Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health and the Assistant Director – Adult Social Care and Integration attended the meeting to provide a progress report on the new Adult Social Care operating structure and pathways that had been implemented in October 2019.

The report noted that the main objectives of the new structure and pathways had been to ensure a more customer focussed and responsive offer to the residents of Rotherham that resulted in reduced waiting times at the point of contact; a stronger reablement offer that enabled more people to regain independence; increased continuity of council staff involved; a simpler structure for residents and partners to be able to understand and to raise practice standards and overall performance. It was noted that once the restructure had been implemented that a 20-week coaching programme for managers had been completed in order to further develop leadership and management skills.

In introducing the report, the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health emphasised that the changes that had been implemented had been designed to ensure that services offered were more responsive and put the service user at the centre of everything that the service provided. The Cabinet Member noted the significant impact of the pandemic, that had started just four months after the implementation of the restructure, had had on the provision of adult care services, and that as such it was difficult to fully assess how far the new structure had impacted on how services were delivered.

The Cabinet Member noted that a review of the restructure had taken place in September 2020 in order to identify what had worked well, and what was not working in the way that it had been intended, so as to identify areas for learning and improvement. It was also noted that an internal audit of the restructure and pathways was currently underway and due for completion in Quarter 4 of 2020/21.

The Cabinet Member noted several areas of the new structure and pathways that were working well including:

·       The introduction of broader roles within Localities Teams has allowed staff to receive a more well-rounded experience of social care.

·       “Huddles” have enabled a forum for the teams to keep in touch and share best practice, virtually, noting that this facility had been has been invaluable during the pandemic.

·       The alignment of First Contact / Customer Contact with Reablement had been extremely positive for supporting the use of Reablement and sharing resource across the service effectively.

·       Communication within Access had improved, and it was felt there was good amount collaboration and information sharing across teams.

·       Since COVID-19, the IDT discharge process has been working well.

The Cabinet Member also noted some areas where further development and improvement were required, including:

·       Part-time term working, and certain flexible working arrangements, causing issues with the consistency of staff across teams and consequently impacting on capacity to deliver services.

·       Concerns about the capacity of managers to provide direction and leadership when much of their time was taken up with managing processes.

The Cabinet Member advised that overall, and despite the significant challenges of dealing with the pandemic that the restructure had been successful and had enabled the delivery of vital budget savings.

The Assistant Director noted the impact of the pandemic on the implementation of the restructure and on the ability of management to be able to fully asses its impact on the delivery of services. The Assistant Director advised that the pandemic had severely limited the planned activities around training and development that had been designed to support the restructure.

Members asked for further information on the ‘Huddle Board’ approach that was being used across adult care services and how it was enabling information sharing. The Assistant Director advised that the Huddle Board enabled virtual meetings to take place and for discussions to happen that highlighted areas of success and areas for improvement that then created trackable actions that could be escalated as required. The Assistant Director noted that the collaboration and best practice sharing that the platform had enabled had been very beneficial for the service.

Members welcomed the use of the ‘Huddle Board’ approach in how it enabled collaboration, information sharing, continuous improvement and for a clear audit trail for issues to be escalated. The Cabinet Member and Assistant Director emphasised the key role that Huddle Boards had played in ensuring teams worked together effectively during the challenges of the pandemic.

Members asked how the issue of staff lacking confidence in relation to their position in the new structure was being addressed. The Assistant Director noted that the scale of the restructure had been very ambitious, and that its implementation would have always been very challenging for all staff involved. The Assistant Director advised that the change created by the restructure of staff moving from very specific to broader roles had been planned to be supported by a full programme of training and development, but that the impact of the pandemic had meant that all of the proposed training had not happened as planned, and as such the level of staff confidence had been impacted negatively.

The Assistant Director noted the challenges of delivering training and of developing functioning teams virtually, but assured members that managers had been empowered to support staff and that all of the planned training would be delivered in full during Spring and Summer 2021.

The Cabinet Member noted the while anxiety and uncertainty created by the pandemic and the restructure for adult care staff was to be expected, he assured members that all staff had received support with their mental health and wellbeing throughout the period of the pandemic.

Members noted that the report referred to the Regional Peer Challenge that had taken place in February 2020 and provided an overview of its outcomes. Members noted further that it would be useful for them to see the full report and the actions that had been developed following the review. The Assistant Director advised that the peer review, the pending internal audit report and the review that had taken place in September 2020 would be brought together to develop a comprehensive action plan.

The Cabinet Member noted his thanks to all Adult Social Care staff for their work during the pandemic. The Chair, on behalf of all members of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board concurred with the comments of the Cabinet Member.

The Chair thanked the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health and the Assistant Director – Adult Social Care and Integration for attending the meeting and answering members’ questions.

Resolved: -

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    That the results of the Peer Challenge be circulated to members of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

3.    That the timeline and action plan detailing the required actions to address areas in need of improvement in the Adult Care Service be circulated to members of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

4.    That a progress report on the Adult Care - restructure and pathway development programme and the action being taken to address areas that require improvement be presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board in six months’ time.