Minutes:
Miss C Highwood, Director, Strategic Business Support, was in attendance for this item, with Mr A Webb, Policy Officer.
1) Miss Highwood presented a series of slides which set out the timetable of Bill, summarised its content and implications for KCC. Slides are appended to these mins as Appx X. She and Mr Mills answered questions of detail put by Members, explaining the following:-
a) Miss Highwood had been working closely with the Department of Health to clarify the impact of the Bill on Kent and to test on what assumptions the provisions of the Bill had been based. Via this close working, she had been able to make the Department of Health aware of Kent’s views and concerns in advance of it sending its formal response to the consultation;
b) the Department of Health had asked for early outline responses by 26 January, although the statutory deadline for responses was 23 February. Members’ views expressed in today’s meeting would be included in the draft response, which would be debated by Cabinet on 1 February;
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c) a major complication of the new proposals was the large number of unknowns, and complications to the way KCC assessed services, e.g., it would need to predetermine which services received by a client were to be charged and which not charged before it could set that client’s personal budget;
d) in considering and responding to the proposals, Members would be given KASS guidance and support to ensure that they understood the context of them and their implications for Kent, and what efficiency savings would be needed to compensate for the financial implications of delivering the new provision;
e) as much of the new provision was based on personal choice, it was simply not possible to predict how clients or their families might choose to change what services they used or how they accessed those services; and
f) the government’s intention was to review the situation in 18 months’ time, due to the large areas of implications which were unknown for all Local Authorities in the UK.
2) In discussion, Members expressed views and concerns on the Bill’s content, and these are summarised in Appx Y to these Minutes.
3) In addition, the Cabinet Member Mr Gibbens said that his role was to listen to Members’ concerns prior to the issue being discussed at Cabinet, and added his personal views: in an ideal world it would be good to be able to offer free care to all, but this was simply not realistic, development of the Bill seemed rushed, with not much opportunity to challenge the calculations on which it was based, he could not see how the numbers would work, he thought the Bill was unaffordable, and suspected that it could only be paid for by cuts in the NHS and increased Council Tax.
4) The Chairman summed up and set out the next steps. A draft KCC response would be prepared, which would include the views and concerns expressed by Members today. He undertook to discuss with the Cabinet Member the feasibility of POSC Members having a further discussion once the draft response was ready, to add or strengthen any points, if necessary. The draft response would then be discussed by Cabinet on 1 February and submitted to the Department of Health by the deadline of 23 February.
5) RESOLVED that:-
a) the presentation be welcomed, with thanks;
b) Members’ views and concerns expressed in discussion, and set out in Appx Y to these mintes, be built into the draft KCC response to the Department of Health;
c) the Chairman and Cabinet Member discuss the feasibility of POSC Members having a further opportunity to consider the draft response and add or strengthen any points if necessary; and
d) the KCC draft response be discussed by Cabinet on 1 February and then submitted to the Department of Health by 23 February.