief that the leadership of the current Assistant Director (Safeguarding and Social Care) has appropriately defined the scope and scale of the challenges in children’s social care and is working to address them for LAC and care leavers.

The recent reorganisation of the Education, Care and Health Services had located of children’s social care under one Assistant Director as well as the physical co-location of many staff in the Civic Centre, which provided an opportunity to respond in a more co-ordinated manner to the needs of children and families.

The team acknowledged that Bromley recognised the imperative of continuous improvement had increased its focus on LAC and had created, through the new Education, Care and Health Services Department and Director, a real opportunity to step up the pace of change.

They accepted the London Borough of Bromley regarded itself as a very “lean” Council, but acknowledged that elected members supported investment in additional social work staff and training and have enhanced the placements budget, which was an important indication of its commitment to the service for LAC and supports Social Work caseload management

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Report no. CS13045

The report updated Members on the Council’s extra care housing strategy for older people which was originally agreed in 2007 as an alternative to placements in residential care homes. The report set out the current provision within the Borough and the current position with regard to numbers of people living in extra care and residential care as well as the 2013/14 budget position.

Although this was a positive report Members raised concerns that fewer than expected people had moved into extra car housing instead of residential placements.

Officers explained that Bromley was in the lower quartile of the number of people living in residential care.  However staff were reviewing whether there were people who could move on from residential care.  It needed to be carefully managed and take into account a persons age and time they had spent in care.

RESOLVED that the current position is noted.

The briefing comprises:

• Adult Social Care Account 2013
• Substance Abuse – Annual Report
• Independent Reviewing Officer Service 2012-2013 Annual Report

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 three items on (1) Adult Social Care Account, (2) Substance Abuse – Annual Report and (3) Independent Reviewing Officer Service 2012-2013 Annual Report.

No questions were received on the information briefing.

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 agreed the exempt minutes from the meeting on 3^rd September 2013.

Members considered the report and agreed the recommendations.  

Members considered the report and agreed the recommendations.