Agenda and minutes

At the invitation of the Lord Mayor the Assistant Chief Executive (Corporate Governance) briefly advised Council as to declarations which may be appropriate for this meeting.

The Lord Mayor announced that a list of written declarations submitted by Members was on deposit in the public galleries and had been circulated to each Member’s place in the Chamber.

Following an invitation to declare further individual interests, declarations of personal interests in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct were made as follows:

Councillor A Blackburn - Mother-in-Law in receipt of Council home care services

Councillor D Blackburn  -  Mother in receipt of Council home care services

Councillor Illingworth  -  Wife chairs the Management Committee of the Bethel Elderly Day Care Centre which receives a grant from the City Council.

Council notes with serious concern the recent Adult Social Care Independence, Wellbeing and Choice Inspection and the Annual Performance Assessments for both the Adult Social Care and the Children’s Services Departments.  Council further notes that the Adult Social Care department has been judged to be inadequate and that the performance of the Children’s Services department has significantly deteriorated to the extent that it is now only rated as adequate.

Council is very concerned that all three inspection reports are extremely critical of this Council’s ability to safeguard vulnerable people and protect them from exploitation and abuse.  Furthermore these reports call sharply into question the capacity of the current Council leadership.

This Council believes that these inspection reports show that this Administration is failing in its primary responsibility to protect people.  This Council believes that the people of Leeds deserve the best and not inadequate and barely adequate services.

Council therefore resolves that:

1.  In order to ensure proper accountability both the Adult Social Care and Children’s Services Scrutiny Boards should not be chaired by members of the administration; putting an end to this administration’s practise of scrutinising itself.

2.  The Chief Executive should bring a paper to the Executive Board reviewing the effectiveness of partnership arrangements between the Adult Social Care and Children’s Services Departments and the NHS, and voluntary Sector in Leeds.

3.  The Executive Board member for Adult Social Care should stand down from his position with immediate effect and the leadership within the Children Services Department should immediately demonstrate that it has the competence, ability and capacity to tackle the key weaknesses within the department.

D COUPAR

It was moved by Councillor Coupar seconded by Councillor Mulherin

Council notes with serious concern the recent Adult Social Care Independence, Wellbeing and Choice Inspection and the Annual Performance Assessments for both the Adult Social Care and the Children’s Services Departments. Council further notes that the Adult Social Care department has been judged to be inadequate and that the performance of the Children’s Services department has significantly deteriorated to the extent that it is now only rated as adequate.

Council is very concerned that all three inspection reports are extremely critical of this Council’s ability to safeguard vulnerable people and protect them from exploitation and abuse. Furthermore these reports call sharply into question the capacity of the current Council leadership.

This Council believes that these inspection reports show that this Administration is failing in its primary responsibility to protect people. This council believes that the people of Leeds deserve the best and not inadequate and barely adequate services.

Council therefore resolves that

1  In order to ensure proper accountability both the Adult Social Care and Children’s Services Scrutiny Boards should not be chaired by members of the administration; putting an end to this administration’s practise of scrutinising itself

2  The Chief Executive should bring a paper to the Executive Board reviewing the effectiveness of partnership arrangements between the Adult Social Care and Children’s Services Departments and the NHS, and voluntary sector in Leeds.

3  The Executive Board member for Adult Social Care should stand down from his position with immediate effect and the leadership within the Children Services Department should immediately demonstrate that it has the competence, ability and capacity to tackle the key weaknesses within the department.

An amendment was moved by Councillor Harrand seconded by Councillor Golton.

Delete everything after ‘notes’ and replace with:

‘…the five of the seven areas of practice within the Adult Social Care directorate where the performance of council officers is assessed as ‘good’;

Adult Social Care performance on improved health and wellbeing is rated as good,

Adult Social Care performance on improved quality of life is rated as good,

Adult Social Care performance on making a positive contribution is rated as good,

wellbeing is rated as good.

Adult Social Care performance on freedom from discrimination and harassment is rated as good,

Adult Social Care performance on economic wellbeing is rated as good.

The Council accepts the assessment of performance in ‘maintaining personal dignity and respect (including safeguarding)’ as ‘poor’, and acknowledges the actions that have been taken both before and after the August inspection to improve performances; and notes the unprecedented investment in these services planned in the department’s proposed budget for 2009/10.

The Council further notes the conclusions of the recent APA report for Children’s Services in Leeds. This Council both welcomes OfSTED’s recognition of positive improvements in outcomes for Leeds children and also those areas where more rapid improvement is needed. Council notes in particular the actions taken to improve performance in those areas of concern, and the year on year  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.