Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Darby, Havenhand, Kirk, Jack, G. A. Russell, Walker and Wootton.

There were no Declarations of Interest.

There were no members of the public and press present.

The Head of Strategic Services reported on the commitment of Social Services to the Council’s Equality and Diversity Strategy.

The meeting was informed that the Programme Area had formed a Steering Group early in 2004 which is chaired by the Head of Strategic Services, who is also the Programme Area’s Equality and Diversity Champion, and represents the Social Services on the Corporate Equality and Diversity Steering Group. This group meets bi-monthly and membership is across all services and includes trades unions. One of the early achievements was to launch a strategy “Targeting for Diversity”, and this was followed shortly after by the Programme Area’s Equality and Diversity Action Plan in 2004, well ahead of the Corporate requirement.

The Plan pulls together strategic activity to enable the Race Equality Standards to be met and to ensure that good practice is shared and embedded into daily work with service users through policies and practices.

The Steering Group monitors progress against the action plan and drives up improvement. In addition, in compliance with Corporate requirements, initial screening of policies is done to assess whether they have an equality and diversity dimension. Following this screening, a programme has been developed for the next two years, during which time officers will conduct full impact assessments of these policies. All other Programme Areas have undertaken to complete this work over three years.

In October, 2004, Social Services gave a position statement to the Corporate Equality and Diversity Steering Group, which highlighted some of the strategic activity which was taking place, together with some examples of the good work that is taking place to translate this into service delivery. This presentation was submitted for information at Appendix A and Appendix B to the report to members.

Reference was made to the availability of resources and in this connection, members were informed that Council is about to introduce a revised procedure for the reporting of racial incidents. Whilst this simplified procedure was welcomed it will encourage more reporting to take place. If reporting does increase, these proposals have significant resource implications as Programme Areas will be expected to fully investigate these reports without any additional human or financial resource being available. This will impact on the quality of service delivered and under-resourcing of the investigation activity could lead to increased dissatisfaction and complaints. Failure to meet the required level of the Race Equality Standard could impact adversely on inspection and assessment judgements. The Authority is required to monitor the profile of its service users for ethnicity and fairness and some of these requirements are currently being tightened. It was therefore necessary to ensure that this information is collected at source and recorded accurately in the systems.

Subsequent comments and discussion made reference to :-

-     the workforce situation for meeting the requirements of the strategy

-     the reporting of racial incidents and the need to involve all partners/agencies in order to obtain the full picture in respect of such incidents

-     the availability of Direct Payments and Care  ...  view the full minutes text for item 129.

The Head of Strategic Services reported on how the Programme Area was performing against a number of key indicators and the action being taken to improve on the under-performing indicators.

Members noted that the majority were performing well, progressing in the right direction.

Comments were made in respect of:-

(a) the need to simplify presentation of the information for members in order that it can be understood more easily;

(b) the overall situation if all targets were achieved; this would have a positive effect on the Star Rating;

Members were informed that in future there would be separate star ratings for Adult Services and for Children and Young People’s Services.

(c) adoption placements, waiting times and the Out of Authority situation;

(d) admissions to Residential Care and the criteria for such;

(e) the Direct Payments situation particularly in respect of carers and ethnic minority groups;

(f) the data required, its interpretation and its lack of reliability for certain indicators. It was acknowledged that work was needed to obtain more reliable data for some indicators.

Resolved:- (i) That the report be received and the performance achieved as at January 2005 be noted.

(ii) That the Scrutiny Adviser liaise with Social Services on presenting information to members in a more easily understood format.

(iii) That the panel should be informed when the PLs relating to People receiving a Statement of Needs and Percentage of items of equipment and adaptations delivered within 7 working days, were no longer “reserved” by the District Auditor.

(iv) That a report be submitted to a future meeting of this Scrutiny Panel on adoption placements, the report to include the figures involved, the number awaiting placement and those placed out of the Authority.

The Head of Strategic Services reported on the content of a report which set out details of information relating to Carers Performance and Carer Assessments.

The information covered services in both Adults and Children and Families. Unfortunately there were gaps in the information available and work was ongoing to streamline the information and address the situation so that it was consistent across the Programme Area and more accurate.

Particular reference was made to the forecast figures, to the situation on carer assessments, gender and age band of carers and their ethnicity.

The action being taken to improve performance was reported.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and the situation in respect of Carers Performance be noted.

(2) That information be provided at a future meeting of this Scrutiny Panel in respect of :-

(a) the seemingly high monthly score for June 2004;

(b) whether the data included instances where children were, in effect, carers;

(c) the rationale whereby carers payments stopped when people reached 65 i.e. the National Benefits policy on this issue

Consideration was given to the short term work programme for this Scrutiny Panel and identify scrutiny review topics for the 2005/06 municipal year.

It was accepted that it was difficult at this stage to formulate a forward work programme due to the uncertainty as to how scrutiny panels will be arranged in the new municipal year.

The following scrutiny topics for the 2005/06 municipal year were suggested :-

(a) the impact of domestic violence on children

(b) how best to support vulnerable people in the community to prevent them from being isolated

(c) the support given by Social Services to asylum seekers

(d) Safety in the Community having regard to the work done by the Partnership

(e) the timescales for delivery of equipment and adaptations once assessments have been made.

Reference was also made to the scrutiny review items not yet completed/undertaken from 2004/05.

Resolved:- That a report be submitted to the next meeting of this Scrutiny Panel prioritising the scrutiny topics for 2005/06, having regard to any items held over from 2004/05 and to those set out at (a) to (e) above.

Consideration was given to the latest projected revenue expenditure against budget for Social Services for the financial year 2004/05/ The report highlighted major variations and action plans to ensure spending remains within the approved cash limited budget.

The report indicated projected expenditure against budget based on actual expenditure for the period April 2004 to the end of February 2005.

The overall position shows a projected overspend of £296,995 or +0.45% for the Programme Area against a revenue budget of £65,284,271, a reduction in overspend of £98,840 against the previous month (excluding Central Establishment Charges). In addition, the report included an estimate of the proposed recharges to RBT in respect of additional procurement savings. The general situation relating to RBT was outlined.

A summary of the main variations for each Service Area, with reasons for projected underspends/overspends was submitted.

The variations were as follows:-

-           Children and Families – overall overspend of £134,000 (+0.85%)

-           Adult Services – overall overspend of £302,615 (+0.64%)

-           Strategic Services – overall underspend of £132,890 (-5.61%)

-           Finance and Accountancy – overall underspend of £6,730 (=4.43%)

The main budget pressures for each area were highlighted, along with the various actions being taken to reduce the projected overspends. Action Plans to achieve this are in place including further action on issues relating to the Children’s Out of Authority placements, Adoption Services, Learning Disabilities, Residential and Nursing Care, Home Care and Corporate recharges.

It was noted that efforts were being made to effect further reductions to the projected overspends.

Resolved:- (1)  That the latest revenue budget monitoring report be received and the continuing action being taken to ensure spending remains within the approved budget be noted.

(2) That a report be submitted to a future meeting of this Scrutiny Panel on the situation relating to Children’s Out of Authority placements.

Consideration was given to the latest projected figures and commitments against the approved capital expenditure budget for 2004/05.

This is the seventh capital monitoring report of the financial year and indicated projected expenditure against budget based on actual expenditure for the period April 2004 to the end of February 2005. All capital schemes were now committed.

The approved capital budget for Social Services is £1,102,554, however, £207,922 of the approved budget has been identified as expenditure that will be incurred in the next financial year 2005/06 and has therefore been carried forward to meet outstanding commitments on approved schemes. These schemes are funded from a variety of different funding sources including capital receipts, allocations from the capital programme, Supported Capital Expenditure, contribution from revenue budgets and capital grant funding.

Information provided in the report gave a brief summary of the latest position on the main projects within each client group, with particular reference to the Extra Care housing Project.

Resolved:- (1) That the Capital Budget Monitoring Report for 2004/05 be received.

(2) That members of this Scrutiny Panel be invited to attend the meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Panel when the Future of Sheltered Accommodation is discussed, the meeting is likely to be in late May/early June.

Consideration was given to the content of a report which set out matters subject to key decisions in the period 30th April to 31st July, 2005.

Particular reference was made to the timetable of the Best Value Review on Community Based Services. Members were informed that, due to slippage, the report would come to scrutiny in June.

Resolved:- That the report be received and the content be noted.

(a) CSCI Inspections of Residential Visits

It was requested that future minutes relating to the inspections indicate the area where the Units are situated.

Discussion took place on the involvement of lay inspectors as part of the process and it was confirmed that the Inspectors do talk to residents and staff.

Resolved:- That an example of an Inspectors report on a Residential Unit be submitted to a future meeting of this Scrutiny Panel.

(b) People with a Learning Disability Regarding Incentive Pay Consultation

Resolved:-- That the report to be prepared on other ways of recognising the contribution and achievement of users of Learning Disability Day Centres also be submitted to this Scrutiny Panel.

(c) Single Assessment Process (SAP)

The Head of Adult Services outlined the reasons for extending the electronic SAP pilot period which related to continued technical difficulties.

Resolved:- (1) That the minutes of the above Board held on 3rd March, 2005 be received and the content noted.

(2) It was noted that Di Billups was retiring from the Council and members of this Scrutiny Panel placed on record their thanks and appreciation of the work done by Di both in Education Services and in setting up the new Children and Young People’s Services and wished her well for the future.

Resolved:- (1) That the minutes of the above meeting be received subject to inclusion of apologies from Ms. J. Mullins.

(2) That when information was available on sponsorship of the Young Champions Award Ceremony, it be reported to this Scrutiny Panel.

Resolved:- That the minutes of the above Committee held on 11th March, 2005 be received.