Agenda and minutes

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 3rd December, 2012.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 3rd December, 2012, be approved as a correct record.

The Director of Health and Wellbeing submitted a report on the workforce development support arrangements within the Council and the range of support activities offered together with their uptake.

The Learning and Development Team was responsible for commissioning and contracting training and development activities including a range of core support for providers.  Workforce planning advice and guidance, training information, guidance and signposting, funding for external conferences, seminars and workshops were also available.  For the more specialised providers, there was potential support regarding practice learning opportunities for the Social Work Degree and Continuing Professional Development for Social Workers.

The Team undertook development work locally with providers on their training requirements and engaged with them at a provider Workforce Development Forum held 4-5 times a year.

Appendix A of the report submitted provided an overview of the range of training courses, qualifications and on-line support offered to providers.

It was noted that providers carried out their own training as well as accessing those offered by the Authority.  The training provided was reviewed to ensure it was still required.

Resolved:-  That the report be noted and referred to the Contracting for Care Forum for information.

Consideration was given to a report, presented by the Finance Manager (Adult Services), which provided a financial forecast for the Adult Services Department within the Neighbourhoods and Adult Services Directorate to the end of March, 2013, based on actual income and expenditure to the end of November, 2012. 

It was reported that the forecast for the financial year 2012/13 was an underspend of £124,000 against an approved net revenue budget of £74.021M.

The latest year end forecast showed a number of underlying budget pressures which were being offset by a number of forecast underspends:-

Adults General Management and Training

·        A forecast overspend mainly due to recurrent pressures on ICT budgets

Older People

·        A forecast overspend on In-House Residential Care, further increase in demand for Direct Payments and In House Transport

·        Offset by underspends within Enabling Care, Independent Sector Home Care, independent residential and nursing care, Intermediate Care, Community Mental Health,  Carers Services and slippage on Assistive Technology and recruitment to vacant posts within Assessment and Care Management

·        Additional income from Health

Learning Disabilities

·        A forecast overspend on independent sector Residential Care budgets due to increase in clients and average cost of care packages plus loss of income from Health

·        Underspends within Supported Living Schemes due to Continuing Health Care income, use of one-off grant funding and vacant posts

·        Recurrent budget pressure on Day Care Transport

·        Increase in demand for Direct Payment over and above budget

·        Forecast overspend in independent sector Home Care

·        3 new high cost placements in Independent Day Care

·        Increase in Community Support placements

·        Use of Health funding to support overspend on SYHA residential care costs

·        Saving on premises costs and slippage on vacant posts

Mental Health

·        Projected slight overspend on Residential Care budget and budget pressure on Direct Payments

·        Overspends on employees budgets due to unmet vacancy factor and use of agency staff

·        Reduced by savings on Community Support Services

Physical and Sensory Disabilities

·        Continued pressure on Independent Sector Domiciliary Care, loss of Continuing Health Care funding for 1 client, increase in demand for Direct Payments and forecast overspend on Residential and Nursing Care

·        Offset by underspend on Crossroads as clients were redirected to Direct Payments

·        Slippage on developing alternatives to residential care provision

·        Vacant posts within Resource Centre and Occupational Therapists

·        Underspend on Equipment budget and savings due to vacant part-time post at Grafton House

·        Review of contracts with independent Day Care providers

·        Forecast savings on contracts with Voluntary Sector providers

Safeguarding

·        Underspend on employee budgets due to vacant post plus additional forecast income from Court of Protection fees

Supporting People

·        Efficiency savings on subsidy contracts offset against Commissioning savings targets not within Adult Services

Total expenditure on Agency staff for Adult Services so far was £219,672 compared with an actual cost of £253,963 for the same period last year.  The main costs were in respect of Residential and Assessment and Care Management staff to cover vacancies and sickness.  There had been no expenditure on consultancy to date.

There had been £254,303 spent up to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

- Learning Disability Service

- Ethical Care Charter

Learning Disability Services

The Cabinet Member noted the above briefing note relating to Learning Disability Services which highlighted:-

Partnership Working

Safeguarding

Performance

Day Services

Employment

Customer Feedback

Time to Care

The Cabinet Member noted a briefing note relating to the Unison report into homecare entitled “Time to Care”.

Unison had conducted an on line survey which had 431 responses from Unison members and non-members who delivered home care, undertaken in June/July, 2012.  Unison claimed the objective of the survey, consequent report and Ethical Care Charter was to establish a baseline of safety, quality and dignity of care by ensuring employment conditions which did not routinely short change clients and ensured the recruitment and retention of a more stable workforce through more sustainable pay, conditions and training levels.  It was calling for all councils to commit to becoming Ethical Care Charter.

The briefing note set out the principles of the Charter together with Rotherham’s current position which followed the majority of the recommendations in the Ethical Care Charter anyway via Contract and Specification terms and conditions applied to Independent Sector Domiciliary Care.

The Ethical Care Charter sets out a number of principles that Unison wished local authorities to be compliant with.  However the item asking local authorities to only contract with organisations who paid the ‘Living Wage/£7.45’ was not enforceable and could not be legally applied when procuring services.  The Authority could not be biased and give work to organisations who paid the Living Wage as it would discriminate against other organisations and conflict with Minimum Wage Legislation. 

Resolved:-  That consultation take place with regional partners to estimate their response to Unison’s request with a report back to the Cabinet Member prior to issuing a full response to Unison.

Resolved:-  That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972 (as amended March, 2006) (information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular individual (including the Council)). 

Resolved:-  That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended March 2006) (information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular individual (including the Council).

The Operational Commissioner reported on the current position in Rotherham for young people (16-25 years) who required emergency accommodation as they were at risk of homelessness/were homeless.

At present there was no ‘emergency access’ accommodation in the Borough outside of the statutory temporary accommodation ‘crash pads’.  Homeless Link recommended that every authority should put in place a response to emergency housing need to prevent those at risk of homelessness having to sleep on the streets or in inappropriate accommodation.

It was proposed that the supported accommodation provided at Rush House for young people, currently funded through the Supporting People Programme, be reconfigured to provide 3 additional bed spaces as ‘emergency access’.  The current 6 units would be converted and redesignated as 3 bed spaces for emergency access.  In order to not lose stages of provision or bed spaces, the current bedsit provision would remain at 9 units with a further 6 units of dispersed accommodation sourced.  The properties required would be identified in partnership with South Yorkshire Housing Association.

The emergency accommodation would be for a short period of time (10 days) with any extension decided on an individual basis.  During the length of stay, a comprehensive assessment of need and risk would be undertaken and support the Service user(s) to develop pathways out of homelessness and into the support of appropriate specialist services.

Resolved:-  (1)  That 3 additional supported emergency bed spaces, at no additional cost per annum, be provided at Rush House.

(2)  That the Supporting People Team, together with key partners and the provider, develop a Service Implementation Plan, which outlined key actions in the reconfiguration of the Service.

(3)  That a consultation exercise be undertaken with Service users and an Equality Assessment that will form part of the Service Implementation Plan.

(4)  That the current contract be extended for a 2 year period to September, 2015, thus allowing adequate time to implement and assess the reconfiguration of Service.

(5)   That Elected Members be supplied with a briefing note including all emergency out of hours contact numbers.

The Director of Health and Wellbeing submitted a report proposing an increase in charges for self-funding residents in In-house Residential Care Homes for 2013/14.

In accordance with its statutory duty, the Council was required to set a maximum charge for residential accommodation it provided in Local Authority homes.  It was proposed that the maximum charge for all Local Authority residential care homes be increased by 2.5% in accordance with the income targets applied by Financial Services to calculate the Directorate’s indicative cash limited budget.

In accordance with established practice, all charges were based on estimated cost and occupancy levels so that residents could be advised of the revised charges as near to the date they became effective as possible.

Resolved:- That the charge for In-house Residential Care Homes be increased, as now set out in the report attached, with effect from April, 2013.