Agenda item

Adult Care and Community Wellbeing Performance Report - Quarter 4 2018/19

(To receive a report by Katy Thomas, County Manager - Performance & Intelligence (Adult Care and Community Wellbeing), which presents the performance against Council Business Plan targets for the Directorate as at the end of Quarter 4 2018/19)

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which presented the performance against Council Business Plan targets for the Directorate as at the end of Quarter 4 2018/19.  A summary of performance against target for the year was provided in Appendix A of the report and a full analysis of each indicator over the year was provided in Appendix B of the report.

 

Members were guided through the report and those indicators which had not been achieved but were amber were highlighted to the Committee.  It was noted that no indicators were showing as red.  Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Measure 34 – Chlamydia diagnoses per 100,000 15 – 24 year old – the target population was the 18-25 age range, with the University of Lincoln being a hot spot.  Young people increasingly did not want to go their GP's, and the testing kits available through the post were producing the best results.

·         Measure 63 - % of clients in receipt of long term support who receive a direct payment – it was agreed that this was a high target.  However, current performance suggested that Lincolnshire was in the upper quartile. 

·         There were regular reports on delayed transfers of care, and a national change of definition was due which would mean that there would be an increase in the figures by 5 – 10%.  It was expected that this would affect all councils equally.

·         It was queried whether the University of Lincoln supported students who had received a positive chlamydia diagnosis, for example by offering counselling.  Members were advised that both Bishop Grosseteste University and the University of Lincoln were quite well engaged with this.

·         Measure 31 - % of alcohol users that left drug treatment successfully who do not re-present to treatment within six months – it was queried what performance was like across the county, and members were advised that it was very variable as the service was dealing with people's ability to change their own behaviour.

·         It was reported, as an example, that Doncaster Council had invested heavily in mental health, drugs and alcohol services with a very dedicated and well-resourced service which supported a relatively small number of people.  Individuals would be receiving this service for 4-10 years.  It was noted that this was easier to deliver this service as a unitary council in an urban area.

·         Measure 130 - % of Adult Safeguarding Concerns that lead to a safeguarding enquiry – it was reported that on 27 June 2019 the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board had recorded its concern that this new Council Business Plan measure had replaced the previous indicator 'enquiries where the source of risk is a service provider' and had recommended that both measures should be included in the Council Business Plan and also agreed that these measures should be considered by the Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, whose advice would be reported to the Executive on 9 July 2019.  It was stated that the Committee had endorsed the new indicator on 10 April 2019 and it was further clarified that the replaced measure still existed in the suite of intelligence utilised by the service to identify themes, and was reported as part of required returns to Government and other agencies.  However, on its own the former measure did not represent the most appropriate indicator of service performance and risk, requiring the further context and understanding.  The Scrutiny Committee accepted the rationale that the new indicator provided a better standalone measure of the level and consistency of understanding of safeguarding responsibilities and processes across the system.  The Committee concluded with a recommendation that only the new measure should continue to be presented in the Council Business Plan.  It was noted that approximately 50% of safeguarding concerns did not progress to a safeguarding enquiry.

·         It was queried how outcomes were recorded and whether there was a 'loop back' to how many cases had a substantive risk.  Members were advised that that data was still captured by the authority, and it was also monitored whether the enquiry was upheld.

·         It was noted that there was a significant number of performance measures that were monitored even though they were not included within this report.

·         It was noted that the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board and Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee were both meetings open to the public, and when reports were in the public domain, they needed to be understandable by the public.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.    That the performance of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing for Quarter 4 2018/19 be noted.

2.    That the Executive be advised that the Committee's recommendation was that only the new measure (concerns that lead to a safeguarding enquiry) should be presented as part of the Council Business Plan, while the former measure (enquiries where the source of risk is a service provider) would continue to be recorded for management and any required statutory purposes.

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