Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed Councillor B Chastney to his first meeting of the Board as a replacement for Councillor A Taylor.

In accordance with the provisions of Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, reference was made to one late item of urgent business which the Chair had consented to add to the agenda (Minute No. 75 refers).  This referred to the proposed Terms of Reference for the Board’s Inquiry into Transitional Arrangements for Children into Adult Social Care.  The reason for urgency was that the Board was due to commence this Inquiry at its next meeting on 13^th January 2010.

To declare any personal / prejudicial interests for the purpose of Section 81 (3) of the Local Government Act 2000 and paragraphs 8 to 12 of the Members Code of Conduct.

The following declarations of personal interests were made:-

·  Councillor J Chapman in view of the fact that she has a relative who works in the private homecare industry (Agenda Item 7, Minute No. 70 refers).

·  Councillor B Chastney, in his capacity as a Director of West North West Homes ALMO (Agenda Item 8, Minute No. 71 refers).

·  Councillor C Fox, in his capacity as a Director of West North West Homes ALMO (Agenda Item 8, Minute No. 71 refers).

·  Councillor J McKenna in his capacity as a member of the West North West Homes ALMO Inner West Area Panel (Agenda Item 8, Minute No. 71 refers).

·  Councillor V Morgan, in her capacity as a member of the East North East ALMO Inner East Area Panel (Agenda Item 8, Minute No. 71 refers).

·  Councillor E Taylor, in her capacity as a member of the East North East ALMO Inner North East Area Panel (Agenda Item 8, Minute No. 71 refers).

·  Joy Fisher, in her capacity as a volunteer, a service user and a member of LINK (Agenda Items 7, 8 and 9, Minute Nos. 70, 71 and 72 refer).

·  Sally Morgan in her capacity as a service user (Agenda Items 7 and 8, Minute Nos. 70 and 71  refer).

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence from the meeting were submitted on behalf of Councillor A Gabriel.

To confirm as a correct record the attached minutes of the meeting held on 11^th November 2009.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 11^th November 2009 be confirmed as a correct record.

a)  Review of Adult Day Care Services in Leeds (Minute No. 58(a) refers)

The Chair reported that the further information requested at the last meeting under Minute No. 58(a) had been circulated to Members via email on 10^th December 2009.

b)  Performance of Home Care Service Providers (Minute No. 60 refers)

The Chair reported that the further information requested at the last meeting under Minute No. 60 – comparative information from other similar sized local authorities – was not yet complete but would be circulated at the earliest opportunity.

c)  Dignity in Care (Minute No. 61 refers)

Further to Minute No. 61, 11^th November 2009, the Chair reported that information had been received which indicated that in Leeds, there were currently 28 wholly single-sex wards in local hospitals out of a total of 127 wards.

Reference was made to an article in today’s Daily Telegraph which stated that the Government was committed to achieving its target of complete single-sex wards nationally some time in 2010.  The Principal Scrutiny Advisor undertook to circulate the article to Members.

To receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development which details the outcome of the annual rating review for 2008/09 undertaken by the Care Quality Commission (formerly the Commission for Social Care Inspection – CSCI).

The Board received and considered the report of the Director of Adult Social Services, previously submitted to the Executive Board on 9^th December 2009, regarding the outcome of the annual assessment carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for 2008/09.

The overall assessment was that the Department was officially ‘performing well’, which was an improvement on the previous year’s ‘adequate’ rating.  In respect of the 7 core outcomes against which the Department was assessed, it had improved performance in 3 of these areas and was rated as ‘performing excellently’ in 1 area, ‘performing well’ in 4 areas and ‘performing adequately’ in 2 areas (see Paragraph 6 of report).

The Chair and Board Members congratulated the Director of Adult Social Services on this achievement and requested that these congratulations be conveyed by the Director to all staff in the Department.

In attendance at the meeting and responding to Members’ queries and comments were:-

-  Sandie Keene, Director of Adult Social Services.

-  Dennis Holmes, Deputy Director (Strategic Commissioning).

-  Stuart Cameron-Strickland, Head of Policy, Performance and  Improvement (ASC)

In brief summary, the main points of discussion were:-

·  The need to sustain the gains made and to press on with improvements across all areas, working towards the goal of an overall ‘excellent’ rating.

The Director stated that the expected standards changed year on year, meaning that even maintaining a particular rating from one year to the next could be regarded as an achievement and effectively an improvement in service.  Nationally, 95% of authorities providing adult social services were assessed as being either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, and the likely outcome was that the CQC would be carrying out a fundamental review and seeking to raise the bar in terms of the required standards.  The challenge would be to try to meet these more exacting standards against a backdrop of local authority budget restraints.  It was unlikely that the Department would face another inspection in 2010. 

·  Reference was made to some misreporting in the CQC assessment report of the organisational set up and funding of the Leeds Involvement Project and the Alliance of Service Users and Carers. 

The Director acknowledged this, and added that one of the really pleasing aspects of the latest assessment was the improvement from ‘performing well’ to ‘performing excellently’ in the category ‘Making a Positive Contribution’, which was an acknowledgement of how far the Council had come in engaging local people and service users in policy making and decision taking.

·  The Department was aiming to achieve a ‘performing well’ assessment in respect of its efforts in the ‘Maintaining Personal Dignity and Respect’ category.  This would represent quite an achievement, to go from ‘performing poorly’, via ‘performing adequately’ to ‘performing well’ in the space of two assessments.

·  Reference was made to a television programme shown on the BBC the previous night, relating to standards in care homes for people with dementia.

In response, the Deputy Director outlined the inspection, assessment, monitoring and education work undertaken  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70.

Further to Minute No. 12, 17^th June 2009, to receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development which provides a performance update and progress report on the recommendations contained in the Board’s final report approved at the June meeting.

Further to the Board’s previous Inquiry into Major Adaptations for Disabled Adults, and the report published in June 2009, the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development submitted a progress report which tracked the Board’s recommendations against progress made to date in respect of each of the recommendations.

In attendance at the meeting and responding to Members’ queries and comments were:-

-  Dennis Holmes, Deputy Director (Strategic Commissioning).

-  Liz Ward, Head of Service (Support and Enablement).

-  Helen Freeman, Chief Officer, Health and Environmental Action Services, Environmental and Neighbourhoods Department.

-  Steve Speak, Chief Officer (Strategy and Policy), Development Department.

-  Andy Beattie, Head of Service (Housing and Pollution Control), Environments and Neighbourhoods Department.

In brief summary, the main points of discussion were:-

·  In recent years, the Department had managed to double the number of major adaptations it carried out per annum, and had halved the previous waiting time.  However, it had to be accepted that demand was always likely to outstrip available resources in this area. The Chair stipulated that the Care Quality Commission had determined that to improve quality of life, the Council had been advised to continue to reduce waiting times for all adaptations, which confirmed Recommendation 3 made by the Scrutiny Board, and that steps should be taken to act on this advice. Members requested that they be supplied with up to date information, in an easily understood format, as determined in Recommendation 10 of the Inquiry report.

·  Members also requested an explanation regarding why Aire Valley Homes ALMO appeared to be performing worse than the other two ALMOs on this particular issue.

·  It was reported that the Adaptations Operations Group would be meeting in the New Year and would look at the way information was currently presented to see if it might be simplified (agenda pages 43 and 44 refer).

·  The Chair requested that in future, if Members had queries regarding any information contained in the agenda papers, if they gave notice prior to the meeting day to the Principal Scrutiny Advisor, then efforts would be made to clarify any issues or to supply additional information, and a reminder to this effect would appear on future agenda.

RESOLVED – That subject to the above comments and requests for additional information, and the alteration of the status of Recommendation 6 from a 5 to a 4 rating, the report on progress made to date be received and accepted.

To receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Policy and Performance.

The Head of Policy and Performance submitted a report outlining progress against a raft of both national and local performance indicators in respect of services which fell within the remit of the Board.

In attendance at the meeting and responding to Members’ queries and comments were:-

-  Dennis Holmes, Deputy Director (Strategic Commissioning).

-  Stuart Cameron-Strickland, Head of Policy, Performance and Improvement (ASC).

In brief summary, the main points of discussion were:-

·  NI135 – Carers receiving needs assessment or review and a specific carers’ service.  This continued to be an area of concern in terms of performance.  The short-term improvements achieved last year by drafting in more staff resources had not been maintained.  Performance in this area was being investigated and currently Leeds was mid-ranked amongst its comparator group.

·  LKI-SS35 – Adult and older clients receiving a review as a percentage of those receiving a service.  The Deputy Director was confident that the current year-end estimated performance figure of 71.4% would be exceeded.  However, the staff who worked in this area had also seen a recent 33% increase in safeguarding referrals.

·  NI145 – Adults with learning disabilities in settled accommodation.  This was a new indicator this year.  To date, 256 people out of a total of 293 had been found to be in settled accommodation.  The statistics only changed when a review as undertaken following a change in accommodation.

·  NI131 – Delayed transfer of care.  It was explained that Adult Social Care was only responsible for one of the seven categories of possible reasons for delay in respect of this category and, in reality, it represented one or two people a week.  In 2008/09, Leeds had been one of the best performing local authorities in respect of this indicator.  This issue should not be confused with the homecare issue discussed at the last meeting, which related to people who were already receiving a homecare package, but who then required a hospital stay of 2 weeks or more.

RESOLVED – That, subject to the above comments, the report be received and noted.

To receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development, which provides Members with an update on the work of the Working Group.

The Head of Scrutiny and Member Development submitted a report updating the Board on the work of the Working Group established to undertake aspects of the Inquiry.

Another meeting of the Working Group was scheduled for 14th January 2010, at 10am, and it was suggested that receiving evidence from service users might be helpful.

RESOLVED – That, subject to the above comment, the report be received and noted.

To receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development.

The Head of Scrutiny and Member Development submitted a copy of the Board’s work programme, updated to reflect decisions taken at previous meetings, together with a copy of a relevant extract from the Council’s Forward Plan of Key Decisions for the period 1^st December 2009 to 31^st March 2010 and copies of the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Board held on 4^th and 24^th November 2009.

Two Forward Plan items due to go to the Executive Board in February (residential care strategy for older people) and March (self-directed support), were identified as matters upon which the Board would like to receive reports.

RESOLVED – That, subject to the above comments and any other amendments necessary as a result of today’s meeting, the Board’s work programme be received and approved.

To receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development.

Further to Minute No. 65, the Board considered the proposed Terms of Reference for its Inquiry into Transitional Arrangements for Children into Adult Social Care.

It was suggested that it would be helpful for the Department to supply a flow chart to the Board to diagrammatically illustrate how the system currently worked.

RESOLVED – That the draft Terms of Reference be approved.

Wednesday 13^th January 2010, at 10.00am (Pre-Meeting 9.30am).

Wednesday, 13^th January 2010 at 10.00 am (Pre-Meeting 9.30 am)