Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

The Board considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People) on the Adult Social Care Annual Report and Key Areas of Improvement 2018/19 (Local Account) which detailed the performance of Adult Social Care and the progress made against the priorities for the year. It also provided specific examples of the operational activities to support service users and carers. The report was aligned around the Adult Social Care values and principles. A copy of the report was attached at an appendix to the report. The report was due to be considered by the Cabinet at their meeting on 8^th October. The issue had been discussed at length at the Board’s workshop which had taken place earlier in the day. 

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 Annual Report had been structured around the ten themes that contributed to the Adult Social Care vision and provided a commentary on what had been done to make progress against each of the themes.  It also provided real life examples of how Social Care had impacted on individuals to improve their lives.

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.

Some of the key challenges being addressed included:

·  Increasing demand for services resulting from an ageing population.  Based on current forecasts in the next decade, by 2029, the City should expect to have an additional 8,900 people aged over 65 and an additional 2,000 people aged over 85.  This group of people are more likely to live with multiple health conditions that require support.

·  Increasing costs of care because of external factors including National Living Wage, increases to employer pension contributions and the increased complexity of the care and support needs that people are experiencing.

Taking action to address these challenges was a key focus within Adult Social Care and a set of activities were in place to make progress against this as well as achieving further service and cost improvement.  Therefore, as well as a summary of 2018/19 performance the Local Account included summary details regarding key areas of improvement by 2019/20, which had four key themes:

·  Deploying strength based social care approaches as standard practice

·  Ensure the Council’s promoting independence approach is applied for all people who come into contact with Adult Social Care.

·  Improve service productivity by focussing on improving the self-service offer so people can play a greater role in managing their own care and support needs.

·  Ensure delivery models are as effective as possible which includes making better use of what is available within communities to support people.

The Board questioned the officers on a number of issues and responses were provided.  Matters raised included:

·  The possibility of including an article in Citivision regarding the Local Account to highlight the excellent work being done.

·  Comparative data with other local authorities as Coventry has a lower spend.

·  How many residents contact Adult Social Care but then don’t access services.

·  How many agency staff and permanent employees are working in social work teams.

·  Summary of how well the system works for people leaving hospital.

·  The impact of Government funding in relation to short term care.

RESOLVED that the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5) note the content of the report and indicate that they have no comments or recommendations for the Cabinet.