Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Gwyneth Kensler expressed a personal interest in Item 6, Revenues and Benefits Partnership Agreement.

Councillor Jason McLellan expressed a personal interest in Item 7, Communities First in Denbighshire.

No urgent matters had been raised.

To receive Minutes of the Partnerships Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 24 November 2016 (copy attached).

9.35 a.m. – 9.40 a.m.

The minutes of the Partnerships Scrutiny Committee held on 24 November 2016 were submitted.

Members were advised that confirmation had been received that the Supporting People Grant to the county would not be cut for the 2017/18 financial year.

At this juncture the Chair commended the detailed minutes.

RESOLVED that the minutes be received and approved as a correct record.

To consider a report by the Principal Manager (copy attached) to provide information about partnership arrangements within community health and social care services to monitor and address delays in arranging transfer of care, in particular from hospital.

9.40 a.m. – 10.15 a.m.

The Chair welcomed the Lead Member for Social Care, Adult and Children’s Services, Councillor Bobby Feeley, Phil Gilroy, Head of Community Support Services, Cathy Curtis-Nelson, Principal Manager, Operational Services and Alison Kemp, Assistant Area Director of Community Services – Central (Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board) to the meeting

The Lead Member for Social Care, Adult and Children’s Services, introduced the report (previously circulated) to provide information to Members regarding partnership arrangements within community health and social care services to monitor and address delays in arranging transfer of care, in particular from hospital.

The Lead Member advised that delayed transfer of care (DTOC) was a subject that had received extensive media coverage for some time and was a complex, multi-agency issue.  In a bid to find a sustainable solution to one of the factors that contributed to this problem representatives from Denbighshire and Conwy Councils together with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board had held a three day summit in December, to which independent care providers had been invited, to scope out the extent of the problems which health and social care services were likely to face going forward.  Each individual authority would need to devise sustainable solutions to some of the pressures identified, other solutions would require two or more partner organisations to work together to resolve.  The Head of Community Support Services  advised that pressures identified at the summit included:

·       A shortage of nursing home beds and domiciliary carers in certain geographical areas;

·       A shortage of care providers who could provide complex care packages e.g. ‘double-handed’ care, particularly in the south of Denbighshire;

·       A lack of trained nurses to work in a health care setting;

·       A shortage of people who wanted to work in care services

The outcomes of the above event were due to be reported to all North Wales Chief Executives in due course.  It was evident that a multi-faceted approach would be required in order to deliver sustainable solutions and the Welsh Government (WG) required to resolve the issue of cost sharing for health and social care services.  The Locality Teams already included cluster teams within hospitals which worked intensively with patients with less complex needs, to aid their recovery and safe discharge from hospital.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s (BCUHB) Assistant Area Director of Community Services – Central advised that:

·       The development of Extra-Care housing facilities would help ease pressures;

·       recruitment in all sectors of health and social care had, and continued, to be a problem;

·       There was a need to better manage people’s expectations and consequently improve outcomes for individuals;

·       As people now lived longer there was a need to have adequate support to help them live independently for longer, as this improved their quality of life.  To facilitate this, health and social care services required to work far better with the independent sector to commission support services from them;

·       From April 2018 Health and Social Care Services would be required to pool care budgets.  For this to work effectively and efficiently to improve outcomes for the individual, it would require the local authority and the Health Service to adopt a robust cohesive strategic approach;

·       The ‘What Matters’ conversation approach would be key to delivering health and social care services in future.  There also needed to be a cultural change in the approach taken by health and social care staff to move away from delivering ‘dependency’ services to delivering services that promote and support the individual’s independence.  It was acknowledged that this was difficult as both health and social care workers were instinctively ‘carers’ and therefore wanted to care for the service-user.

Responding to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

At this juncture (11.05 a.m.) there was a 15 minute break.

The meeting reconvened at 11.20 a.m.

To consider a report by the Contracts and Performance Manager (copy attached) to review the Authority’s partnership with Civica in the delivery of Revenues and Benefits services to Denbighshire residents.

10.15 a.m. – 10.55 a.m.

The Chair welcomed the Lead Member for Finance, Corporate Plan and Performance, Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Richard Weigh, Head of Finance, Paul Barnes, Contracts & Performance Manager, and Debbie Basham (Civica) to the meeting.

The Lead Member for Finance, Corporate Plan and Performance, introduced the report (previously circulated) for members to review the Authority’s partnership with Civica in the delivery of Revenues and Benefits services to Denbighshire residents.

The Lead Member advised that the report was presented to the Committee in accordance with Cabinet’s wish that the Committee reviewed the partnership’s performance 18 months after its establishment.  In his introduction the Lead Member detailed the partnership’s governance structure and the progress achieved to date with respect of the following areas:  new business/commercial opportunities, service delivery, financial expectation and Welsh language provision – all of which were detailed in the report.  He advised that the Service since its establishment:

·       had assisted some English authorities by undertaking some work on their behalf in order to ease pressures on them; and

·       all of the efficiency savings had been achieved.  Some of the savings had been utilised for the purpose of upgrading Civica’s accommodation in Russell House to accommodate the ‘Elwy Centre’.  It was envisaged that these modifications would support Civica’s ambition to attract new business.

Due to uncertainties in Wales on local government re-organisation, progress in relation to expanding commercial opportunities with other local authorities had been slower than originally anticipated.  Nevertheless, it was hoped that this would be an area for growth in future, now that local government re-organisation was unlikely to take place in the short to medium term.  Discussions were at an advanced stage with respect of potentially delivering the Revenues and Benefits Service for one North Wales local authority in future, and other authorities had shown an interest in services that could be provided from the Elwy Centre.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member, Head of Finance, Contracts and Performance Manager and Civica’s Partnership Director:

·       confirmed that the number of complaints against the Revenues and Benefits Service had not increased since Civica had assumed responsibility for delivering the Service.  During 2013/14 39 complaints had been lodged against the Service, 17 in 2014/15 and 20 during 2015/16.  The general trend in the number of complaints was downwards;

·       advised that the provision of service was generally regarded as being of good quality;

·       informed the Committee that there had been no changes to protocols or to information sharing practices between the Council and Civica or vice-versa;

·       confirmed that part of the rationale for establishing the Partnership was to streamline staff numbers.  Nevertheless, no staff had been made redundant.  The new open-plan layout for the Elwy Centre assisted managers in their role of managing staff.  Personnel who had transferred from the Council to Civica had all done so under Transfer of Undertakings of Protection of Employment (TUPE) arrangements;

·       advised that the agreement between the Council and Civica specified that Civica occupied its current space in Russell House rent free. However, if Civica’s business were to grow as expected and it required more floor space within the building rent would be charged for the additional space;

·       informed members that whilst there seemed to be increased interest from local authorities. It was also exploring potential options which may arise from the devolvement of tax-raising powers to the Welsh Government (WG);

·       confirmed that the provision of revenues and benefits services through the medium of Welsh was a stipulation of the contract between the Council and Civica.  Currently work was underway to promote the new Welsh language standards, and Welsh language classes were provided to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider a joint report by Communities First and the Strategic Planning Team Manager (copy attached) to provide an update of the possible phasing out of the Communities First programme.

11.10 a.m. – 11.50 a.m.

The Chair welcomed the Lead Member for Customers and Libraries, Councillor Hugh Irving, Heidi Gray, Strategic Planning & Performance Officer, Rhys Burton, Programme Manager, Communities First and Gavin Roberts, Cluster Manager, Communities First to the meeting.

The Lead Member for Customers and Libraries, who was also the Anti-Poverty Lead for the Council, introduced a report (previously circulated) which detailed the progress made during the 2015/16 and the first two quarters of 2016/17 with the Communities First programme in Denbighshire.  He advised that the Co-op Group had been appointed by the Welsh Government to administer the Communities First programme throughout Wales and that the WG’s Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children had announced in October 2016 that the programme may be phased out and replaced with a ‘new approach’ for building resilient communities.  Consultation on a proposed ‘new approach’ had recently concluded and the Cabinet Secretary was expected to announce his preferred approach on 14 February 2017.  Members were advised by the Lead Member that the Council was aware of the risks associated with the potential withdrawal of the Communities First programme, but until such time as the Cabinet Secretary announced his final decision on any future approach, the Authority would continue to work in partnership with the programme.  Council officers had met with WG officials in late 2016 to discuss the potential impacts of the programme’s loss to Denbighshire’s most deprived communities. During that meeting it had become apparent that funding would be available for three posts:  an Adult Mentor, Young Persons’ Mentor and a triage (front line) worker associated with the Communities 4 Work programme.  Conwy County Borough Council had expressed an interest in working in partnership with Denbighshire in relation to the latter post.  The viability of a partnership approach for this role was currently being explored.  The Council’s Tackling Poverty Group was currently closely monitoring developments with respect to future funding of deprived communities.

The Lead Member introduced two representatives from the Co-op Group to the Committee, Mr Rhys Burton (Communities First Programme Manager) and Mr Gavin Roberts (Communities First Cluster Manager), both of whom detailed the contents of the Co-op Group’s report, attached as Appendix 1 to the report, including the revised data for the second quarter of 2016/17.  They advised that due to long-term sickness in the Health Data Team the data relating to health activities was still in the process of being updated.

Responding to members’ questions the Co-op’s representatives advised that:

·       approximately 70% of the Communities First funding of £660K for the North Denbighshire cluster for 2016/17 was spent on staffing costs.  Taken on face value this did seem excessive, however the type of work undertaken was very labour intensive as staff were attempting to engage with hard to reach groups and many of the individuals with whom they worked required a lot of intensive support.  Office rental costs etc. were minimal.  Some money had been paid out towards the costs of projects, but the WG’s criteria for the use of the money was very prescriptive;

·       the Communities First programme was targeted at hard to reach individuals with a view to building their confidence and enhancing their skills to get them ready to enter the jobs market.  Its work was totally different to that of other agencies i.e. enterprise agencies which were geared more towards supporting entrepreneurs to establish their own businesses.  Therefore the numbers supported by Communities First at any given time were low because of the amount of sustained support required ;

·       a representative from Communities First served on the Council’s Tackling Poverty Working Group;

·       some of the Communities First funding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To consider a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (copy attached) seeking a review of the committee’s forward work programme and updating members on relevant issues.

11.50 a.m. – 12.00 p.m.

A copy of a report by the Scrutiny Co-ordinator, which requested the Committee to review and agree its Forward Work Programme and provided an update on relevant issues, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

A copy of the “Member’s proposal form” template had been included at Appendix 2, Cabinet’s Forward Work Programme had been included as Appendix 3, and a table summarising recent Committee resolutions and advising on progress with their implementation had been attached at Appendix 4.

The Committee considered its draft Forward Work Programme for future meetings.

6 April 2017

North Wales Safeguarding Boards deferred from January 2017 meeting.

Pooled Budgets to be added to the Agenda.

22 June 2017

The Scrutiny Co-ordinator confirmed that the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs group had met recently and it had been agreed at the meeting that Partnerships Scrutiny Committee be requested monitor the Denbighshire Carers Action Plan 2017-19 and the item should therefore be added to the Forward Work Programme for 22 June 2017.

The next meeting was to take place on 2 March 2017 and all Lead Members would be requested to attend.

An update had been requested at the previous Partnerships Scrutiny Committee meeting on Tawelfan.  The final reports were not expected be available until early summer.   It was agreed to continue to monitor the progress via the regular updates given to the BCUHB meetings, which were publicly available.

RESOLVED that subject to the above, the Forward Work Programme be approved.

To receive any updates from Committee representatives on various Council Boards and Groups.

12.00 p.m. – 12.10 p.m.

None.

The meeting concluded at 1.05 p.m.