Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting - Online access

Contact: David Cook  01628 796560

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence received.

2.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 219 KB

To receive any declarations of interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 105 KB

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2020

 

To note the Part I minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet - on the rising of Cabinet sitting as Trustees held on 27t August 2020 and the Cabinet Transformation Sub Committee held on 22 September 2020.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2020 were approved.

 

The Part I minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet - on the rising of Cabinet sitting as Trustees held on 27t August 2020 and the Cabinet Transformation Sub Committee held on 22 September 2020 were noted.

4.

Appointments

Minutes:

It was noted that Cllr Clark had been appointed as the council’s Digital Infrastructure Champion.

5.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 76 KB

To consider the Forward Plan for the period November 2020 to February 2021

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the contents of the Forward Plan for the next four months and noted the changes made since last published, including:

 

·         School Admissions Code consultation added to November 2020.

·         York House Lease added to November 2020.

·         Affordable Housing and Accommodation added to November 2020.

·         School Places and Projections moved from November to December 2020.

 

The Lead Member for Public Protection (including parking) announced that the Parking Strategy due to be considered at this meeting was being deferred to the November 202 Cabinet meeting as they had received comments since publishing the strategy that he wanted to see if were workable.

 

Cllr Baldwin raised concern that the report was being pulled so late on without notification.  The report had been published late and members had set aside time to review it prior to this meeting, he felt it wrong that it should now not be discussed.  He hoped that opportunity would be given to consult on the proposals.

 

The Leader said that any comments could be sent to the Lead Member prior to the report being considered at the next Cabinet meeting.

6.

RESPONSE TO THE OMBUDSMAN PUBLIC INTEREST REPORT pdf icon PDF 100 KB

To note the draft section of the Adult Children and Health O&S Minutes relating to the response to the Ombudsman Public Interest Report.  Report considered available at https://rbwm.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=598&MId=7640&Ver=4

Minutes:

The Deputy Chairman of Cabinet, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health reported that this was an unfortunate incident that he had apologised to all those affected.  The report had been considered by overview and scrutiny and he wished to reiterate what had been expressed at that meeting.  This had been a regrettable incident and that improvements had been implemented.   He asked the Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning to address Cabinet.

 

The Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning informed that the actions of the Royal Borough and Optalis were the subject of a public interest report by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman on 3 September 2020. This dealt with events from 2018 and complaints that the council did not properly consider the risks of separating a couple, after 59 years of marriage, or of the husband subsequently living on his own.  There were complaints about the quality of care the council provided to them both, as well as concerns about the way in which the complainant’s were dealt with.

 

The Ombudsman upheld the complaints and found fault causing injustice and recommendations were made.    This was reported to the Adult, Children’s and Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel in September 2020.  It was unacceptable what happened and on behalf of herself, the service and the council, she once again offered her sincere, heartfelt and unreserved apologies to the family. The council was committed to ensuring that this never happens again and improvements had been implemented.

 

The first was the assessment and management of care for those in need of adult social care support.  A new assessment methodology was introduced in 2016 but it was not consistently introduced across the whole service which meant, particularly in this case, that two members of the same family were assessed in different ways.  That has been completely changed.  A fundamental review of the methodology had been undertaken with new procedures, and forms being introduced and applied across the whole service.

 

In 2019, a Quality Assurance Panel was introduced to provide oversight of packages of care.  When the worker and their manager present the package of care proposed for a resident, this Panel now requires them also to evidence what the impact of that recommendation will be on someone living with or considered to be a significant person in the resident’s life.  This is an important assurance mechanism and further mandatory guidance has also been issued in this respect.

 

All such cases that were already open to the service have now been completely reviewed by the Director of Statutory Services in Optalis.  This review is scheduled to be repeated routinely as part of the overall quality assurance arrangements in the service going forward.

 

With regards to domiciliary care it was essential that we safeguard the quality of care received and to that end, we have employed a dedicated officer within the council who is responsible for monitoring the performance of our domiciliary care providers.  Part of that monitoring also involves contacting families  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Cabinet Members' Reports

7a

Parking Strategy

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report deferred to the next meeting of Cabinet.

8.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 - EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

To consider passing the following resolution:-

 

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on items 9-10 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public were excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion took place on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 3 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

9.

Minutes

To consider the Part II minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2020

 

To note the Part II minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet - on the rising of Cabinet sitting as Trustees held on 27t August 2020.

 

10.

Cabinet Members' Reports

10a

Communities Facilities Review