Agenda item

Report and presentation of the Director of Adult Services

Adrian West, Members and Elections Team Manager, read out a statement from the Cabinet Member for Adult Services, who had had to give her apologies. She commended the annual report to Members of the Board and congratulated those Officers who had brought the information in a very ‘readable’ format.  She hoped that the Board agreed that the report showed that the Council are going in the right direction with satisfaction levels increasing and as the case studies show the Council has a lot of dedicated people around. She continued that there were no surprises with the result of the Peer Review and the Council were working towards further improvements in the Service. The issue around better housing provision was valid, but unfortunately, the Council were restricted due to funding. She welcomed any suggestions and feedback from Scrutiny Board.

The Board received a presentation from Pete Fahy, Director of Adults and Marc Greenwood, Head of Business Systems, on the Adult Social Care Annual Report 2019-20 and the Outcomes of the Peer Challenge.

The presentation covered the following areas:

·  Annual Report 2019/20 – highlights, including information on expenditure, transitions from Childrens Services to Adult Social Care, requests for support, and data on carer assessments. The Annual Report also covered Safeguarding data, including information on Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards which the Board heard were due to be amended, but this would be delayed due to Covid-19 until March 2022. It was explained to the Board that an increase in reporting of safeguarding concerns was considered to be positive as this reflected a better awareness of safeguarding issues. The Annual Report also included Impact Stories using real examples, as well as findings from a survey with users of Adult Social Care.

·  Performance summary and progress - The service continued to have a lower rate of people in long term support per population than that of comparator organisations. Contributing to this was a lower number of new requests for support and a higher proportion of these receiving short term support.  There had been an increase in admissions into nursing/residential care and people going straight into long term support for the 18-64 age group. Activity indicators maintained the same performance as the previous year, with a positive reduction in new admissions into nursing/residential care for those aged 65+. Quality indicators were broadly comparable.  There was a declining yearly trend in people feeling they have as much social contact as they like and people who use services feeling safe.

·  Progress since the previous 2018/19 Annual Report -A Strength-based Practice Framework was in place and was being embedded. This had been supported through ongoing training and practice development e.g. Motivational Interviewing. A new front door model had been put in place, with greater input from Therapy rather than Social Work as a way of ensuring the “Promoting Independence” pathway as the first offer. This model had now been introduced in the Mental Health Service. The introduction of Financial Assessment digital tool had removed the requirement for home visit assessment and offers easier access and had improved service productivity and effectiveness, including the option for ‘self-service’

·  Requirements of COVID-19 had led to the ceasing and alternative provision of some services. New operating models had been supported to enable infection control and prevention, and additional support has been offered via Carers Trust to ensure carers can continue to provide essential care and support

·  Coventry chose 2 Key Lines of Enquiry for the Peer Challenge which took place 3rd – 5th March 2020. The Key lines of enquiry were ‘What else could be done in order to reduce our levels of residential admissions and support people in their own communities?’ And’ can the peer challenge team advise how we might improve promoting independence further and tell us what opportunities for improvement exist through working closer with internal and external stakeholders?’

·  Areas for consideration following the Peer Challenge were:

o  Developing our commissioning approach – in conjunction with the voluntary and community market create diverse provision, utilising assets

o  Involvement, co-design, co-production – commission from this position

o  Have a holistic approach to transformation – think One Coventry

o  Connect to the council wide One Coventry ambition e.g. re-invigorate the delivery of integrated care with Health

o  Review our accommodation and support offer

o  Have a Digital Strategy aligned to corporate approach

Address patient/service user flow through the system to reduce residential care and increase personalised care

·  Progress since the peer challenge:

o  People – demonstrated through creation of new roles at Front Door, Community Broker, closer working with health partners, e.g. Place Programme Board, data sharing

o  Process – demonstrated through the transfer of Brokerage into Commissioning

o  Structures – demonstrated through the partnership working commenced during the pandemic – data sharing and forums joining up partners more closely

o  Culture – adoption and embedding of strengths-based practice, agile and remote working

o  Technology – adapting to increased digital use e.g. ASC early organisational adopter of MS Teams (drives the transformation but requires the 4 elements above to adapt to make change happen)

·  Improvement Priorities

o  Our Promoting Independence Model

o  Accommodation offering care and support 

o  Locally Based Support 

o  Digital Technology and Innovation

·  Plans for the next 12-months

o  Managing the ongoing impact of Covid-19

o  Service development including Use of technology; Delivering enhanced support to carers; Community and voluntary support; Accommodation offer; Continue the restoration and remodelling of face to face services including day opportunities

·  Co-production and Engagement. The current model used an Adult Social Care Stakeholder group which had a new Let’s Talk Platform to enable wider reach. There was also a real-time feedback survey as well as work with community partners and most importantly co-production at an individual level. Future plans included creating a Let’s Talk Adult Social Care Future Plans platform, more accessible communication materials, to engage with wider forums, share proposals and seek feedback from carers via the Carer’s Bulletin and making engagement with providers quick and easy.

The Board questioned officers and got responses on the following aspects of the presentation:

·  Staff had sufficient PPE available and the city’s supply was robust. Contact had switched from pre-lock down of 90:10 face to face to remotely, to 30:70 post Covid regulations.

·  Staff were working closely with care homes to support tablet technology to enable the public to connect with people in care homes.

·  Officers were pleased to see honest user feedback through the peer review however negative comments do not reflect the majority view.

·  Work with Public Health services had been good, so there could have been some lack in clarity on the question asked by the peer review which led to a comment about working with Public Health could be improved.

·  Work with Public Health in care homes has been excellent offering advice and guidance, as well as with the CCG on infection control. Care homes have been supported with access to testing and there has manged to be a low number of outbreaks in care homes.

RESOLVED that the Adult Social Care Annual Report for 2019-20 be endorsed and the Board’s thanks be conveyed to the officers for their excellent work to continually improve Adult Social Care services.