Agenda item

Report of the Director of Adult Services

The Board considered a report of the Director of Adult Services and received a presentation on the Adult Social Care Annual Report and Key Areas of Improvement 2020/21 (Local Account). A copy of the Annual Report was set out at an appendix to the report. The report was due to be considered by Cabinet at their meeting on 12^th October 2021. Councillor M Mutton, Cabinet Member for Adult Services attended the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The report indicated that the Adult Social Care Annual Report and Key Areas of Improvement 2020/21 described 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. It was intended to provide assurance to stakeholders that Adult Social Care was delivering its objectives and was achieving positive outcomes for residents within the resources available.

Although there was not a statutory requirement to produce an annual report, it was considered good practice as it provided an opportunity to be open and transparent about the successes and challenges facing Adult Social Care and to show what was being done to improve outcomes for those that come into contact with these services. The production of an annual report was part of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) approach to Sector Led Improvement. The Board were informed that the Government had announced an intention for a formal oversight regime for Adult Social Care to be introduced, led by the Care Quality Commission, although no detail or specific timescales have been set for this.

The production of the 2020/21 report had drawn on the pool of feedback and information that was gathered over the year from a range of sources including social care staff, Adult Social Care Stakeholder Reference Group, providers, partner organisations and people that have been in contact with Adult Social Care along with their families and carers. It reflected the performance and activities throughout the main period of the Covid-19 pandemic to date.

The Local Account also looked forward to 2021/22 and included summary details regarding key areas for improvement. These were improvements the service intended to look at to achieve better service delivery, improve outcomes for people and supporting the area’s ability to operate within the resources available. The priority was to improve care and support services for adults and in doing so to create a stable provider market for the city, within the context of the Adult Social Care reforms recently announced.

The presentation highlighted that the service spent £103.2m in 2020/21 compared to a spend of £95m in the previous year. Data was provided on Social Care during the year which included 9,902 new requests for support. 4,529 people receiving long term support. The service had an equal responsibility for anyone providing unpaid care in the city. 802 carers received formal support.

The report and presentation indicated that although the challenges presented by Covid-19 now and into the future were significant they were not the only challenges to be faced. Key challenges that were continuing to be addressed included: 

·  Increasing demand for services resulting from an ageing population. The Board were informed that in a 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 were more likely to live with multiple health conditions that required support.

·  Increasing numbers of adults with mental illness accessing long term support, with an additional impact due to Covid-19.

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

·  Challenges to maintaining sufficiency and quality of the adult social care market especially given the impact of Covid-19.

The report highlighted that, although ongoing improvement work was impacted on due to Covid-19, the changing circumstances had enabled progress to be made in a number of areas including the use of technology and promoting independence. As improvements continued to be made, the priority remained supporting people to live independently in their communities. The service would work with communities to develop the use of Care Technology to ensure Coventry residents benefitted from the growing digital opportunities presented.

Reference was made to success of Adult Social Care being increasingly intertwined with the health partners. The new partnerships Integrated Care System aimed to bring organisations together to redesign, improve support and outcomes for residents.

Work was ongoing to improve and develop a Performance Management and Quality Improvement Framework, which sought to ensure a single approach to understanding how well services were doing, checking impact, outcomes, and learning from findings to guide improvement plans and actions to support. Moving forward service wide development work and models of support would be framed on the following four areas:

·  The Promoting Independence Model

·  Accommodation Offering Care and Support

·  Locally Based Support

·  Digital Technology and Innovation.

The report detailed the work being undertaken in these areas.

Attention was drawn to the work that would be required to implement the reforms for Adult Social Care announced on 7 September, 2021 would be extensive and therefore likely to require significant resource to implement.

Members questioned the officers on a number of issues and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  Support for the report including the inclusion of individual stories

·  Support and thanks for all Social Care staff for all their outstanding hard work during the Covid pandemic

·  The requirement to put pressure on the Government to ensure adequate funding for social care, now and in the future, especially in light of the increasing demand for assistance

·  How confident were officers that providers would be able to cope with the increasing demands for care support while maintaining standards

·  Concerns about the uncertainty of future funding

·  A suggestion that consideration be given to the wider circulation of the excellent report

·  Support for all the carers in the city.

The Board noted that the Cabinet Member for Adult Services had recently written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to highlight concerns about the uncertainty of future funding for social care.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The contents of the presentation be noted.

(2) Cabinet be informed that the Board endorsed the excellent report, thanking officers for their work to continually improve Adult Social Care services and expressed concerns about the uncertainty of the future funding of Adult Social Care.

(3) The Board’s thanks be conveyed to employees and carers involved with Adult Social Care for all their outstanding hard work during the Covid pandemic.

(4) Consideration to be given to the wider circulation of the report including copies being made available in local libraries.

(5) A copy of the recent letter sent to Savid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regarding the Social Care Reforms – the Building Better Fund be sent to the Board members.

(6) In due course, consideration be given to having a report at a future Board meeting concerning the work being undertaken with health partners considering opportunities to do things differently to prevent hospital admissions.