Agenda item

Briefing Paper from the Strategic Director of Adult Care, Housing and Public Health

As part of the Board’s ongoing oversight of the Adult Social Care Improvement Plan and Budget Monitoring, the Strategic Director of Adult Care, Housing and Public Health submitted an update on progress and the current position. In presenting the report, the Strategic Director reflected on the significant challenges facing adult care in Rotherham and the broader challenges arising from pressures which were common across the country. These challenges had arisen from the need to change approaches to service delivery and government driven austerity through the ongoing reductions to the Revenue Support Grant, which was impacting on all Council services.

Of the 19 key areas of accountability that were contained within the improvement plan, Members noted that:-

·         8 had progressed onto become routine activity

·         9 now formed part of the MTFS project plans either directly or as an enabler to delivery

·         2 had become the focus of additional input

·         All actions had been captured within routine activity or form part of the new Medium Term Financial Strategy project plans.

Having received an overview of the current position of the service, Members asked for an outline of the critical milestones to successfully deliver the savings required and how they would be managed. In response, the Strategic Director explained that she chaired a Project Assurance meeting on a fortnightly basis where all programmes were reported to. Furthermore, daily reports on progress were monitored to ensure that there would be no slippage in meeting the required savings.

Members further sought assurances that plans were in place to get the adult social care workforce in a place where they could deal with complexities in service delivery. In response, the Strategic Director confirmed that there had been a number of very positive sessions with frontline staff. Furthermore she reiterated the importance of understanding and applying the law in adult social care, which meant there were multiple areas that social workers had to be mindful of in discharging their responsibilities. The focus on this, coupled with increasing confidence to manage challenge, would be ongoing in further sessions with managers and social workers. However, it would take time to embed the changes and it was anticipated that it would likely take up to two years.

Members referred to the market shaping role that the Council has through the Care Act and the current mixed approach to service delivery in the borough. The Strategic Director explained that the authority engaged with the private sector in a formal setting already, albeit on a regulatory basis. It was noted that there were a lot of national providers operating in Rotherham who brought a lot of good practice with them. The service was working with national experts and Voluntary Action Rotherham to facilitate an understanding of what is required from market locally and how to start a conversation on shaping the offer to meet the requirement.

Members referred back to the Council’s role in providing training and the significant investment that the authority had made and continued to make to develop the wider market. Noting the need to review the provision of that training, Members queried the risk of care homes closing if staff had not received appropriate training. It was explained that the amount of training provided was far too high and was a legacy of decisions in the past, but ultimately responsibility was with the employer to train staff, not the authority. The Strategic Director confirmed that she would be happy to come back to Members on this when a review had been undertaken.

The transition from Children’s Social Care to Adult Social Care remained a priority for Members and clarification was sought in respect of when further transitions would be projected to occur. The Strategic Director confirmed that officers were currently working on that.

Reviewing the budget position, Members queried how many interims were in post within the service. The Strategic Director confirmed that there were interims who had been covering fully funded vacancies. Discussions were ongoing to transition those interim staff as permanent employees of the authority. In addition, there were also agency social workers, which had been funded through the Better Care Fund, which was not a guaranteed source of future funding and it would not be prudent to appoint permanently for such roles.

The Chair thanked the Strategic Director for her attendance and the frank responses provided to Members questions.

Resolved:-

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    That the Principal Social Worker be invited to attend a future meeting where the Improvement Plan is being reviewed.

3.    That mitigations against risks associated with the cessation of training for care homes be identified prior to any decision to cease the provision of training.