Agenda item

To consider a joint report from the Director of Adults and Health and the Director of City Development

The Director of Adults and Health and the Director of City Development submitted a report that provided an overview of outcomes and service performance related to the council priorities and services within the Board’s remit. 

The following documents were appended to the report:

-  2018-19 Leeds Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework and Better Lives Strategy

-  Public Health Population Indicators

The following were in attendance:

-  Councillor Rebecca Charlwood, Executive Member for Adults, Health and Active Travel

-  Cllr Mohammed Rafique, Executive Member for Environment and Active Lifestyles

-  Cath Roff, Director, Adults and Health

-  Dr Ian Cameron, Director of Public Health, Adults and Health

-  Peter Storrie, Head of Service (Performance Management and Improvement), Resources and Housing

-  Steven Baker, Active Leeds Business Manager, City Development

The Director of Adults and Health introduced the headline performance issues, as detailed in the submitted report. While recognising positive performance across a number of areas, Members discussed a number of specific matters, including:

·  Direct care payments. Members queried the approach taken to address the decline in the proportion of people who receive direct care payments, and were informed of a number of initiatives in place to encourage sign-up, such as a pre-payment card designed to reduce the amount of administration for carers to complete. Other initiatives included providing a support service to assist in the recruitment of personal assistants; and a personal assistants workforce development strategy. Members were also advised that the Council supports personal preference, which for some is to continue with a Council-managed budget.

·  Delayed transfers of care. Members were informed that the delayed transfers of care from hospital indicator had been adapted to include mental health admissions, and that this was likely to have impacted the progress due to the challenging support needs of dementia patients. However, Members were assured that performance in acute delays across all admissions had improved.

·  Population indicators. The Board requested that comparisons with other cities be included in future reports for indicators measured by population.

·  Reablement and rehabilitation services. Members queried the decline in access to reablement and rehabilitation services, and were advised that the referral pathway into reablement was recently expanded, however this had resulted in a large proportion of unsuitable referrals causing inefficiency within the service.

·  Demand and workforce. Members were advised that demand and workforce remains a significant challenge, particularly for registered nurses in nursing homes.  The Director also reported general pressures attracting prospective employees into the health and care sector, suggesting a social care minimum wage (higher than the national minimum wage) could help make the sector a more attractive prospect. 

·  Male suicide rates. Members were advised of a greater proportion of male to female deaths in Leeds compared to national trends. Members sought detail around projects focused on male wellbeing and suicide prevention, and were informed of a number of community groups supported to provide peer support, as well as the Annual Suicide Audit, which is published and then discussed at a large scale event with health partners, to understand challenges and support needs.

·  Smoking rates. Members were advised that smoking prevention continues to be a priority area. The Director of Public Health further advised that part of the success of the NHS Long Term Plan hinged on NHS services focusing on prevention.  The Board acknowledged this could be the focus of further consideration by the Scrutiny Board in the future. 

·  Active travel. Given the relatively new addition of this aspect within the reporting arrangements, Members noted the details provided in the report and acknowledged more detailed consideration should be provided as more data becomes available.  Future reports should also seek to provide comparative data from other local authority areas, such as core cities. 

RESOLVED – That the contents of the report and appendices, along with Members comments, be noted.

Councillors A Smart and H Bithell arrived at the meeting at 13:45 and 13:55 respectively, during discussion of this item.