Including an update on Adult Social Care Reforms
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 informed Members that since the last meeting the service had been extremely busy, preparing and delivering plans to get through winter and also formalising the proposals for the transformation programme for the coming year, which would be shared later in the meeting.
The festive period proved to be very busy, particularly in the acute sector, with high numbers of infections of both COVID-19 and other respiratory infections, and therefore high numbers of attendances. This was made worse by high levels of staff sickness, but the Director of Adult Social Care was pleased to inform Members that the system had stood up well and appropriate discharges continued throughout the festive period. Staff from Adult Social Care had also stood up to provide cover over the days of health staff strikes, ensuring that the system continued to operate well.
The Director of Adult Social Care advised that plans for winter continued and, having been based on what was known to have worked well in the past, had been successfully delivered. Despite increased demand, the budget was holding up well and was in a more positive position than may have been hoped for at this point in the year. Additional funds granted by the government would be used to offset pressures, particularly around the cost of placements, in order to ensure that discharges could continue. The adult social care reform agenda, as reported at the last meeting, had been delayed, apart from the ambition to move towards a fairer cost of care. Led by the Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning, the commissioning service had been dealing with a high number of requests for increases in payments. This process was being managed in a realistic way, ensuring that the service did not make commitments that it could not afford on an ongoing basis when the grant monies were used. This required a careful balance of expectation against affordability. The service continued to prepare for the assurance process with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and they were actively working with staff to engage them in this process, and hear from them about the challenges that they faced.
The Director of Adult Social Care noted that she would not ordinarily single out staff for mention, but she did not want to miss the opportunity to advise Members that, regrettably, Colin Lusted, who led on the commissioning of services for people with a learning disability, was retiring and would leave the Local Authority in February. Colin had made a huge difference to the service, and she was sure she would not be the only one who would miss his calm, thoughtful and thorough approach to his work which had reaped huge rewards. The Director of Adult Social Care wished Colin a long and healthy retirement and thanked him for all he had done in his time at Bromley. These comments were echoed by the Chairman, who led Members in thanking the Head of Complex and Long-Term Commissioning for all his hard work in supporting the Committee over a number of years.
In response to questions, the Director of Adult Social Care reassured Members that the current spend had been considered, and the budget for next year was felt to be realistic. A number of the pressures that had been anticipated related to government reforms, however these were not to be introduced as early as expected. There were some risks, and they would need to closely monitor the joint work being undertaken with Children’s Service around the 0-25 Service. They would also be looking at the partnership work with health to ensure they were putting the costs where they should sit and sharing the risk.
RESOLVED that the update be noted.