Agenda item

The Interim Strategic Director of Adult Care and Housing, presented an update on the work that had been undertaken to date and set out the scale of the challenge and the need to invest in an integrated approach to improve the Authority’s offer for Community Assets in Rotherham.

As part of the Adult Social Care Development Programme, there had been a specific piece of work around Community Assets which had formed one of the five key areas of work within the Programme.  The Community Assets Board consisted of a multi-agency approach and was responsible for delivering on the required outcomes for Adult Social Care. 

Frank Markham, Enabling Services, gave the following powerpoint presentation:-

Thriving Communities

-          Under the Care Act, a move from assessing people for services and packages of care to assessing how the local authority could improve their outcomes for leading a quality life

-          That must entail utilising community assets to provide people with the opportunity to “thrive” and not just “survive”

-          Our obligation is not met when we put in place homecare to address a need arising from an inability to do a daily living task

-          We have to go beyond this but not through using even more resources but using community assets and services and resources provided by other organisations

-          We can achieve this by working in partnership and improving our offer to customers which gives them more choice and control over their lives

-          To achieve the outcome of Thriving Communities we need to have a rich mix of activities within our communities and encourage participation and engagement from all

Information Sharing

-          So we know we need to improve the way we share information and get smarter at what we do

-          We know that we have lots of activity within Rotherham and lots of good practice but we are not very good at sharing our information

-          Over the last seven months Adult Social Care have concentrated on looking at what Rotherham has to offer in respect to community groups, voluntary groups and what the use of the assets we have

Our aim is for a seamless system but at the moment this is what we hold:-

-          Lots of data about activities within communities in different formats and different systems

-          We cannot continue to operate in a fragmented way – it is not helpful to officers and does not provide the best services for the citizens of Rotherham

How do we move forward?

-          By having an integrated approach and investing in one system that holds all information including a visual element

-          We need to share information between colleagues and partners and take ownership for keeping our information up-to-date and then promote this with our customers and citizens of Rotherham

-          The report set out what we want to achieve and why

-          The scale of the task needs to be acknowledged and we will be appointing officers to start this piece of work within the next few weeks (Information and Advice Officers)

Discussion ensued on the report and presentation with the following raised/clarified:-

·           There should be a corporate approach to community assets.  The Community Assets Board was one of the project boards under the Adult Social Care Development Programme and had representation from across the Council, Health Services, the third sector and community groups.  There was a commitment to ensuring Members were at the forefront as they had the links and the knowledge

·           Really good links had started to be built with the Social Prescribing Team at Voluntary Action Rotherham and within the Council.  It was recognised that there was a need to build on that work.  Corporately, isolation and isolation had been mapped and will start to layer so know where to target and focus energies

·           It would be useful for Members to have access to the overarching directory to provide input as well as gain information.  Once the Link Workers and Information Advice Workers were in post it would be helpful for them to report back to the Board

·           The software purchased for the MASH would provide an integrated approach and the sharing of data between Children’s, Adults, Health (including GPs) and Mental Health Services.  It was hoped to also build Connect to Support into the system

Councillor Roche, Cabinet Member, Adult Social Care and Health, agreed with the integrated approach to community assets as being the way forward and there had been a series of meeting between the various Directors.

He also shared concerns about the software purchased which was initially being run in Children’s Services and would then be shared with the other Directorates

Resolved:-  That the report and actions to date be noted.