Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 19^th July, 2017 were signed as a true record. There were no matters arising.  

Report of the Adult Safeguarding Board

Joan Beck, Chair of the Adult Safeguarding Board has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

The Board considered a briefing note on the Annual Report of the Coventry Safeguarding Board for 2016/17. A copy of the Annual Report was set out at an appendix to the briefing note. The Annual Report was introduced by Joan Beck, Chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board. Councillor Abbott, Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Councillor Ali, Deputy Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport attended the meeting for the consideration of this item. The Annual Report was due to be presented to the Health and Well-being Board at their next meeting on 16^th October, 2017.

The Coventry Safeguarding Adults Board was a multi-agency partnership made up of a range of organisations that contributing towards safeguarding in Coventry. The Board was required to publish an annual report and business plan. The report summarised the key messages for the year and included the business plan which enabled the Board to plan upcoming work. The annual report also included performance data for the year which was monitored on a quarterly basis by the Board. The annual report was a key way of raising awareness of the issue of safeguarding adults.

Joan Beck informed that during the year the Board had embedded the principles of the Care Act in practice and improved the way in which people were safeguarded in a personalised way. Learning from review of practice had continued and steps had been taken to ensure that this learning extended to providers who were contracted to provide services. The focus on listening to members of the public had been renewed through a new engagement plan. There was an acknowledgement that more needed to be done in this area. For 2017/18 the focus was to be on responding to what members of the public say about their experience of safeguarding issues, so building awareness of safeguarding in communities and empowering communities to be safe places for everyone to live

The Board noted that the annual report also outlined the new strategy for 2017/18. By becoming more outwardly focussed this would ensure that adults with care and support needs received the best safeguarding service from agencies across the city. 

The Board questioned the Chair of the Adults Safeguarding Board on a number of issues relating to the Annual report and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  Concerns about non-attendance at Board meetings by certain partner organisations

·  The suggestion of the inclusion of additional information on the contribution to the work of the Board from the partner organisations in the annual report for 2017/18

·  Further information about engagement plan and the new ways of listening to the public, and how the different initiatives would be monitored

·  Concern about a lack of detailed information in the report on the Board’s statutory responsibilities, the Task and Finish Groups and their outcomes, and whether outcomes were positive or negative. A concern that the document was not clear for members of the public to understand

·  The suggestion that the real life stories contained in the report needed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

The Board considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People) and received a presentation on the Adult Social Care Annual Report 2016/17 (Local Account) which detailed the performance of Adult Social Care and the progress made against the priorities for the year and specifically considered examples of the operational activities to support service users and carers under the ten themes of the Adult Social Care Vision. A copy of the report was attached at an appendix to the report. The report was due to be considered by the Cabinet Member for Adult Services at her meeting on 5^th October and Councillor Abbott attended the meeting for the consideration of this item. Councillor Ali, Deputy Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport was also in attendance.

The report indicated that it was considered good practice to produce an annual report as it provided the opportunity to be open and transparent about the success and challenges facing Adult Social Care and to highlight what was being done to improve outcomes for those who came into contact with Adult Social Care.

The production of the report had drawn on feedback and information gathered over the year from a range of sources including social care staff, Partnership Boards, Adult Social Care Stakeholder Reference Group, providers and people that had been in contact with Adult Social care. The report was aligned around the Adult Social Care values and principles.

The presentation provided a brief overview of Adult Social Care covering overall purpose, strategy, budget, activity, performance, and working with health. The presentation also identified areas of development which the Board could have involvement with.

The Board were provided with an understanding of Adult Social Care including the Adult Social Care Vision. Reference was made to the basic operating model which highlighted the key stages in the customer journey which took into account the Care Act and statutory duties. Budget and expenditure for the past five years were set out along with the comparison spend of neighbouring local authorities and the regional and England average spend on Adult Social Care for 2015/16. 

Attention was drawn to the total number of people supported and to the average number of caseloads for employees. A summary of trends indicated that across the service the number of people receiving support was fairly stable, reducing slightly; people were generally more dependent so the amount of support required while they were living at home was higher; the cost of services was increasing, e.g. living wage; and the cost of residential and nursing home care was increasing resulting in the Council paying more enhancements to ensure suitable placements.

Information was provided on recent performance with a comparison with other West Midlands Authorities. Figures for Coventry for 2016/17 showed an improvement against 14 indicators, static across 4 and a decrease in 8. The presentation also referred to the workforce, the workforce strategy and annual implementation plan was being finalised and there was a focus on workforce planning, professional development and practice quality  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Report of Liz Gaulton, Acting Director of Public Health

The Board considered a report of the Acting Director of Public Health and received a presentation on the Coventry Drug and Alcohol Strategy 2017-2020, a copy of which was set out at an appendix to the report. A copy of the Drug and Alcohol Strategy Action Plan for 2017-2020 was tabled at the meeting. Councillor Ali, Deputy Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport attended the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The report informed of the Drug and Alcohol Strategy for 2017-2020 and updated on the progress made to address drug and alcohol misuse against the previous strategies. Alcohol and drug misuse was a significant issue for individuals and communities alike with the harms being complex and wide ranging. The Coventry vision, to reduce the harms caused by alcohol and drug misuse making Coventry a healthier, wealthier and happier place to live, linked to all three of the priorities within Coventry’s 2016-19 Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

The report provided information about the numbers of residents drinking alcohol and taking drug in the city. Although the number of people using alcohol and taking drugs was reducing nationally and locally, the needs of alcohol and drug users were becoming increasingly complex and there was a strong link between high risk substance use and deprivation.

The Board were informed that the development of the city’s Drug and Alcohol strategy coincided with the recommissioning of drug and alcohol recovery services in the city. As drug and alcohol was a cross-cutting issue requiring a multi-agency response, the three year strategy was developed by and involved partners and covered a wide range of issues. It covered both young people and adults and had three strategic priorities:

i) Prevent people from taking drugs or drinking harmful levels of alcohol and intervene early to minimise harm

ii) Support those with drug and/or alcohol problems and those with multiple complex needs

iii) Promote sustainable recovery and enable people to live healthy, safe and meaningful lives.

The strategy was to be reviewed on a quarterly basis by the Drug and Alcohol Strategy Steering Group which included representatives from the partner organisations. The Steering Group reported to the Health and Wellbeing Board. The report highlighted the main milestones to be met in the first 12 months.      

The presentation set out how the three priorities of the strategy were to be achieved; informed of the future drug and alcohol recovery services model; highlighted the overarching system objectives and provided information on governance.

Members raised several issues arising from the presentation and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  Clarification about the support available for other family members when an individual has alcohol and or drug issues

·  How were young people represented on the Steering Group

·  A suggestion that health needed to be added to the licensing objectives

·  Whether there were particular problems that were specific to the city.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The report summarising the actions to date on the Coventry Drug and Alcohol strategy be noted.

(2) The Coventry  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Report of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Board noted their work programme for the current year.

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved

There were no additional items of public business.