Agenda item

Report of Pete Fahy, Director of Adult Services

The Board considered a report of Pete Fahy, Director of Adult Services, concerning key areas of activity within Adult Social Care which supported the covid-19 effort and identified key areas of focus as a result of this.

The report indicated that the Covid-19 pandemic impacted on all areas of Adult Social Care, both in terms of the provision of direct care and support, Occupational Therapy, Social Work and back office operations that supported delivery. Key areas of activity undertaken to help ensure people that required support from Adult Social Care continued to have access included remote working and use of technology. Wherever possible assessment, support planning, enablement, review and safeguarding activity was undertaken remotely. Although this remote working became the normal way of doing business, face to face visits were undertaken where the level of risk and ability to manage this through remote working was not sufficient. Risk assessments and Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) were used to manage these situations.

The City Council’s response to shielding those identified by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) as being the most clinically vulnerable was led through Adult Social Care.  A partnership arrangement was quickly established with CV Life who provided the support required through a combination of food parcels, medication delivery and social contact. This effort was also supported by Coventry City of Culture Trust and City Council Library staff. This local support supplemented what was available through the national support programme. Operation shield was being paused at 31 July 2020. As at 14 July over 14000 people had been contacted and offered support by CV Life. The City Council’s Customer Contact Centre also established a vulnerable persons helpline to support residents with vulnerabilities who were not in the shielding cohort.

Coventry was one of seven local authorities who activated the Care Act easements introduced through the Coronavirus Act 2020 on the basis of depletion of staff and changes in demand. This occurred between 28^th April and 29^th May 2020. The report detailed the duties that were eased during this period. No complaints or challenges were raised as a result of the easements.

The Board were informed that supporting the care market had been a significant focus of work over this period. It was an area that was critical to the effective delivery of social care at all times and an area that operated in a very challenging financial environment characterised by high turnover, high levels of recruitment activity, increasing demands and relatively low levels of public recognition. It is also made up of numerous separate businesses who were contractors to the City Council and not under direct organisational control.  Working with and supporting the market wherever possible had been a cornerstone of the Council’s approach for several years and this approach had been more important than ever in the respond to Covid-19. The report detailed the specific support actions over this period.

It was a significant point of credit to providers of social care in Coventry that they managed to sustain services and continued to take new referrals over this period.  At the depth of the pandemic there were only six care homes who were unable to take new admissions – this was significant in the Council’s ability to continue to support people who require care home admission over this period.

The report also referred to the significant effort of the home support providers. At 14^th July adult social care supported 2405 people at home compared to 759 in residential care and 218 in nursing care.

Reference was made to rapid hospital discharge. At the start of the pandemic Adult Social Care worked with Health colleagues to achieve the objective of freeing significant numbers of hospital beds.  From a staffing perspective there were volunteers to cover the required social work capacity to support a 7 day a week 8am to 8pm model for the required period. The aspiration for 95% of patients to go home was achieved and had been sustained.

As Adult Social Care moved forward with Covid -19 still around, there were four specific areas for focus in terms of the ongoing response: support to carers; service reinstatement; workforce support; and resourcing. The report set out the relevant issues for each of these areas.

The Chair, Councillor Caan expressed his thanks for all the work currently being undertaken by Adult Social Care.

RESOLVED that the contribution and efforts of Adult Social Care to support residents of Coventry over the Covid-19 period to date be noted and supported.