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 advised that it would normally be expected that things would quieten down over the summer months but this year they had certainly not experienced this – it had been extremely busy. Referrals had continued to be high, across all service areas, discharges from hospital had continued to increase and with a large proportion of staff taking much needed leave it had been very challenging to keep on top of demand.
As Members would hear during the meeting, the budget was under significant pressure, particularly in relation to spend against the Discharge to Assess arrangements, mental health services and growing demand coming through the Transition arrangements overseen by Children’s Services. At this point in the year the department often showed increased pressures and the Director of Adult Social Care confirmed that management actions were being put in place to mitigate these pressures.
In response to a question, the Director of Adult Social Care advised that the respite service provided by BLG Mind was continuing – it had been paused for a period when it had reached capacity. There had been some changes in how people accessed the service, and this was something that would continue to be monitored. It was noted that, as agreed during the last budget setting, this had become a chargeable service.
As reported earlier in the year, there had been changes to the delivery of the Integrated Community Equipment Service. Members would recall that Bromley was part of a large consortium of Councils who accessed the same contract. It was disappointing to report that the initial teething problems, which were to be expected, had continued with a number of problems with delivery. These problems were largely created by frustration in the handover process from the previous provider, and the new provider working extremely hard to improve service delivery quickly. A future paper would be brought to the Committee once a robust set of plans had been put in place.
Work to transform services was continuing well, and a detailed report on some of this work would be presented later in the meeting. However, work had also continued to develop a robust workforce strategy, to make effective use of the grant to increase care fees with investment into local providers to grow local capacity and developing a further set of efficiencies that mirrored priorities going forward. The department were also continuing preparation for the assurance process, with all managers completing a self-assessment to determine the biggest areas of risk. The department would be seeking Invest to Save funding to continue the relationship with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and to build on the excellent work they had been undertaking with the team.
The Director of Adult Social Care informed Members that it was an important day as the teams led by the Assistant Director for Safeguarding, Practice and Provider Relations had moved as ‘early movers’ into the new Churchill Court offices. The new offices would eventually enable the entire Directorate to be based together, rather than being scattered across the large site – a very welcome move indeed.
The Director of Adult Social Care said she also had some very sad news to share. Some Members of the Committee would know John Harrison, Head of Learning Disability Services, well – John had been fighting cancer for a couple of years, and sadly lost that fight on Saturday. It was noted that some interim cover arrangements were already in place. Thoughts were with John’s wife and family at this very sad time. The Chairman asked that the condolences of the Committee be passed on to John’s wife and his family.
RESOLVED that the update be noted.