To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received by Cllr M Airey, Cllr Diment and Cllr Lenton.  Cllr Story attended as a substitute.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To approve the part I minutes of the meeting held on July 21^st 2016.

Resolved unanimously: that the minutes of the meeting held on 21^st July 2016 were approved as a true and correct record subject to Sheila Holmes being added as in attendance.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

The Panel reviewed the Cabinet report regarding the Council’s financial performance to date in 2016-17.  The Panel were informed that there was a projected £418k underspend on the General Fund.  The Council had a Development Fund balance of £1.104m bring reserves to £6.198m which was above the minimum £5.27m set by Council.  Details of performance by directorate were included in section 4 of the report.

The Panel were informed that the report also contained a recommendation to approve a £113k S106 capital project for Porny School and the removal of £195k capital budget no longer required for the satellite grammar school feasibility project.

For the Directorate there was a projected outturn figure of £57.4m against a budget of £57.3m this overspend was a reduction of £32k reported to Cabinet in August.

With regards to Adult Social Care the Panel were informed that there was a budget overspend of £161k this was made up of:

·         Services for older people – homecare: - £173K

·         Service for older people – residential:  - £122K

·         Services for people with a Learning Disability:  + £374K

·         Income: - £100k

·         One Ordinary residence case: + £200k

·         Other: +£9K

Cllr Jones questioned how the projected £416K overspend on page 12 related to the above figures in the presentation and was informed that the overspend related to learning disability and mental health problems were there were a small number of high cost placements whose care requirements changed, a delay in the de-registration of homes and the adjudication of an Ordinary Residential dispute.

Cllr Jones also questioned if the requirement to have agency workers impacted on the figures and was informed that although they did have to employ agency staff to cover some key posts the cost did not go over the FTE.

Resolved unanimously: That the Adult Services & Health O&S Panel reviewed the Cabinet report regarding the latest financial update and unanimously approved the recommendations.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

The Panel considered the Cabinet report showing proposed savings for the 2017-18 budget.  The report highlighted that the Medium Term Financial Plan had identified the need to make savings of £5.6m in 2017-18.  Some of the proposed savings would be subject to further reports to Cabinet for approval.  The final savings proposals would form part of the budget build and be presented to Council.

The Panel were informed that Corporate Services O&S Panel had raised concern that report summary point three and the recommendations implied that officers and Lead Members would be able to implement saving proposals without any formal scrutiny proses.  At that meeting Members were informed that they would discuss concerns raised by the Panel with Cabinet Members and seek to alter the recommendations.

With regards to commissioning Adult Social Care and Health the main saving proposals were:

·         Efficiencies in Operational Commissioning - £28k

·         Savings to the pan-Berkshire Chlamydia screening contract -£31k

·         Direct Payment efficiencies - £46k

·         Self financing of homeshare service - £50k

·         DAAT – implementation of Task & Finish group recommendations - £150k

Sheila Holmes (Healthwatch WAM) asked for clarification regarding the direct payment efficiencies and was informed that this related to individuals who wished to commission their own care and as the BCF funded part of the funding via links to the CCG there was an opportunity to recover payments no longer required.

The Panel were informed that there was also £75k proposed savings for commissioning business support and this related to an ongoing vacancy and management post being deleted.

With regards to Health and Adult Social Care saving proposals the Panel were informed that these totalled £453k via:

·         Additional income from financial assessment AA/DLA - £335k

·         Improved commissioning of Best Interest Assessors - £7k

·         Outcome based commissioning savings from fixed price contract - £80k

·         Review of block contract for care services -£31k

Cllr Story asked for clarification on the attendance allowance element of the proposals and was informed that when the Care Act came into force allowances received could be taken into account when assessing income.

Cllr Jones questioned the contract savings and was informed that officers were negotiating the price paid for those needing intensive care; there would be the same provision but at a reduced cost.

Resolved unanimously: that The Adult Services & Health O&S Panel reviewed the Cabinet report regarding savings proposals for the 2017-18 budget.  The Panel were informed that the Corporate Services O&S Panel had already considered the report and had recommended changes to the reports recommendations.  The Panel agreed with the CSOSP recommendations that:

(i)            Note the savings listed in Appendix A for submission to Council in the 2017-18 budgets and authorise officers to undertake work on proposed schemes where approval would be subject to any subsequent reports  to Cabinet between October 2016 and January 2017 to allow them to be included in the 2017-18 Budget report to Council.

(ii)          Authorises Strategic Directors in agreement with Lead Members to develop requirements to  implement savings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

The Panel considered the Cabinet report that provided a review of the benefits that had been delivered for borough residents in the first year of the Homecare contract together with the benefits expected in the second year of the contract.

The Panel were informed that Cabinet had decided to  move to a new way of commissioning homecare services. Instead of homecare being delivered to do things for people an outcome based service was put in place to enable residents to regain or maximise their independence and help them stay in their homes for longer.

Table 1 of the report showed the progress made to date and it was noted that 35 residents had been helped to gain their independence due to the initiative, a case study was provided as an appended Part II document. Further expected benefits of the contract in year two were shown in paragraph 2.1 of the report.

Cllr Coppinger reported that it was a stable and successful contract that enabled residents to stay in their own homes for as long as possible. It was not a quick fix and the transition to allow a person to be more independent could take a long time.

Cllr Hollingsworth mentioned that the report said the Council had no exposure to the living wage due to the contract and asked if this meant their staff were not being paid a living wage.  The Panel were informed that the contract meant the responsibility to cover any pay increases due to the living wage was down to the provider and not the Council as it was a fixed price contract.  The contract had also improved the pay and conditions for careers as they had received a pay increase and they were paid for their travel to clients.

Sheila Homes mentioned that it would have been useful to have the views of the customers on the new arrangements. The Chairman asked for feedback from users to be brought back in future update reports.

Resolved unanimously: That the Adult Services & Health O&S Panel reviewed the Cabinet report regarding the one year review of outcome based homecare and fully endorsed the recommendations.   The Panel felt it was a very positive report but recommended that the Part II case study could have been better presented to highlight the benefits of the scheme.

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 the remaining items on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 4 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: 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 8-10 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.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

To note the Part II appendix.

To note the Part II appendix.