Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2024.

b)  Matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2024 were agreed and signed as a true record.

Report of the Director of Adults and Housing

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Director of Adult Services and Housing which considered the Deferred Payment Agreement Scheme.

The report stated that the expectation of the Care Act (2014) is that Local Authorities will assist an individual to access a placement in a care home where such a setting best meets eligible care needs and based on a 12-week property disregard, will fund that placement for those first 12 weeks.

During those 12 weeks, residents with property need to make arrangements to fund their own placements from the 13th week, either by liquidating their assets or by making a formal Deferred Payment Agreement (DPA).

Although DPA’s have been available since 2015, Coventry City Council has not implemented a formal approach surrounding Deferred Payments which would have made people make a choice to enter into DPA’s or fund their own care by other means, the consequence of this has been that residents in Coventry have chosen to do neither of the above and instead the Council has continued to fund, until such time as the property is sold and the resident is able to refund the payments made.

The Head of Adult Care and Support emphasised the importance of the DPA in formalising a process that is part of the legislative framework for Adult Social Care (ASC) and for ensuring that a valuable service is provided whilst protecting the council from continued residual debt. The Cabinet and Deputy Cabinet Member agreed and further noted the DPA training that ASC is providing to staff.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Adult Services:

1)  Endorses the revised Deferred Payment Scheme for all service users having 12-week disregards ending after the 31st of March 2024.

2)  Agrees to implement the new approach to Deferred Payment Agreements.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of urgent public business.