Agenda and minutes

There were none.

To approve the Part A minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018 as an accurate record.

Members of the Panel asked the Chair why the previous meeting (which had ended due to a lack of quorum) had not been reconvened before the meeting on 31 October 2018. The Chair informed the Panel that a reconvened meeting had been attempted, but had failed to be quorate. The Chair elaborated that after this, the next planned meeting of the Panel had been too close for a reconvening, and it had been decided that it would be best for the Panel to hear an updated Adult Safeguarding report at this meeting, as opposed to a separate reconvening.

The Part A minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018 were agreed as an accurate record.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

Councillors Hopley and Bird declared that they had non-pecuniary interests as Members of the Purley Network Social Prescribing Board.

Councillor Hopley declared that she had a further non-pecuniary interest, having been a Member of the Board for the South East Cancer Help Centre.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

This report gives background information on the current respite offer and reports on the progress being made to increase access and choice for respite services.

The Category Manager introduced the item to the Panel by stressing the importance of respite services for the over 400 service users, of which around 200 were adults with disabilities, and the break these services provided for carers and families. The Panel heard that respite care played a strong role sustaining caring support and the careers for carers as well as the wellbeing of service users.

Members were told that these services were an overwhelmingly positive experience for service users in the borough, with around half of these users on direct payment, and accessing these services through a council menu. The Category Manager explained that despite this, the offer was not as broad or strong as it could be, and that this was being corrected by expanding the overall range of services offered, as well as building toward greater sustainability. The Panel learned that the menu had not previously been published, but that it was now available on both the council website and through MENCAP.

The Category Manager detailed the ways in which work was being done to expand the services offered. Since a procurement exercise in August 2018, 25 providers had been approached by the council, and these had been shortlisted down to 16. Many of these providers could present an immediate offer, and were merely pending due diligence checks; the Category Manager estimated that by the end of November 2018, the council menu would include 20 to 30 additional services. It had also been identified that there needed to be provisions for those who required residential and all day offers, and that a set of proposals for this would be made ready for Council by the end of November 2018. Ideas for new in-house and residential services were also being looked at, with officers currently investigating the level of need and scope of what could be provided.

The Category Manager explained to Members that three main areas for improvement had been identified. The first of these was that the council did not have a great deal of provision for unplanned respite care; the second was that there were not a broad range of culturally specific respite care options, and third was that there was a similarly limited range of respite options for service users with complex needs and challenging behaviours. The Panel were informed that 11 organisations had bid on providing the council with options that would increase these offers, and that these were in the early stages of being evaluated.

Members enquired about the current facilities available for unplanned respite care and learned that the council had one provider, the Eadmund in Coulsdon, with which it had a two bed contract. The Chair asked for further details on what the Eadmund provided under the contract, and the Panel learned that the council paid for two beds throughout the year whether the beds were used or not, but that these were not specific rooms. Members were also informed that around 20 named individuals were allocated a fixed number  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/18

A report on the progress of Croydon’s Health Wellbeing & Adults department’s work to adopt and embed a strength based community led support approach and influence working with other Council departments and partners in health, community and voluntary sectors.

The Adults Health and Wellbeing Project Manager introduced the item by informing the Panel that this piece of work had been considered for a number of months, with research having been done into other areas of the country where this model had been adopted. It was explained that this model had gained some traction with other authorities in the country, and that the approach was an alternative way of working with service users to build different relationships and have different conversations. This involved gaining a better understanding of individuals’, families’ and communities’ strengths and assets, and using these to build resilience.

The Panel heard that with an increased focus on early intervention there would be considerable time saved, with fewer investigations needed and less referrals between departments. This would also result in a greater number of users being seen, and seen earlier, leading to improvements in both the quality of the service and users’ lives. One of the major changes would be to focus less on assessing criteria and eligibility, and referring people between departments; this would lead to fewer people on waiting lists, and those who were on lists would wait for shorter periods. The reduced bureaucracy would have a significant impact on the morale of staff, with people feeling more fulfilled and impactful, with greater capacity and time for more meaningful discussions with residents. This had a positive knock on effect with recruitment and staff retention.

The Adults Health and Wellbeing Project Manager stated that in some cases this model had delivered savings, but it was stressed that this model should not be adopted as a money saving exercise, but as a way to improve the overall quality of the service for users and staff, with savings likely to follow.

The Adults Health and Wellbeing Project Manager explained that other authorities who had adopted the model had advised that support would be needed for implementation. The two organisations which had been looked at to partner with were the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) and Partners 4 Change, of which NDTi had been selected as the preferred partner. NDTi brought the expertise of having worked with 20 other authorities, but Croydon would be leading the way as the first London borough to work with NDTi, with the Executive Director of Health, Well-Being & Adults sponsoring, and Director of Adult Social       Care as the implementation lead. The next steps were an on-site readiness visit by NDTi in December 2018, followed by a collaboratively drawn up plan in January 2019. Members heard that this would involve workshops with community organisations and teams from the council, starting small and scaling up slowly, incorporating the lessons learned along the way. The Panel were told there would be a focus on listening to service users and trying new things. The experience that had been reported from other authorities was that other teams had seen the changes in the teams implementing the new model and had been keen to get involved. Members learnt that there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26/18

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

The following motion was moved by Councillor Hopley and seconded by Councillor Clouder to exclude the press and public:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

The motion was put and it was agreed by the Committee to exclude the press and public for the remainder of the meeting.

To approve the Part B minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018 as an accurate record.

The Part B minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018 were agreed as an accurate record.

The purpose of this report is to update the Adult Social Services Review Panel on the key developments in Croydon in regards to Adult Safeguarding.

The Panel received an update on Adult Safeguarding in Croydon.