Agenda and minutes

Cllr Mr P Wood, Ashford Borough Council; Cllr Mrs C Mayhew, Mr A Chequers, Gravesham Borough Council; Mr A Kemp, Swale Borough Council; Mr P Dosad, Dartford Borough Council and Mr D Miekel, Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT.

(1)   The Minutes of the meeting held on 20 December 2007 were agreed as a true record.

(2)   Cllr.Mrs Anderson referred to paragraph 9 (3) of the Minutes and re-stated her view that the Commissioning Body should look to encouraging having more elected members serving on it.

Declarations of Interests. (item 3)

There were no declarations of interests made but Cllr. Mrs Anderson stated her view that the Commissioning Body should have more elected members serving on it.

– Report by Director – Resources, Kent Adult Social Services)

(1)       This report provided data on all aspects of Performance Management in the Kent Supporting People Programme.

(2)       During the course of discussion, it was agreed that in future an explanation of the way client groups are put into the bands A, B and C would be included within the glossary.

(3)       Following further discussion, the Commissioning Body noted the contents of the report and agreed the target for Kent Performance Indicator 1 at 98% for the forthcoming year.

– Report by Director – Resources, Kent Adult Social Services)

(1)       This report provided information regarding the response of the Administering Authority to the Audit Commission report on Inspection of the Supporting People programme which was undertaken in September 2007.

(2)       In order to ensure that the response to the Audit Commission fully reflected the views of the programme’s partners, an extraordinary meeting of the Core Strategy Development Group was convened on 15 January 2008, to which Members of the Commissioning Body were also invited.  The discussion from that meeting formed the basis of a draft action plan upon which the response to the Audit Commission was based.  The grading from the Audit Commission, of good with promising prospects, is seen as a success for the programme in Kent and compares very favourably with like authorities, particularly when taking into account that the programme was reviewed at the end of the audit process during which the bar had been raised as the Audit Commission developed its understanding of the programme.  Achieving the action plan would require the continued support of both the Core Strategy Development Group and the Commissioning Body.

(3)       Following discussion, the Commissioning Body:-

(i)         noted the contents of the report to the Audit Commission;

(ii)        agreed to support the delivery of the Action Plan and therefore the Audit Commission’s recommendations; and

(iii)       that the Supporting People Team report to the Commissioning Body on a quarterly basis on progress against the targets.

 – Report by Director – Resources, Kent Adult Social Services)

(1)       Following notification of grant allocations from the Department of Communities and Local Government, the Supporting People team had revised the five year forecast.  Previous indications were that the implementation of the proposed Supporting People Distribution Formula could have resulted in a reduction in funding from £32m to £28m over a period of time.  However, the indicative figures for the current Comprehensive Spending Review period indicated that Kent would receive £32m in each of the next three years.

(2)       During the course of discussion, the Commissioning Body discussed in particular a proposal that the Supporting People Programme should match fund the Handyperson services in West Kent over the next three years.  Caroline Davis said that the East Kent and Coastal Primary Care Trust has put in a bid to fund the Handyperson services in East Kent over the next three years.  That bid would need further development which would be undertaken in discussion with Supporting People colleagues.

(3)       Some Members of the Commissioning Body said that it was difficult to determine funding provision for a Handyperson service in West Kent without knowing whether that was going to be matched by a similar service in East Kent.  Following discussion on this point it was agreed that the recommendation in respect of this matter should be amended, on the basis that both PCT’s should be approached about funding Handyperson schemes.

(4)       During further discussion, Caroline Davis said that she had recently attended the meeting of the Kent Public Service Board at which papers relating to LAA Governance was submitted and said she would arrange for these to be forwarded for information to Members of the Commission Body.

(5)       Caroline Highwood said that the cumulative value of the recommendations detailed in the report was some £4m in 2008/09.  By far the biggest proportion of that money was for floating support services across the county.

(6)       Subject to the proposed amendment to the recommendations put forward during the course of discussion on this item, the Commissioning Body agreed as follows:-

(a)       additional floating support be commissioned to impact on waiting lists in the A,B and C bands;

(b)       the PCT’s be approached to provide funding towards Handyperson schemes; and should this not be agreed, the Commissioning Body support direct funding to enhance these;

(c)        that the funding identified for accommodation-based services should be tendered for as floating support and converted into accommodation-based services as the services come on stream;

(d)       that service user qualifications and involvement in monitoring and review should be funded via the main grant; and

(e)        that an approximate figure of just over £4m be applied to achieving this in 2008/09 and subsequently in 2009/10 this being subject to tendering where relevant and appropriate and further financial scoping of the recommendations.

(f) In agreeing to these recommendations, Members of the Commissioning Body noted that the figures given in Appendix 1 of the report did not include the impact of the one-off  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

– Report by Director – Resources, Kent Adult Social Services)

This report gave information regarding the involvement of the Kent Supporting People Programme in the second Local Area Agreement.  Following discussion, the Commissioning Body agreed that the target negotiated with the Government Office for the South East on National Improvement Indicator 141 be a 5% stretch applied to available base line data.

– Report by Director – Resources, Kent Adult Social Services)

(1)       At the meeting of the Commissioning Body held on 10 September 2007 it was agreed that the Supporting People Team would carry out a market testing exercise across the county on current community/social alarm services for older people.  A consultative group consisting of local Emerging Role of Sheltered Housing Members was formed to aid discussion.  This group met on three occasions to assist in the putting together of the Alarm Service Specification, a copy of which was attached to the Commissioning Body report.  Further negotiations would be undertaken with providers to better understand and isolate the true cost of alarm provision to inform the work of the Commissioning Body in determining an appropriate cost But that was not to make any change to any services currently relied upon by current recipients but to allow clarity for future provision and for the Supporting People Programme to pay for legitimate costs of providing a community alarm. It was agreed that the Commissioning Body would form a subgroup of members who were not contracted to provide alarms to determine the appropriate cost of funding alarms, and that a recommendation would be taken back to the Commissioning Body in June relating to the appropriate unit cost that would be applied to all providers.

(2)       Following discussion, the Commissioning Body noted the contents of the report.

– Report by Director – Resources, Kent Adult Social Services)

(1)       This report detailed a Private Finance Initiative Bid to provide a seven unit accommodation based service in Thanet for people with a diagnosed mental health problem.

(2)       Following discussion the Commissioning Body agreed with a statement made by Oliver Mills that in agreeing to support this scheme, the Commissioning Body should place on record that this decision was not to be seen as setting a precedent and this should be made clear to the Mental Health Commissioners.

(3)       Subject to the Mental Health Commissioners being advised that agreement to this proposal was not to be seen as setting a precedent,  the scheme be funded at a guide price of £87k per annum.

– Report by Director – Resources, Kent Adult Social Services)

(1)       This report detailed an application to the Commissioning Body for one off funding from the Supporting People Grant to aid the provision of Extra Care and Supported Housing under the Better Homes – Active Lives Housing Primary Finance Initiative.

(2)       Whilst during the course of discussion on this item, support was expressed for the development of this accommodation, concerns were expressed that the Commissioning Body was not legally empowered to approve any contributing expenditure.  It was therefore agreed that any approved expenditure would be subject to clarification of the legal position.

(3)       The Commissioning Body therefore agreed to approve the expenditure of £355k to facilitate the Supported Housing Project as detailed in the report, but this was to be subject to clarification of the legal position.

– Report by Director – Resources, Kent Adult Social Services)

(1)       In 2005 the Government’s policy “Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People” set out a new vision for the services that support disabled people.  It proposed that by 2012 all disabled people would control their own individual budget.  A Self-Directed Support steering group has been set up within Kent Adult Social Services with the purpose of overseeing the development and to advise on the implementation of the Self-Directed Support in Kent Adult Social Services.  Self-Directed Support was a key principle that was supported by Central Government and Kent Adult Social Services and, if individual budgets are to be implemented they would have strategic and operational implications for the Supporting People Programme.  Because of this, a further report would be presented to a future meeting once the national evaluation of the pilot sites have been published.

(2)       The Commissioning Body noted the contents of this report.