Agenda item

To consider an update report (copy enclosed) on the conclusions and outcomes of the review into Denbighshire County Council’s in house Work and Day Opportunity services for adults with Complex Disabilities.

10:05 – 10:45

In the absence (due to personal reasons) of both the Chair and Vice-Chair of the In-house Adult Social Care Task and Finish Group the Head of Community Support Services introduced the report (previously circulated). The report presented the findings of the review of the Work Opportunity and Day Activity Services for adults with complex disabilities. He advised that the Task and Finish Group had recently considered the review’s findings and were in agreement with the conclusions drawn and the recommendations put forward.

During the review it had become apparent that the services provided to people with complex learning disabilities were valued by service-users, their families and carers, and that a number of them wanted to see the services improve and develop.  The Review had concluded that:

• Meifod Wood and Garden Control Services would both benefit from being operated as social enterprises as this would enable them to grow and develop into businesses in their own right, which would broaden the experiences on offer to service-users;
• Popty Catering Services should remain as part of Community Support Services but capitalise on an opportunity available to re-locate to space available at Denbighshire Leisure Limited’s new headquarters in Denbigh, where a purpose built kitchen could be installed for the Service.  That relocation would enable Popty to develop into a work experience placement service and also assist the Service to further explore the viability of retaining the sandwich provision service within Denbighshire Leisure Limited;
• it would be beneficial for  Job Finding to transfer into the ‘Working Denbighshire’ Service.  In doing so it would be able to take advantage of the connections and experience of a dedicated employment support service and
• Y Bont and the Golden Group would benefit from amalgamating as one single service, re-locating from Canol y Dre to a purposely refurbished area within County Hall in Ruthin.

Responding to members’ questions the Head of Service advised that:

·         the Task and Finish Group was supportive of the proposals having received assurances that those individuals working within Popty would continue to be able to meet and socialise with other colleagues currently based with them in Canol y Dre, as a number of them attended other work opportunity services on other days;

·         it was estimated that refurbishment work to accommodate the relocation of services to both County Hall and Denbigh would cost in the region of £120K - £150K.  It was anticipated that this cost could be funded in part through a successful application to the Intermediate Care Fund (ICF) and to the Council’s own Strategic Investment Group (SIG).  There should also be sufficient funds available to offset the cost via the capital receipt that would be available upon the sale of the Canol y Dre building;

·         there would be no gap in service provision to current service-users during the transition period, there may actually be an overlap as the transition would be gradual with service-users being introduced to their new surroundings using a phased familiarisation approach;

·         architects and other specialists would be engaged to design appropriate washroom and rest facilities at County Hall to meet service-users’ needs and

·         developing Meifod Wood and Garden Control into social enterprises would open up opportunities for both services and help ensure that sufficient staff capacity would be available to cover sickness leave etc.

Committee members were keen to visit the current services delivered from Canol y Dre, Meifod Wood and Garden Control and the Head of Service agreed to facilitate the visits.  The Committee:

Resolved:  to report to Cabinet, that

      I.        it had read, understood and taken account of the Well-being Impact Assessment (Appendix 1) as part of its consideration;

    II.        subject to the above observations, it supported the intention to relocate four services (Popty Catering Services, Y Bont, Jobfinding and The Golden Group) and to combine Y Bont and the Golden Group into one co-located service; and

   III.        it recommended for approval the proposal to explore the setting up of social firms relating to two activities currently being carried out by the Service, namely Meifod Wood and Garden Control