Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Town Hall - Maidenhead

Items
No. Item

22.

Apologies for absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Mark Jervis, Tony Wilson and Councillor Johnson.

23.

Declarations of interest pdf icon PDF 217 KB

To receive any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

The Chairman declared an interest that he was a trustee of an organisation that would let some of its rooms to a college that was mentioned in the Ofsted report.

24.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 92 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on September 19th 2019.

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY; That the minutes of the meeting held on 19th September 2019 be approved an accurate record.

25.

Adult Social Care Transformation Programme pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To consider the above titled report.

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY; The Panel agreed to amend the order of items, with the first item to be considered being Item 7. It was also agreed that Item 5 – Budget 2020/21 would then be the next item considered before proceeding with the rest of the items on the agenda.

 

Councillor Carroll, Lead Member for Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health, said that the report was looking at how to transform the Adult Social Care service. There were some pressures that had to be considered, particularly as there was an ageing population. There was a greater focus on prevention and community, especially with regard to isolation and mental health.

 

Hilary Hall, Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning, said that the programme was structured around six work streams. The focus was on delivering strengths based practise and harnessing technology to utilise it in the best way possible.

 

Councillor Story asked for clarity on the residents and communities that were mentioned as part of the outcomes for the programme. Hilary Hall said that it involved a wide variety of groups, including parish councils, and underlined that listening to the community was vital as partnership was important to delivering services.

 

Councillor Story asked if the integrated care system was a formal structure. Hilary Hall explained that it was and that the Royal Borough was a key partner in the Frimley Integrated Care System along with the other East Berkshire local authorities and health organisations.

 

The Chairman asked if people were slipping through the net. He was told that it was always a challenge to ensure that no one was left behind but it was anticipated that the strategy would meet the challenge. A further question asked about the timescale for the programme. Hilary Hall said that it was a transformation and therefore things would change over time. It was unlikely the programme would have a ‘final stage’.

 

Councillor Hunt queried the recruitment and training of staff, and asked if the programme was using agency workers. Hilary Hall said that there was not a huge number of agency staff, but in other areas they were struggling to recruit, for example in care homes.

 

Councillor Da Costa agreed that recruiting could often prove to be challenging but that is was good that the programme was using providers that use the living wage. She asked if there would be an external evaluation of the programme. Hilary Hall said that some evaluation would be done by the programme board and some by the Panel.

 

Councillor Da Costa asked a further question about dementia and what the future plan was. Hilary Hall said that it was a real issue and as part of future proofing they had an ambition to ensure that residents were living healthier for longer.

 

Councillor Carroll said that there was a prevention theme in the programme and that the government had recently passed a green paper about prevention, which would soon be moving to white paper, showing that there was a significant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

26.

Budget 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To review the proposed Budget for 2020/21 and to make recommendations to Cabinet.

Minutes:

Councillor Story said that the Panel had a direct responsibility for vulnerable people and that two of the changes that had been made in the proposed budget were applicable to the directorate.

 

Before the main debate on the item, the Chairman invited two members of the public to speak on the item. Janet Hayes-Brown explained that her son had a disability but had benefitted from ‘Ways into Work’ which had helped him gain a job. The service provided ongoing support for those that were part of the scheme, and there was concern that the budget cuts would affect the level and quality of the service that Ways into Work provided.

 

Becky Beechen, who was representing Ways into Work, explained to the Panel that funding was needed to continue to provide employment opportunities. RBWM had been closing the disability employment gap and support had been provided to over 90 participants on the programme. A reduced workforce would not be able to provide the same level of support and service as before and this would directly affect the opportunities available.

 

Councillor Carroll, Deputy Chairman of Cabinet, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health, said that the council was not looking to remove things that were already there and was looking instead to transform and change existing services. He said that it was important to still deliver a good quality of service to residents but to also gain value for money.

 

Councillor C Da Costa asked if the changes that had been made would therefore have been made anyway. Councillor Carroll said that they would have due to the financial pressure that the council currently found itself in. He passed on his gratitude for the work that Ways into Work had done but said that the strategy was to consider which services needed to be outsourced. By working with Opatlis, RBWM could save money while still providing the same high level of service as Ways into Work.

 

Hilary Hall said that they wanted to work with Ways into Work and form a close partnership.

 

Councillor Story stated that he would like to know more about the youth and early services that the council provided, as well as placements for children.

 

Kevin McDaniel, Director of Children’s Services, said that placements are covered by third party providers to look after children in care. They were focussing on work which would help to promote independent living and they were optimistic that the amount of money spent could be streamlined.

 

Councillor C Da Costa said that it was important that young children in care were ready and well equipped to live independent lives.

 

Kevin McDaniel confirmed that Ofsted had recently undertaken a standard inspection to ensure that children were achieving the expected levels and the result of this inspection would be available towards the end of February. He also told Members that a Cabinet paper would be created which would be a consultation on how RBWM could combine services into a ‘family hub’. This  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

27.

Ascot Medical Centre

To receive a presentation giving a progress update on the Ascot Medical Centre.

Minutes:

Hilary Hall informed the Panel that she would provide an update on the Ascot Medical Centre. Construction started in January, with a 25 week build scheduled. There was going to be significant investment in technology at the site and it would be aligned with the Ascot Plan. Hilary Hall said that Alex Tilley from the Clinical Commissioning Group was happy to meet with Members to discuss the centre further.

 

Councillor Hilton, Lead Member for Finance, said that in this ward there were two GP surgeries in the same building which could create savings and be more cost efficient. Hilary Hall said that occupation was not for a while after construction had finished and therefore there was scope to influence what services were provided in the centre, including creating a hub for the people of Ascot.

 

The Panel decided that an update on the Lynwood Clinic would be put on the work programme and considered at a future meeting.

28.

Q2 Performance Update Report pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To note the contents of the report.

Minutes:

Hilary Hall introduced the report and explained that most of the indicators were on track. One was red, four were orange and the rest were green. In Q3, the results had significantly improved, this included things like the performance on delayed transfers of care where performance had dipped due to the loss of a domiciliary care provider, but was now back on track.

 

The Chairman asked if there was anything that had not been highlighted that the Panel should be aware of. Kevin McDaniel said that there was nothing that he would draw the Panel’s attention to but they looked at a huge amount of data in the creation of the report.

 

Councillor Bond asked if all areas of public health were covered in the report. Hilary Hall said that it covered public health in its entirety but a few key themes had been picked out. They were measured by Public Health England.

 

The Chairman suggested that it could be possible to organise an extra meeting to analyse the content of the report, particularly areas of public health. Councillor Carroll said that it could be done in collaboration with the NHS and members of the Health and Wellbeing Board could be invited.

 

The Panel noted the report.

29.

Ofsted and CQC Inspection Report

To note the contents of the report, including the SEND revisit inspection.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Kevin McDaniel explained to the Panel that the last Ofsted report was in 2017 which had discovered significant weaknesses in certain areas. In the 2019 report, 6 of the 8 areas that had been identified as weaknesses had made significant progress. The leadership at the school had now tackled the issues that they had previously faced. The Department of Education would take over checking progress, which would happen every six months.

 

The Chairman said that it was pleasing to see that progress had been made between the two Ofsted reports.

30.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 70 KB

To consider the Panel’s work programme for the remainder of the Municipal

year.

 

To include consideration of items scheduled on the Cabinet Forward Plan.

Minutes:

The Panel agreed that the following item would be added to the work programme:

·         Update on Lynwood Clinic

 

It was agreed that the Annual Scrutiny Report would be discussed in a separate working group, which would be arranged in due course.

 

The resident suggested scrutiny topic was deferred to a future meeting.