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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Anoushka Clayton-Walshe
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Items
No. Item

31/19

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 95 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2019 as an accurate record.

Minutes:

The accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2019 were discussed by the Panel.

 

Councillor Hopley felt the minutes did not accurately reflect the meeting and incorporate all of the points raised. Councillor Hopley secondly raised that materials promised to be attached to the minutes were absent.

 

The Chair informed Councillor Hopley that the proposed amended paragraph shared with the Executive Director for Health, Wellbeing and Adults and the Director of Operations could not be included in the minutes because the wording was not reflective of events and requested a meeting after the Panel be arranged to agree a revised paragraph. It was stated that the proposed wording lacked distinction between the aspects of Quality Care Commission (CQC) and London Care which should be amended to clearly establish the timeline of events.

 

The Panel agreed that the amended minutes of the previous meeting held on 26 June 2019 would be considered at the next meeting of the Panel.

32/19

Disclosure of Interests

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.

Minutes:

Councillors Hopley and Campbell declared they worked with the Wellbeing Centre at the Whitgift Centre. Councillor Hopley worked with the Centre by helping support the set-up by providing advice as the Vice-Chair of the South East Cancer Help Centre. Councillor Campbell worked with the Centre by helping open the Centre as part of the steering group of the BME Forum and would continue to support the Centre.

33/19

Urgent Business (if any)

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.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

34/19

Extra care Housing (Special Sheltered Housing) pdf icon PDF 139 KB

The purpose of the report is to provide the Adult Social Services Review Panel with an update on the Extra care housing (Special Sheltered housing) offer within Croydon.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Operations Adult Social Care introduced the report and presentation which provided an update on the Extra care housing offer within Croydon including the progress and the future plans for insourcing the transformation programme. The moved in-house provision would commence on 4 January 2020 and council staff were already introducing and familiarising themselves with the contracted sites and staff. Tenant liaison had occurred which included communications with all tenants, evening tenant meetings and tenant reviews and full social worker allocation to residents.

 

In response to a Panel Member asking where service users were predominantly referred from and whether there were concerns with oversubscription, the Director of Operations Adult Social Care stated that housing services was the main pathway to care services and oversubscription did exist on particular sites.

 

In reference to housing issues that required improvement, a Panel Member raised that building repair work should be the council’s responsibility and asked whether Mears or London Care had previously flagged the repair work needed. The Director of Operations Adult Social Care replied that the work was supported by volunteers and results were achieved by cross department efforts, the listed contractors had reported repair tasks which were now being delivered.

 

In response to the Chair stating that London Care had experienced a situation where kitchens were completely out of use due to regulation restrictions, the Executive Director for Health, Wellbeing and Adults said that those issues related to regulations surrounding standards of commercial vs communal kitchen spaces and they intended to get areas back in to use and to install kitchenettes into every communal area.

 

A Panel Member described that during end of life care there was a maximum of four visits per day for patients, which did not include night visits. This meant that patient care requirements would exceed this offer, becoming an unviable option, and therefore the patient’s end of life care would be better placed in a hospice.

 

The Director of Operations Adult Social Care stated the improvements would initially look to all sites and then would focus on the needs of individual users. They were working with council employees and looking to engage with London Care employees which would include transfer care and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) arrangements. Approximately 150 employees would be eligible for TUPE however not all London Care employees may choose to transfer to the council, but high numbers were expected to opt in due to the favourable staff benefits offered by the council.

 

In response to a Panel Member asking whether meals would be cooked on-site in the new scheme, the Director of Operations Adult Social Care stated that currently meals were delivered to sites however commissioners were working with providers and analysing costs for on-site preparation to begin in the New Year.

 

In response to a Panel Member asking if there would be an exit charge for the council from the Care UK contract, the Director of Operations Adult Social Care stated there was no exit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34/19

35/19

Adult Social Services Direct Payments Update pdf icon PDF 93 KB

This report provides an update on the implementation of new adult social care Direct Payments arrangements for Croydon residents in support of the Council’s priority to help people live long, healthy, happy and independent lives.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Category Manager introduced the report and presentation which provided an update on the council’s progress towards extending Direct Payments (DP) to more residents which supported the council’s priority to enable Croydon people to live long, healthy, happy and independent lives. They noted that Croydon was behind to implement Direct Payments (DP) comparatively to other authorities.

 

The Category Manager explained that many people in Croydon wanted a PA, however they were low in number and Personal Assistant (PA) training was difficult to access. Policy and guidance for DP was dated, the last update being in 2010, and processes had changed which meant the system was in need for refreshing and modernising. The Panel noted that 56% of parents of children with a disability used DP therefore it was necessary to try and replicate this success for services to help adults live at home.

 

The council aimed to be in a position where they managed a lower number of adults by encouraging greater flexibility and choice to users enabling them to find care and support locally using the new directory. There would also be the Contract Personal Assistant Support Service which supported users to recruit and to employ PAs, therefore retaining their service. DP moving forward aimed to reduce red tape and would introduce an online system which would mean people could manage their own direct payments online paperlessly, without the need to retain receipts. This agency system had been tried and tested in other local authorities and was delivered by Independent Lives, a user led charity, who had won awards for their results. The agency commission was the council in partnership with the Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which meant that there was one market for PAs, removing competition and promoting integrated care.

 

The strategies would be implemented through a community led approach where residents would be supported in their individual choices by social workers working on a case-by-case basis. DP in the past had been working alongside the central service and the new scheme would enable integration of the whole process enabling continued relationships through each stage, particularly with social workers.

 

In response to a Panel Member asking where the Croydon Personal Assistant Support Service would operate from, the Category Manager stated that a face-to-face service could be offered homebased or in the Community Support Office, Cherry Hub. The service would initially use Crawley based staff, however throughout the transition period staff would be recruited from Croydon and would eventually lead to the employment, training and accredited status of 200 Croydon residents.

 

The Category Manager described the consultation for DP which was in effect widely through meetings and surveys from the guidance produced and respondents predominantly focussed opinions on the implementation of policies. Themes raised from the consultation would be incorporated in to the policy guidance and developing the implementation plan.

 

The online payment system was due to be introduced which would be connected to the directory and users were able to carry out cashless transactions using the Virtual  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35/19

36/19

Annual Report of the Croydon Adult Safeguarding Report (CSAB) pdf icon PDF 73 KB

The purpose of the report is to present the Annual Report of the Croydon Adult Safeguarding Report (CSAB).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Adult Safeguarding and Quality Assurance introduced the Croydon Adult Safeguarding Adult Board (CSAB Annual Report 2018/19) and presentation. Key improvements identified over the last year were identified. There is still challenging in addressing the under representation in BME Communities.

 

Currently the national data had not been published, which couldn’t allow the council to make comparisons with neighbours.

 

The report set out priorities to engage more with residents and users. Issues had been flagged with the online referral process which were being investigated and they would seek support from the Partnership Board.

 

The Executive Director for Health, Wellbeing and Adults informed the Panel that the report had already been to Health & Social Care Scrutiny Sub-Committee, Informal Cabinet and would be reported at 18 November 2019 Cabinet. The Head of Adult Safeguarding and Quality Assurance stated that guidance was unclear as to where the CSAB Annual Report should primarily report.

 

The Executive Director for Health, Wellbeing and Adults said that the Independent Chair for CSAB had been asked for synergy between the adults and the children’s boards for future changes and improvements and told the Panel that the independent Chair of the Boards had been working closely.

 

Panel Members asked where the main priorities lay and where officers felt improvements could be made accounting for the fact that similar issues were raised each year. They secondly raised concern over the statistic highlighted in the report that 3 in 5 were allegedly experiencing abuse from someone they knew. The Head of Adult Safeguarding and Quality Assurance agreed that statistics were worrying and added that 1 in 3 were allegedly experiencing abuse from a formal carer, which was a decrease of 1% compared to 2017-18, however still high. They stated that these issues were national problems, not unique to Croydon, and other complex difficulties were experienced such as domestic and financial violence.

37/19

Exclusion of the Press and Public

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.”

Minutes:

The following motion was moved by Councillor Campbell and seconded by Councillor Hopley 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 paragraph 1 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.

38/19

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

To approve the Part B minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2019 as an accurate record.

Minutes:

The Panel agreed that the amended minutes of the previous meeting held on 26 June 2019 would be continued at the next meeting of the Panel.

 

39/19

Adult Safeguarding in Croydon

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.

Minutes:

The Head of Adult Safeguarding and Quality Assurance introduced the update on key developments and current positions in Croydon on Adult Safeguarding in regard to Provider Concern Issues.