Agenda item

Anne Marie Lubanski, Strategic Director, Adult Social Care, Housing and Public Health, and Jo Hinchliffe, Service Improvement and Governance Manager, Adult Social Care, to report

Jo Hinchliffe, Service Improvement and Governance Manager, gave the following powerpoint presentation:-

-               Rotherham’s Adult Social Care Pathway put the person at the centre of everything the Service did

-               On 21^st October, 2019, a new of working was introduced to ensure a consistent, robust and sustainable Pathway; work with carers was defined via a “sub-pathway” and in March 2020 plans were shared with the Board explaining how the Service anticipated it would deliver a Carers Programme

-               The Covid pandemic had had a significant impact on the proposed programme timeline.  This had meant that partnerships had to be every stronger to ensure carers were fully supported in the most difficult of situations

-               Due to Covid

·            Unpaid Carers Group utilised to be the Carers Programme Project Group

·            Review of the Carer Strategy - reschedule the review work for end of Quarter 2 with a new timeline and resource plan

·            Young Carers – action shifts into Quarter 3

·            ASC Pathway:  process mapping/assessments consistency checks – some work has occurred within ASC as a result of Covid

·            Carers Centre – Review/Impact Assessment – Impact Assessments moved into Quarter 2 and building subjected to the council’s recovery principles.  Need to define the building base offer for carers.  The Crossroads Carers Hub demonstrates the support for carers from business partners and the Council

·            Information Officer – scoping work partner conversations – Covid impact needs exploring – different ways of working and engaging virtually

·            Assistive Technology – the use of digital tools – Zoom/Teams – has also enabled a wider reach with carers and the Service was capturing the learning within the ASC Digital Solutions Project Group

·            Getting things back on track – programme refresh August 2020

-               How we will progress a summary

·            We are mapping the carer experience and ensure the carers programme addresses any gaps

·            We are ensuring effective communication processes are in place to fully support carers

·            We are refreshing our understanding of the profile of carers in Rotherham in the light of Covid-19

·            We are inviting representatives from the Unpaid Carers Group to become members of the Carer Programme Project Group

·            We are continuing to progress the Carers Grant Work

-               Other Considerations

·               The Carers Strategy review work began at the end of September 2020 and would result in a new Strategy scheduled to launch June 2021 which still meant the Service was within the timeframe of the existing Strategy lifespan

·               As a result of the response to Covid, some work had occurred around the mapping of services and the ASC Pathway; this would continue and result in a refresh of the Policy and guidance by December 2020

·               As per the Government guidance and in line with Council recovery principles, the Carers Centre was not currently accessible.  Work would be undertaken to plot out the recovery activity needed.   A strategic review and impact assessment of the facility commenced at the end of September, the findings report due by December 2020

·               To support carers through the Covid-19 crisis, a Carers Information Pack had been produced by the Council and signed-off by partners.  This work was being maximised and the Service was looking to expand this approach and think about ways of increasing digital connectivity and skills for carers.  This would be alongside all the traditional options for sharing and communicating information, advice and guidance

·               The programme would be subject to check and challenge via the ASC Project Assurance Meeting and would feed into the Health and Wellbeing Board each quarter

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

-               Pleasing progress with the Unpaid Carers Group which now had representation from the Partners, Forum, Carers Forum and REMA

-               It was a difficult piece of work in terms of trying to collate information with regard to the new carers that had been revealed through the pandemic.  Meetings had taken place with Age UK, Crossroads and Active Independence, who  had formed a partnership called Active Solutions.  They all had their own internal ways of capturing who they worked with through their Charity Log; the Council had a Key Performance Indicator for carers as well as work through CCG and Health colleagues.  Consideration was to be given as to how the information could be collated from the third sector perspective.  There was a need to be smarter as to how the information was captured. 

-               Of the £50,000 Carers Grant approved by the Cabinet, approximately £23,000 had been issued.  There had 123 referrals of which 9 had not been suitable for the Grant but Crossroads Care had referred then onto the Carers Trust Grant

Resolved:-

(1)  That the presentation be noted.

(2)  That the next quarter progress update include information as to the capturing information with regard to the carer profile. 

ACTION:-  Jo Hinchcliffe