Minutes:
The Director of Adult Social Care gave an update to Members on work being undertaken across the Adult Social Care department.
The Director of Adult Social Care noted that as this was the final meeting of the fiscal year, she wanted to reflect back on the last 12 months and share her thoughts on priorities for the next year. This year had been another year of change and disruption with a number of significant losses and change for all. The Director of Adult Social Care said she wanted to recognise the impact of this on the team and put on record her thanks to them for their continued hard work and support to the vulnerable population in Bromley. As the return to the workplace began, staff faced another period of adjustment and change, whilst acknowledging that sadly the pandemic remained a part everyone’s lives.
Members were advised that there had been a number of staff changes within the Directorate. A number of new staff had been welcomed, including the arrival of Nikki Gage to complete the senior team, and goodbyes said to some long-standing colleagues, most notably Ruth Wood, who left a few weeks ago after many years working for the Council. The Director of Adult Social Care said she was also very pleased and relieved to share with Members that John Harrison was about to return to work, following his extended period of absence.
The Director of Adult Social Care highlighted that as they headed into the new fiscal year the Directorate had a number of priorities to respond to, as well as delivering their statutory services. Importantly, they were now well placed to introduce the long awaited for Information Sharing agreement and practice across health and social care, which was something that the Director of Adult Social Care said she had been working towards for many years and never thought would be possible. The governance was just being concluded to introduce this in Bromley, aligning practice with all other boroughs in south east London. This was an important tool to enable improved integrated working and removed a number of the barriers to effective joined up working.
Members were advised that the Directorate was currently working to fully understand the implications of two government White Papers, the first of which introduced a major change in the way they worked with the public and care providers to reduce the gap between the fees that the Council paid and those charged to private payers. This was known as agreeing the ‘Fair Cost of Care’. There was also a need to develop new systems to enable the introduction of the ‘Lifetime Care Cap’, ensuring that they were sighted on progress that individuals made towards this and could monitor the financial impact on the Council. To respond to these priorities, the Directorate planned to form a small, short life team, to ensure that the required deadline of 2023 for the introduction of these changes could be met. The team would be funded from the grant given next financial year for this purpose.
The Director of Adult Social Care advised that the team were also working with health colleagues to respond to the Integration White Paper, which built on the success of their joint working locally. This shared history and practice also left them well placed for the structural changes in health with the introduction of the Integrated Care System from July 2022.
The team were making good progress in their preparations for the re-introduction of the inspection of services and were aligning the Transformation Programme on the priority areas going forward. They were also working with colleagues across the Council to ensure the appropriate support was given to all individuals arriving in Bromley from the Ukraine. In response to a question, the Director of Adult Social Care advised that the service had not yet been provided with the finer details of what the CQC inspection of adult social care would cover. However it was assumed that inspections would look at the delivery of the whole service including how budgets were managed; how carers were supported; how they were planning for the future; how the market was being managed; and use of Assistive Technology. It was anticipated that the inspection would also cover a walkthrough of the whole process and consider whether the workforce could meet demand.
The Director of Adult Social Care thanked Members of the Committee for their challenge, debate and support over the last year and wished them all well with the upcoming local election.
RESOLVED that the update be noted.