Agenda item

Shona McFarlane, Director of Health and Wellbeing presented the submitted report in respect of the Annual Report of the Joint Learning Disability Service (JLDS).

The Annual Report of the JLDS outlined the continued strong performance of the service which linked its services and priorities to those identified within the Neighbourhoods and Adults Service’s Plan.  The strong performance had been reflected in its contribution towards:

• Care Quality Commission (CQC) annual performance rating of Rotherham Adult Social Care performing “excellently” since 2009
• LDS Partnership Board Self Assessment which was submitted in March 2010 and achieved over 30 mentions in the Regional Good Practice and Innovations Guide
• Annual Health Self Assessment further improved, achieving 3 greens and an amber on the 4 health targets, resulting in Rotherham achieving the second highest performance across the Yorkshire and Humber region.

A range of satisfaction surveys and customer feedback experiences had been conducted in the year and actions had been identified to evaluate performance and deliver increased customer satisfaction.

LDS performance had been reported by the Customer Service Excellence performance framework as being top rated at platinum 2009/10.  This had continued in the latest reporting period (July-September 2010) with satisfaction results across the board in Learning Disability achieving 100%.

Despite the overall strong performance by the JLDS in 2009-10, targets had been set which were challenging for 2010-11 aimed at achieving either benchmarked step change improvements in relation to our comparator group of local authorities or continuous improvement as a minimum, which ever was the greater.

It was noted that the annual report would be publicised via the Rotherham MBC website and formally reported through to both the Partnership Board and NHS Rotherham Board.

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

• Reference was made to the “Move on” employment which was currently running 3 days per week and a suggestion was made to look at the possibilities of this being increased to 5 days.
• It was noted that the Comprehensive Spending Review had indicated that there was a need to make 30% reduction in council budgets and a query was raised as to whether this would have an impact on the future provision.  It was confirmed that, despite these reductions, priority would be given to keeping the level of customer service high.
• Reference was made to commissioning work being undertaken in respect of learning disabilities and improving the services available.  It was noted that although there was no written document in respect of this yet there was an implementation plan in place.
• Clarification was sought about why the service was not achieving its target for ‘People supported to live independently” NI 136.  It was confirmed that Rotherham were high performers in respect of helping people to live at home, but that NI 136 was more involved and difficult to achieve.  However assurances were given that every effort was being made in order to improve the performance in relation to this.

Resolved:- That the content of the Joint Learning Disability Service Annual Report and the service objectives for 2010/11 be noted.