Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 25^th September 2025

b)  Matters arising

Report of the Director of Care, Health & Housing

The Cabinet Member for Adults Services considered a report of the Director of Care, Health and Housing on the annual representations received 2024-25.

Officers stated that Adult Services has a statutory duty arising from the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009, to provide a system for receiving comments, compliments and complaints from people who use its services, or those acting on behalf of them. There is also a duty under the regulations to produce and publish an annual report. The report (attached at appendix 1) set out the details of the representations received across Coventry’s Adult Services in 2024/25. It highlighted the service improvements and learning from feedback and included information on future developments in complaint handling and reporting. Appendix 2 to the report set out the complaints handling procedure.

The Director added to the report by providing a valuable context, recognising that receiving such a low number of complaints for such a large service could be conceived as a cause for concern. However, the number of queries dealt with daily by Adult Social Care (ASC) staff are not captured within the statutory report. The Cabinet and Deputy Cabinet Members, Councillors L Bigham and D Toulson, agreed recognising how slight increases in statutory complaints indicates the attention paid listening to service users.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Adult Services approves publication of the Council’s Annual Representations Report in relation to Adult Social Care for 2024/25 as attached as Appendix 1 to the report.

Report of the Director of Care, Health & Housing

The Cabinet Member for Adults Services considered a report of the Director of Care, Health and Housing that provided an update to Adult Social Care performance for quarter three 2025/26, alongside actions in place to improve performance and proposed next steps.

Adult Social Care performance is measured in line with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) national Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) and this performance is reported nationally at year end. Adult Social Care (ASC) also measures a series of locally defined indicators, which are reported to the Adult Social Care Management Team on a quarterly basis.

The report updated the Cabinet Member on the quarter three performance, provided a summary of key changes and improvements, and outlined actions in place to improve performance and proposed next steps. It also provided an opportunity for the Cabinet Member to provide comment.

An appendix to the report outlined the ASCOF figures for each of the four domains and indicators set out in the report, demonstrating the quarter three improvement of key areas in comparison to 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 figures. Directional arrows were displayed to summarise performance compared to previous years against these indicators. It also provided a useful comparison between Coventry City Council’s figures and those at a regional and national level.

The Cabinet Member was provided with a detailed assessment of the variations in the ASCOF figures and the work undertaken to gradually improve every indicator figure. One key figure that saw a reduction compared to previous years were DoLS (Deprivation of Liberty Standards) applications waiting to be allocated to a BIA (Best Interests Assessor) and median waiting times for DoLS to be allocated a BIA. Officers explained that this was due to an efficiency move to conserve resources and bring Coventry in line with other local authorities.

The Cabinet Member was also updated on the engagement work being undertaken for both service users and care providers including practitioner events and ASC surveys. The Bridget app also continued to grow in usership, and improved partnership working was underway at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW).

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Adult Services notes and endorses the action taken in relation to the Adult Social Care quarter three 2025/26 performance including the next steps as outlined in the report.

There are no outstanding issues.

There were no outstanding issues.