Agenda and minutes

Resolved:- That the minutes of the meeting held on 28^th September 2009 be approved as a correct record.

Shona McFarlane presented the submitted report which outlined changes made to the Scheme of Delegations for Neighbourhoods and Adult Services.

The scheme of delegation is part of the Councils constitution and contains information relating to all service functional responsibilities as well as decisions affecting human resources and financial management.  The scheme allows for an appropriate level of decision making but the Directorate Management Team (DMT) acts as the framework for ensuring consistent decision making across the Directorate so that all Directors work towards the same vision and same management directives. 

The Service Performance Team worked with Directors to update the documents and changed the hierarchy of the documentation to achieve greater alignment with the structure of the Directorate and hopefully therefore creating a better understanding of the scheme.

In updating the scheme it became clear that the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods and Adult Services functions should be encompassed into one document to span the entire Directorate.  The statutory role of the DASS was also shown in the new structure, as this was a statutory requirement.  The individual delegation of powers to Officers Schedule B sat under the Neighbourhoods and Adult Services Function document and reflected the recent changes in the department’s structure.

The Neighbourhoods and Adults Service Directorate scheme was divided into three schedules. These were;

·        Schedule A: The ‘functions’ document which detailed the functions covered by the Directorate and who was responsible for them e.g. Cabinet, Cabinet Member, Strategic Director or Service Director. This document also lists all the legislation covered within the function under the Schedule of Powers Act,

·        Schedule B: The statutory role of the Director of Adult Social Services which detailed the statutory requirements placed on the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods and Adult Services by the Government, and

·        Schedule C: The ‘delegation of powers to officers’ document which provided the detail of the work of each department within Neighbourhoods and Adult Services together with the individual officer responsible for each area of work.

Reference was made to the personalisation agenda and a discussion ensued.  Members requested training and advice on this considerable area of work to assist them in passing on advice to their Ward members.

The Director for Health and Wellbeing confirmed that the Resource Allocation System needed to be in place by March 2010 and once this had been implemented a report would be brought back to the Cabinet Member and then arrangements would be made to disseminate the information to all members of the Council.

Resolved:- That the revised Scheme of Delegation be noted.

Mark Scarrott, Finance Manager (Adult Services) presented the submitted report which provided a financial forecast for the Adult Services Department within the Neighbourhoods and Adult Services Directorate to the end of March 2010 based on actual income and expenditure to the end of August 2009.

The approved net revenue budget for Adult Services for 2009/10 was £72.9m which included additional funding for demographic and existing budget pressures together with a number of new investments and efficiency savings identified through the 2009/10 budget setting process.

The latest budget monitoring report showed some underlying pressures of £1.3m, however assuming the achievement of all management actions it was forecast that there will be an overall overspend of £320k by the end of the financial year.  Management actions of £1.004m were endorsed by the Cabinet Member and a total of £408k had been achieved to date and were now included in the detailed forecasts.  This reduced the underlying pressures to £916k and left a balance of £596k to be achieved by the end of the financial year.

The latest year end forecast showed there were underlying budget pressures on Home Care as a result of delays in shifting the balance of provision to the independent sector.  The 70/30 split was achieved at the end of July 2009 and the balance was now moving towards 80/20 ration.  There had been a significant increase above approved budget in clients receiving a Direct Payment within Physical and Sensory Disabilities and Older Peoples Services (£370k). Additional one-off expenditure was being incurred in respect of the costs of boarding up, removal of utilities and security costs at the former residential care homes prior to them transferring to the Council’s property bank (£200k). Other budget pressures were due to delays in the implementation of budget savings agreed as part of the budget setting process for 2009/10 in respect of meals on wheels (£250k), laundry (£140k) and the bathing service (£40k).

These pressures had been reduced by additional income from continuing

health care funding from Health  (-£325k) and delays in the implementation of new supported living schemes within Learning Disability services (-£206k). Savings within independent residential care due to an increase in income from property charges (-£386k), further savings on the reconfiguration of Extra Care housing (-£250k) and slippage in recruitment to a number of new posts (-£78k) where additional funding was agreed within the budget process.

The Directorate continued to identify additional management actions to mitigate the outstanding budget pressures above. A number of management actions (40%) had already been achieved and were included in the financial forecasts. These included additional savings on supported living, residential short stay placements, independent residential care costs within Older People services and savings from the decommissioning of in-house residential care.

A question and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised:-

• Reference was made to the Performance target C32 set for people helped to live at home which was 96.32% for 2009/10.  To date the current performance was 66.13% which caused concern  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

Kath Rogers, Commissioning Manager presented the submitted report in relation to the Common Assessment Framework for Adults – Phase Two Demonstrator Site Programme.

The objectives of the Common Assessment Framework for Adults were to support:

• Delivery of a better experience for those who use health and social care services and their carers
• Improvements in the capacity, capability and efficiency of the health and social care systems, in order to develop shared electronic records.

This would facilitate a more efficient, timely and secure exchange of information and allow better co-ordinated support to be delivered, placing the individual, family and carers at the centre.

A joint Expression of Interest with NHS Rotherham, RBT and Northgate was submitted last year but was unsuccessful. 

A Phase Two Expression of Interest had been developed focused on achieving positive outcomes for users and carers and addressed the following areas of interest:-

• Information sharing for palliative care/end of life care between users and carers, provider organisations and professionals across a range of care settings in relation to assessment and advance care planning.
• Developing an information governance model for third sector information sharing
• A Local Authority to trial setting up Registration Authorities to manage access rights to the NHS Care Record Service.  NHS Smartcards were currently issued by NHS Rotherham

Benefits to users and carers would include:-

• 24/7 access to information via the internet
• Improved provision of self directed support
• Ability to support initial assessment on-line
• Greater control over care provided in the last days of life
• Greater recognition of personal preferences
• Enable more people to die with dignity in the place of their choice
• Improve delivery of services

Benefits to Neighbourhoods and Adult Services include:-

• Single Assessment Process implementation achieved through electronic information sharing
• Personalisation programme supported by using new methods of recording
• Provides IT infrastructure that would otherwise come directly out of other budgets
• Potential cost savings as a result of streamlined assessment and care planning processes
• Potential cost savings as a result of better quality information being available
• High profile initiative – positive impact nationally on Rotherham’s reputation.

Resolved:-  That the Expression of Interest to be a CAF Demonstrator Site in partnership with NHS Rotherham, RBT, Northgate and other suppliers be supported.

Councillor Walker reported on a recent event which had taken place whereby Members, officers and various partners had met to discuss services for older people.  She commented that a representative from Government Office had been in attendance and had congratulated Rotherham on the work they were doing and suggested that it would be beneficial if they attended an event which was taking place in Manchester to share good practice.  In addition to this event she confirmed that she would be attending a meeting in Leeds next week and she agreed which she would provide a report on this to the next meeting.