Agenda item

To consider a report by the Service Manager: North Locality (copy attached) to update Members on progress of the implementation of Denbighshire’s Single Point of Access for Adult Social Care and Community Health Services  

                                                                                    10.20 a.m. – 10.55 a.m.

The Lead Member for Social Care (Adults and Children’s Services) introduced the report (previously circulated) to provide members with current information about the Single Point of Access (SPoA) in Denbighshire.

The Lead Member confirmed that the single telephone number for access to Health and Social Care Services had been in operation since 2014. 

The Welsh Government Minister for Health and Social Services had recently made specific mention of Denbighshire’s Single Point of Access (SPoA) service during the launch of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act at the Senedd.

The Lead Member and Officers advised that:

·       at a meeting the previous day with representatives from the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) confirmation had been received that funding was now in place for the Service for the 2016/17 financial year

·       the Service cost in the region of £660k per annum, the majority of which was funded via the Intermediate Care Fund (ICF) Grant which was awarded on an annual basis

·       now that the new locality structures were in place within the Health Board, relevant representatives would be in attendance at meetings discussing joint and collaborative working to enable the work to progress and develop further

·       the SPoA approach was now deemed to be very much day to day business in the Denbighshire area and the county was ahead of other Local Authority areas with this approach, which complied with the requirements of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act requirements.  Nevertheless, there was always room for improvement and, therefore, work was currently underway in a bid to consolidate and improve the service.  More work was required in order to integrate all health and social care support services available via SPoA

·       the Service operated on a structure of a single Team Leader, supported by 9 SPoA operators (4 of whom were Welsh speaking, and another 4 who were learning the language).  The team were now able to offer a bi-lingual seven day service.  There was also a third sector co-ordinator and co-ordinators who specialised in specific areas e.g. falls, carers, Talking Points, adaptations etc.

·       whilst the SPoA service operated on a seven day basis, weekends were not as busy as weekdays, therefore, staffing at the weekend usually consisted of one SPoA operator supported by a District Nurse.  As a result of the lower volume of telephone enquiries at the weekend, staff were able to process any service requests received from hospitals to avoid any backlog of work

·       at present the Denbighshire SPoA was the only one in North Wales that offered access to the Community Nursing Service

·       the Service was more than willing to explore the feasibility of working with any service that expressed an interest in working with it

·       the Service was based in the Council’s Brighton Road offices in Rhyl but confirmation was awaited on where the Service would be located when the Brighton Road offices were vacated.  However, the long-term plan was that the Service would eventually be permanently located at the re-developed Royal Alexandra Hospital site in Rhyl.

Responding to Members’ questions officers advised that:

·       all GP surgeries had been visited at least twice and advised of the SPoA service and information had been left at the surgeries for the attention of  members of the public.  GP surgeries could be visited again to remind them of the Service and elected Members were also requested to remind surgeries in their areas of the Service’s existence and what it could offer to patients

·       the Healthy Prestatyn Iach Centre would, in due course, be a “health hub” which could help to promote the SPoA Service

·       with respect to social isolation and loneliness, the third sector and the reablement service could also advise service-users of groups or individuals who could help and support them

·       enquiries from or regarding people with learning disabilities (LD) were currently classified under “referral route – Social Care”, however in the future, those referrals could be classified in a separate LD category

·       whilst the majority of the SPoA’s work was funded by the ICF grant, any surplus spend would be financed by the Health Board and the Council on an equal basis.

Prior to undertaking a visit to the SPoA Service, Members congratulated the Service on the progress made to date in delivering the joint services.

RESOLVED that:

(i)              subject to the above observations, to continue to support and promote the development of SPoA as a way of promoting the independence of citizens and meeting the statutory duty to provide Information, Advice and Assistance Services as required by the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, and

(ii)             that a progress report on the development of the Service be presented to the Committee in 12 months’ time, or earlier if funding for the Service becomes a concern.