Agenda item

(To receive a presentation from Glen Garrod, Executive Director Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, which provides the Committee with an introduction to the work of the teams within the Adult Care and Community Wellbeing directorate)

The Committee received presentations from the Head of Finance – Adult Care which set out the budget and financial performance of the directorate over recent years and also the Executive Director Adult Care and Community Wellbeing which set out the priorities for 2021/22 and beyond for the directorate.

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Further information was requested regarding the extra care housing development at De Wint Court Lincoln.  Members were advised that the Council had purchased nomination rights to 35 units, and would also be commissioning appropriate levels of support for tenants living in the units.  It was noted that it would be the developer, City of Lincoln Council that owned and would be responsible for the management and maintenance of the building.  It was also highlighted that most similar schemes would involve four or five different funding streams and the county council tended to be one of the minor contributors.  Whilst the County Council was generally a minor contributor in terms of funding, it would be this involvement that made the scheme viable.

·         It was noted that if the County Council was to try and retain a higher capital element, it could make the scheme non-viable.

·         It was confirmed that all 35 units at De Wint Court had been earmarked for people, and there were also growing waiting lists for those sites still to be developed.

·         In relation to the amount of overall expenditure in adult care, it was emphasised that the amount of spend was not linked to the quality of service provided to an individual – unless in extremis.  Lincolnshire's re-ablement service was one of the best performing in the region.  It was highlighted that if a person was referred to the re-ablement service when leaving hospital, they were more likely to not require any other service.  The approach was to encourage more preventative services.

·         Further detail was provided in relation to the budget for Public Health, and how the service had evolved since merging with the Adult Social Care directorate in 2016.  It was noted that the budget had been increased by transferring some of the adult care responsibilities and Lincolnshire's Director of Public Health had a much bigger budget than many of his colleagues elsewhere, as a lot of preventative services had now been included, which provided good value to the authority and residents of Lincolnshire.

·         It was queried whether there would be any advantage to put more funds into prevention services.  It was noted that the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board had asked all scrutiny committees to identify topics which would be suitable for an in-depth scrutiny review.  It was commented that prevention was one of the biggest issues that could have an impact on service provision in the future.  It was suggested that the Committee could examine how the success of the Wellbeing Service could be further built upon.

·         There was agreement within the Committee that Prevention services were vital and was something that it should focus on in the coming years.

·         The directorate was forecasting a balanced budget for 2021/22 and 2022/23.  However, it was important to note that the Medium Term Financial Plan made no assumptions regarding funding from government.  Once of the challenges was that the Council received a lot of short term funding for Adult Care, e.g. the winter pressures funding.

·         A number of White Papers from Government in relation to Adult Social Care were expected over the next 8 – 12 months which the Committee would receive reports on.

·         Comments made by the Executive Director in relation to the importance of the link between health and social care services were welcomed by members.

·         The Committee was advised that priorities for 2021/22 onwards included Strengths Based Practice, Housing, Digital, Further integration with the NHS, and Wellbeing.

·         A close working relationship with the NHS was critical and there had been a lot of support from councillors for this previously.  In order to better support Lincolnshire residents, the County Council and the NHS would need to work together.

·         The challenges around encouraging people to seek support for their needs was discussed, and the importance of 'lower level' services such as community groups was highlighted.

·         It was highlighted that diagnostic rates for dementia nationally during the pandemic had dropped, and there was a concern that a lot of issues would become manifest as restrictions were eased.  It was expected that the year ahead would be a challenging time for both the NHS and adult social care.

·         It was queried if there was any indication of the impact of Covid-19 on mental health, as a number of community groups which people may have relied upon, would not have met for over a year.  It was suggested that the Committee could receive a report on this subject in due course.

·         It was highlighted that the Council was responsible for other services which may not be recognised as playing a part in people's wellbeing, such as footpaths.

RESOLVED

            That the presentations be noted.