Agenda item

The Director of Adult Social Care gave an update to Members on work being undertaken across the Adult Social Care department.

It was noted that the Service had continued to be busy, and was continuing to deliver to the national requirements. Whilst there had been a temporary reprieve between the two waves of the pandemic, services had continued, although there had been a brief opportunity to ‘catch breath’ a little. That being said the Department had continued to:

·  Support service users and their carers, including giving extra support where services had not yet returned to normal.

·  Kept hospitals clear by effecting timely discharges.

·  Continued to work with colleagues at the SPA, increasing the numbers of people supported post discharge through the reablement service.

·  Dealt with an increase in referrals, including safeguarding referrals.

·  Supported providers, particularly with rolling out the 2^nd Infection Control Grant; responding to infections within care provisions; continuing to give advice and support.

In relation to the last point, the Director of Adult Social Care commended the work carried out by the Contract Compliance Team Leader and her team, who had supported providers, and worked with colleagues in Public Health resolved any issues experienced by providers.

The Director of Adult Social Care noted that there had been a short amount of time to prepare for Wave 2, during which the department had:

·  Made use of the modelling work delivered by the Assistant Director for Strategy, Performance and Corporate Transformation – which had been shared nationally as a beacon of good practice.

·  Refreshed the volunteer and helpline guidance, ready for restart on 5^th November 2020.

·  Put plans in place to support those who had previously been told to shield, including making local plans to link people into food deliveries.

·  Set up a local Test and Trace system, picking up those people that the national scheme had been unable to contact.

·  Rolled out testing across all care settings, including home care, and the mass testing programme.

Whilst energy levels had begun to flag, there was still lots to celebrate:

·  Sickness levels amongst staff had remained low and staff were generally coping very well.

·  Relationships with care providers had vastly improved, with more partnership working – they had managed to keep care homes open, dealt with infections swiftly, and worked with homes to reinstate visits from relatives in a limited way.

·  The modelling work undertaken by the Assistant Director for Strategy, Performance and Corporate Transformation was showing to be accurate, and provided confidence in plans going forward.

·  A large number of emails had been received from Bromley residents, thanking the Council, and stating that they felt very well supported and informed.

·  The Department continued to work well with all partners across health, and as a system.

·  The Adult Social Care Winter Plan was completed to time, and listed the achievements of the Department.

·  Work on the Transformation Programme had continued, and the new Practice Framework would be launched in December 2020.

·  The Department had continued to deliver on the required programmes to tender new services.

·  A new Independent Safeguarding Chair had been appointed.

The Director of Adult Social Care stated that she remained extremely proud of the Service and all that it had delivered. Unlike a number of other boroughs, Bromley had not hit financial crisis, and business had been kept running. As the Department entered into what was always a busy time of year, the Director of Adult Social Care was confident that everything was in place to deliver what was required.

The Director of Adult Social Care highlighted the request made at the last meeting, for an update from staff survey to be provided. The priorities for the Directorate sat under four key headings:

1. Communication – all managers were maintaining regular contact through using Teams meetings; regular catch ups to replace the ‘kitchen conversations’; WhatsApp groups; 1:1’s; and the ASPAG group. Some more informal, fun, contacts were planned, such as Christmas Jumper day. It was extremely important that people were kept connected and engaged. The Director of Adult Social Care also sent out regular messages to staff, and had time set aside for any staff that wanted to ‘meet’ with her.

2. Appraisal / Training and Development – the Council had offered an excellent array of training opportunities to staff, and individuals were encouraged to find time to attend these. Qualified staff within the service were currently having to renew their registration with Social Work England, and were being reminded to share their personal development in order to maintain their registration.

3. REAL Values – the Council had continued to run these sessions, which were for all staff. At each session, there were opportunities for staff to share their experiences and learning, and question and answer sessions. Adult Social Care staff had been well represented, both in terms of presenting and asking lots of challenging questions.

4. Wellbeing – as well as the corporate survey, contact with staff had been maintained through short questionnaires. These were specific to the Directorate and its Transformation Programme, but also checked on the wellbeing of staff.

The Director of Adult Social Care confirmed that staff in the Department continued to impress her with their energy and commitment to making Bromley the best borough for people to live and work in.

In response to a question, the Director of Adult Social Care there had been no negative impact to the Department as a result of the financial issues being experienced in Croydon. The importance of the Department delivering what it set out to do had been emphasised to staff. They had “reached out” to staff at Croydon who may be at risk of being made redundant, possibly allowing skilled and appropriately qualified staff that were relatively local, to fill any vacancies.

Questions to the Portfolio Holder

A Member, whilst acknowledging that the issue would cross over a number of Portfolios, enquired about domestic abuse and the impact of COVID-19 and if it was felt that the service available to residents could be adequately sustained. The Head of Service for Adult Safeguarding advised that a very low amount of safeguarding referrals were received stating the category of domestic abuse, which was an ongoing issue nationally. They were involved in awareness campaigns and the training of staff through the Bromley Adult Safeguarding Board, and further work would continue. The Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Health provided reassurance that domestic abuse was constantly reviewed, and would be discussed at the next meeting of the Bromley Adult Safeguarding Board, where a report would be presented on various issues which cut across the Portfolios.

A Member asked for further information regarding COVID-19 testing for care providers entering more than one household. The Portfolio Holder advised that a programme to test workers in domiciliary care had started to be rolled out that day. The Director of Adult Social Care informed Members that the Local Authority had recently been approached by the Department for Health and Social Care to pilot testing for domiciliary care agencies. The request had been eagerly accepted, and a lot of work had been carried out to set this up. It was noted that the Government had since started a national testing regime. However, the local testing programme would continue to run until such time that the national programme was fully established. In response to a question the Director of Adult Social Care confirmed that the pilot scheme was being funded by the Government. The Chairman suggested that regular reports regarding the testing programme be provided to Committee Members

RESOLVED that the update be noted.