Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs H N J Powell and Mrs S M Wray.

No declarations of Councillors' interests were received at this stage of the proceedings.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the Committee held on 22 January 2016 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(To receive a joint report and presentation from Barry Earnshaw, recently appointed Independent Chair of the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Adults Board and Glen Garrod, Director of Adult Care, which provides the Committee with information about the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Adults Board)

Consideration was given to a report by David Culy (Business Manager for the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Adults Board), which provided information on Adult Safeguarding and on the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Adults Board. 

Glen Garrod (Director of Adult Care) and Barry Earnshaw (Vice-Chair of the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Adults Board) provided the Committee with a detailed presentation, covering the following areas: -

·       2015/2016 Statistics to end of December;

·       Care Act – updated definitions of abuse;

·       Alleged Abuse – statistical information;

·       Council Business Plan Measures;

·       Members of the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Adults Board;

·       Role of the Board;

·       Care Act 2014 – References to Safeguarding Adults Board;

·       Statutory Guidance;

·       Core Duties;

·       Key Priorities (as defined in the Boards Strategy);

·       Board Funding; and

·       Board Structure.

Members were provided with an opportunity to ask questions, where the following points were noted: -

·       The prime consideration of the Board at this time would be to fulfil multi-agency responsibilities in relation to the protection of adults at risk from abuse and neglect in line with the requirements in the Care Act 2014;

·       Members were advised that the number of Lincolnshire County Council led enquiries had increased by the end of Quarter 3, compared to last year.  However, it was thought that this was owing to the raised awareness of safeguarding adults through the implementation of the Care Act 2014;

·       The Lincolnshire Safeguarding Adults Board had planned to introduce additional performance measures to build on the three performance indicators it was currently measured against;

·       A Councillor commented that there were nine care homes in Lincolnshire in relation to which the Care Quality Commission had raised concerns.  Further to this, the Committee was advised that the Board was now required to conduct Safeguarding Adults Reviews and at present, there were two underway;

·       Responsibility for investigations sat with the Director of Adult Care and/or the relevant provider organisation. Further to this, Members were advised that under the Care Act 2014 a provider could investigate an adult safeguarding enquiry, unlike the Children Act 2004 where all investigations on children safeguarding were undertaken by the local authority;

·       The Care Act 2014 had identified three key lead organisations for the safeguarding adults boards: the local authority with responsibility for adult social care services; the Police; and the local NHS;

·       Members were reminded that safeguarding children boards were well established as they became statutory following the Children Act 2004.  However, although many councils had operated an adults board as good practice, the statutory requirement for safeguarding adults boards was only introduced from 1 April 2015 following the implementation of the Care Act 2014;

·       Officers were expecting the number of safeguarding enquiries to continue to rise over the coming years, as the awareness of the issue was being raised.  Officers would continue to examine data to ascertain whether there any patterns emerging as a result of the enquiries;

·       Officers confirmed they were exploring the Signs of Safety model;

·       It was noted that there would be a Peer Review undertaken in June 2016, and one aspect of the review would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

(To receive a joint report from Glen Garrod, Director of Adult Care and Emma Scarth, County Manager, Performance, Quality and Development, which provides a summary of the Adult Care performance measures within the four Commissioning Strategies)

Consideration was given to a report by Dave Boath (Performance Manager), which provided a summary of the Adult Care performance measures within the four commissioning strategies.

Emma Scarth (County Manager, Performance, Quality and Development); Steve Houchin (Head of Finance) and the Performance Manager presented the report to the Committee and in doing so, advised that the key performance indicators had been aligned to the following four commissioning strategies and provided an update on performance under each strategy: -

·       Adult Frailty and Long Term Conditions;

·       Adult Specialist Services;

·       Safeguarding; and

·       Carers.

As part of the presentation of the report, Officers presented the Committee with financial information, which linked to performance data and included service activity with budgetary commitments. 

Members were provided with an opportunity to ask questions, where the following points were noted: -

·       It was noted that over the nine months of the year, the Safeguarding team had dealt with 2,865 concerns, which was approximately 320 concerns per month, compared with 250 per month in the previous year.  It was also noted that was a 25% increase in work coming into the service.  In response to a question, Members were advised that the budget for adult safeguarding had remained stable in recent years.  If the number of contacts exceeded the budget, this would be classed as a budget pressure;

·       It was noted that there were no longer Police officers based at the Customer Service Centre.  However, the County Council worked collaboratively with Lincolnshire Police at the SAFE Hub in Grantham;

·       It was noted that the criteria for carers' payments had changed following the introduction of the Care Act 2014.  The Committee would receive items on Carers and Client Personalisation at its meeting on 25 May 2016;

·       It was noted that in 2014/15 there were 34,245 new requests of which 20,425 required advice and information/signposting.  Further to this, it was queried whether officers monitored whether any of those contacts were repeat contacts or if they were satisfied with the level of support provided.  Officers agreed to examine this possibility further;

·       A discussion took place regarding the services offered by Penderels Trust and was agreed that officers would ascertain whether there were any service users who had used Penderels Trust were willing to share their experiences with the Committee at its meeting on 25 May 2016;

·       Funding for Adult Social Care nationally was reducing, whilst the number of contacts was increasing.  A concern was raised over whether too much pressure was being placed on private organisations and volunteers to deliver services.  In response, Members were advised that there were signs of strain on the system nationally;

·       A Member raised a particular concern over the terms and conditions of service of the employees of contractors and their sub-contractors used by the County Council.  Further to this, Members were reminded that the Committee had previously received items on how the County Council monitored market providers.  All contract framework agreements had included sections on employment rights.  Officers agreed to explore this further outside the meeting;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

(To receive a joint report and presentation from Glen Garrod, Director of Adult Care and David Laws, Adult Care Strategy Financial Advisor, which provides the Committee with a status report with regard to the Better Care Fund 2016/17) 

Consideration was given to a presentation from the Director of Adult Care on the Better Care Fund 2016/17, which covered the following areas: -

•        The Better Care Fund: A Recap on 2015/16, which had included the 'pooling' of £197 million of health and social care funds and five Section 75 agreements and two aligned budgets covering: learning disability;

•        National Conditions, in effect the joint agreement of plans to maintain social care services and to deliver seven day services across health and social care to prevent unnecessary non-elective admissions to acute settings and an agreement to invest in out-of-hospital services;

•        Integration Policy from 2016/17 – The Comprehensive Spending Review had confirmed the continuation of pooled budgets into 2016/17 and an additional £1.5 billion allocated to the BCF via local authorities;

•        Timetable for Health and Wellbeing Board Areas – with final plans due to be submitted by 20 April 2016;

•        Regional Assurance Timetable – for 2016/17 the assurance process for the BCF would be regionally co-ordinated rather than nationally;

•        Delayed Transfers of Care would be a new national condition of the BCF, with the measure based on the number of delayed bed days;

•        Options for Targets -  There were three options for the targets for delayed transfers of care, ranging from a target based on actual performance between January and March 2015 to a target based on a 2.5% reduction on the average for quarters 1 and 2 during 2015-16;

•        Better Care Fund Performance Matrix for 2015/16 showed that financial penalties totalling £560,000 of which £440,000 had been retained by the County Council;

•        A reduction in Non-elective Admissions had been achieved for the first quarter of 2015/16, but had been missed for the second and third quarters;

•        Availability of Resources 2016/17;

•        Contributions to Preventative Housing in Lincolnshire;

•        Proposals for 2016/17.

Members were advised that officers were still awaiting national guidance on the required format of the submission.

It was noted that as part of the Better Care Fund, it was anticipated that the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) element of the Fund would increase from £2.97m to £4.88m for 2016/17.  It was understood that the capital fund, which had previously been allocated for the implementation of the Care Act, had been removed, in order to fund this increase in the DFG.  A letter had been sent to all seven district chief executives to gain their support for a unified approach to the arrangements for the DFG.

The Director of Adult Care highlighted the five key elements of the proposals for 2016/17, as follows: -

·       Agree the continuation of the Section 75 Agreements;

·       Agree the level of 'protection' for Adult Care in 2016/17 at £16.825m;

·       The Consolidation of the number of schemes supported by the Better Care Fund programme;

·       A renewed focus on Delayed Transfers of Care led by the System Resilience Group;

·       A joint approach between the four clinical commissioning groups and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

(To receive a report from Simon Evans, Health Scrutiny Officer, which asks the Committee to consider its work programme for its forthcoming meetings)

Consideration was given to a report by Simon Evans (Health Scrutiny Officer), which enabled the Committee to consider its work programme for its forthcoming meetings. 

The Health Scrutiny Officer advised that the item on 'Carers Commissioning Strategy and Services for Carers' listed on the work programme for 29 June 2016, would now be presented to the Committee at its meeting on 25 May 2016.

RESOLVED

That the work programme be approved, subject to the above amendment being made.