Agenda item

To receive a report from the Strategic Planning Team Manager (copy enclosed) which provides an update on the findings of an evaluation of the Denbighshire Top 20 project’s first six months.

                                                                                                   10.10 a.m.

A copy of a report by the Strategic Planning Team Manager (SPTM), which provided an update on the findings of an evaluation of the Denbighshire Top 20 project’s first six months, and information on the project instigated by the Denbighshire Wellbeing Plan which had been published in December, 2014, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

 

The SPTM introduced the report and referred to the process followed by the County’s Strategic Partnership Board (SPB) in developing Denbighshire’s Wellbeing Plan, whose theme was Independence and Resilience.  She advised Members that it was too early at present to give a progress report on the entire plan, nevertheless officers were keen to seek scrutiny’s support for a project they were piloting as part of the Plan.  Under the Denbighshire Top 20 Project Well-being Plan partners worked together to support extremely vulnerable individuals with a view to prevent them from requesting unnecessary assistance from the emergency/acute services at a later stage, in the majority of cases the call on these expensive services were inappropriate. 

 

As part of the project the twenty most vulnerable individuals known to all partner organisations, for whom partners’ day-to-day services did not seem to achieve the desired outcomes or who did not meet the criteria for the services available albeit that they were in need of support in the County, would be collectively identified.  The project was also aimed at avoiding the duplication of services by working more effectively together.

 

The Committee agreed that during consideration of Appendix 2 “Evaluation of Denbighshire Top 20 Summary Report” the meeting move to PART II.

 

PART II

 

exclusion of press and public

 

RESOLVED – that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, the Press and Public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 13 of Part 4 of  Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

 

The complexities of the intervention work with these individuals was illustrated via a number of case studies, as was the effort and time required to build up a relationship with some of the individuals.  A number of barriers also needed to be negotiated between partners when attempting to support these individuals, these included the:-

 

·                 reluctance to share personal data, even though it was for the benefit of the individual;

·                 type of information held by different partners varied considerably, with some holding information on the individuals whilst others held information on addresses and not the individuals at those addresses;

 

Following consideration of Appendix 2 the meeting resumed in PART I.

 

Officers emphasised that the long term aim of the project was to save all partners valuable financial and other resources.  To do this they had to be innovative and intervene at the earliest opportunity available.  In doing this partners had to look beyond their protocols and be creative, otherwise valuable resources would be drained.

 

Responding to Members’ questions officers advised that:-

 

·                 barriers need to be broken down in order to build the high level of mutual trust needed between all partners to ensure that information was shared confidently and appropriately to facilitate early intervention;

·                 the objective of this project was not to create another structure but to facilitate joint and effective working for the purpose of supporting the individuals concerned, and to save unnecessary expense to the public purse in the long-term;

·                 the fact that North Wales Police were leading on the project helped facilitate the sharing of information and ensure that if one partner was not willing to share its information on an individual they required a valid reason for withholding it;

·                 the high level of mutual trust built via this project could only be of benefit to all partners in the long-run and would improve working relationships for the future;

·                 the project at present was only being piloted in Denbighshire, however the Chief Constable was keen to roll it out to other areas as he saw the benefits of adopting the early intervention approach; and

·                 the Wales Audit Office (WAO), who had recently audited the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) was thinking of including the project as a case study in its audit report on the CSP.

 

Prior to concluding the discussion members commented on how the ‘compensation culture’ and individuals being frightened of being falsely accused of wrong doing had now made people extremely hesitant of offering a helping hand to the vulnerable, or to children, as would have happened years ago.  It seemed as if the whole fabric of society was disintegrating, with the concept of being neighbourly and supporting people within communities being eroded.  People these days expected organisations to provide services provided within communities in the past, services which mitigate against the risk of social isolation and loneliness.  

 

Following further discussion, it was:-

 

RESOLVED – that, subject to the above observations, the Committee supports the work undertaken to date and the proposal to continue with this work, and recommended that the project:-

 

(i)              revisits its membership and its aims to ensure there is a common understanding and commitment from all partners to try creative and new approaches, and to discuss what each agency can and cannot do etc;

(ii)             considers the cost of inaction against the cost of remedying a situation when deciding on a course of action to take;

(iii)            ensures there is clarity about how multi-agency intervention can be implemented to add value to a case and if it does not work, when to cease;

(iv)           re-establishes a detailed matrix, records more descriptive actions, proactively requests nominations, provides names of nominees prior to meetings and ensure that 20 people have been identified and agreed for support;

(v)            considers a pooled budget;

(vi)           establishes an Information Sharing Protocol (ISP) compliant with the Wales Accord on Sharing Personal Information (WASPI) to resolve information sharing barriers and develop a consent form to use with individuals;

(vii)          due to its high profile understands how it will manage its messages;

(viii)        evaluates the learning from each case to date;

(ix)           seeks all its organisations to empower their representatives to make decisions, deploy resources and deviate from traditional policy and practice;

(x)            understands how its learning can inform services’ early intervention and prevention (common themes include:  loneliness and social isolation, alcohol abuse; poor community networks; high demand on evenings and weekends): and

(xi)           governance needs to be more robust.