Agenda item

Report of Pete Fahy, Director of Adult Services

The Board considered a report of Pete Fahy, Director of Adult Services and Housing which provided an update on the content and main provisions of the Adult Social Care White Paper ‘People at the Heart of Care’ issued on 30 November 2021.

The report indicated that the long anticipated White Paper aimed to have three main objectives to deliver as follows:

·  People had choice, control, and support to live independent lives

·  People could access outstanding quality and tailored care and support

·  People found adult social care fair and accessible.

The paper sought to address the issues of:

·  Information and Advice - more help nationally on information and advice

·  Empowerment of service users and unpaid carers - help more disabled people into employment; keeping open the possibility of allowing the public to appeal certain social care decisions; renewed push for LAs to offer more direct payments and personal budgets with associated support; and commitment to revisit the national 2018 Carers Action Plan

·  The role of Housing - increasing the supply of supported housing

·  Improving pay and conditions of care staff - the only references to helping improve the pay and conditions of front-line care were the via the 6.6% increase in the National Living Wage

·  Care market - shaping a healthy and diverse care market

·  New technology and digitisation – more alarm systems, falls prevention aids, smart devices generally in people’s homes and care homes

·  Digital Social Care Records – expectation at least 80% of social care providers to have a digitised care record in place by March 2024 that could connect to a shared care record

·  Prevention - more emphasis on whole family, whole system approaches to prevention linking closely with the newly formed Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID).

The White Paper provided greater clarity on how some on the social care reform monies announced in September 2021 were to be deployed across different areas which were set out in the report. This funding equated to £1.05bn over three years (1.65% of the total national spend on Adult Social Care for 2020/21) and was part of the £5.4bn announced in September 2021. The paper also reminded that £3.6bn from the £5.4bn announced in September 2021 was to fund the care cap and financial thresholds and to help fund the “Fair Cost of Care” for which a subsequent communication from the Department of Health and Social Care on 16 December 2021 specified the requirement for each local authority to undertake a ‘fair cost of care’ exercise with an emphasis on residential care and home support for people aged 65 and over, and produce a provisional market sustainability plan by September 2022.

The Board noted that within the White Paper a strong emphasis was placed on better data, assurance, inspection and intervention. There was indication of where the focus of CQC would be for when Adult Social Care became a CQC regulated service from April 2022 (once the Health and Care bill becomes an Act).  The report highlighted these areas which broadly covered responsibilities under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014.

The White Paper also stated that the matter of health and care integration was to the subject of a separate White Paper. No specific timescale for this was provided.

RESOLVED that the following be noted:

(1) That the aspirations of the White Paper are positive and ambitious.

(2) The resourcing to deliver these ambitions does raise a question regarding how deliverable the ambitions are in reality.

(3) The issue of pay and reward of front line care staff remains unresolved.

(4) That Social Care will be entering into a new regime of oversight and review by the Care Quality Commission likely to commence in 2023.