Agenda and minutes

Venue: Town Hall, Moorgate Street, Rotherham.

Contact: Jackie Lacock (Ext. 2053) 

Items
No. Item

103.

Minutes of the previous meeting held on 9 February 2009 pdf icon PDF 109 KB

Minutes:

Resolved:- That the minutes of the meeting held on 9th February, 2009 be approved as a correct record.

104.

Draft Proposal for Interim Assessment Direct Service pdf icon PDF 82 KB

Minutes:

Shona McFarlane, Director of Health and Wellbeing presented the submitted report which outlined proposed improvements for customer access at Customer Service Centres and District Offices. This would require a temporary change to Assessment Direct’s current deployment of staff in order to provide an improved responsive service.  It would be an interim change until Rothercare and Assessment Direct were merged.

 

The current service delivered at Customer Service Centres and District Offices was provided by Assessment Direct Assistants and Assessment Direct Officers.  The role of an Assessment Direct Assistant was to process and provide Blue Badge applications, to give general advice and information pertaining to Neighbourhood and Adults Services, and the redirection/signposting of customers to other appropriate services.  Assessment Direct Officers provide additional services, but these have been required less since the inception of Assessment Direct.  The deployment of Assessment Direct Officers at Customer Service Centres had been variable recently dependent upon the number of staff available due to sickness, holidays and vacancies.  The vacancies had not been appointed to and were being temporarily withheld, to be utilised as required in the newly merged ‘Rothercare Direct Service’.

 

Most people wishing to access services now do this through Assessment Direct through the single telephone number, which has proven to be a more direct and easy access route for many people.

 

The proposal was to withdraw the Assessment Direct Officers from the Customer Service Centres and District Offices and maintain the physical Assessment Direct Assistant presence only.  Customers wishing to make contact with the Assessment Direct Officers would be directed to make contact by telephone, or contact could be made on their behalf by an Assessment Direct Assistant.

 

Should a customer require a face to face meeting with an Assessment Direct Officer, then the Assessment Direct Assistant would contact the Mobile Duty Assessment Direct Officer to arrange a meeting.

 

This would enable the service to be more personalised and responsive to the customer’s individual needs and requirements.  It would also be more efficient, providing increased resources to target directly at the front line provision of services to the customer in a more targeted way and increase from a part-time response to a full-time response.

 

The report also detailed the progress which had been made in relation to implementation of the new Rothercare Direct service which would provide a single customer access point for a range of services across NAS as well as continuing to provide an emergency community alarm service.

 

To date, progress towards the new service was as follows:-

 

·                    New access criteria for aged person and sheltered housing that clarify the position in relation to Rothercare was published as part of the Housing Allocation Policy with effect from 1st December 2008.

·                    The Rothercare charging arrangements have been reviewed and now the service is taking control of the invoicing and collection methods. This includes notifying all current customers about a 2.5% charge increase for 2009/10.

·                    Assistance from Finance has been provided in relation to merging the budget for Rothercare and Assessment Direct  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

105.

EXCLUSION OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC

Minutes:

Resolved:-  That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in those paragraphs indicated below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.

 

106.

In House Residential Accommodation Charges 2009/10

(Exempt under Paragraph 3 of the Act – information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the Council)

Minutes:

Doug Parkes, Business Development Manager presented the submitted report which detailed the proposals for increasing the charge to service users for the provision of in-house residential care for the 2009/10 financial year to take account of inflation.

 

Resolved:- (1) That the charges set out in Appendix 1 be agreed.

 

(2) That the charges agreed be effective from 5th April, 2009.

107.

Review of Non Residential Charges 2009/2010

Minutes:

Doug Parkes, Business Development Manager presented the submitted report in relation to the review of non residential charges 2009/2010.  The report set out in detail the proposed charges for other non-residential charges to be effective from April 2009.

 

Resolved:- That the revised charges as set out in the report be agreed and implemented with effect from 6th April, 2009.

108.

Stroke Care Services in the Community

(Exempt under Paragraph 3 of the Act – information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the Council)

 

Minutes:

With the agreement of the Cabinet Member, this item was withdrawn from the agenda and deferred to a future meeting.

109.

Social Services (Complaints) Panel

(Exempt under Paragraph 2 of the Act – information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual)

Minutes:

With the agreement of the Cabinet Member, this item was withdrawn from the agenda and deferred to a future meeting.

110.

Date and time of next meeting:- 9 March 2009

Minutes:

Resolved:- That the next meeting be held on Monday 9th March, 2009 commencing at 10.00 am.