Agenda item

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health and the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing and to endorse or make a recommendation to the Cabinet Member on the development and implementation plans of the Accommodation Strategy with specific focus on Older Person’s services; extra care and intermediate care. The Strategy was launched on 2 July 2014.

Ms C Holden, Head of Commissioning, Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Ms Holden introduced the report and explained that the accommodation strategy had been launched on 2 July and was available on line.  A major part of the strategy involved forecasting future demand, in terms of both the volume and type of accommodation required. The County Council was currently commissioning fewer residential care placements than previously and the forecast was that demand for such placements would reduce by about one-third between 2013 and 2021. Ms Holden and Mr Ireland responded to comments and questions from Members and the following points were highlighted:-

a)    concern was expressed that predicted changes in patterns of care placements were challenging, and that suitable places for people with dementia may not increase sufficiently to meet future need;

b)    extra care sheltered housing was an excellent option for those who needed something between residential and nursing care but was very expensive to develop and it may not be realistic to build sufficient units for all those who could benefit from them.  An ideal would be to have one extra care sheltered housing scheme in every community.  Mr Ireland explained that sufficient extra care sheltered housing development was planned to be able to make an impact on the need for places but the spread of provision was not consistent across the county and did not fully match needs in terms of the type and location of accommodation.  To develop such provision and overcome these challenges was necessarily a long-term strategy;

c)    a mixture of rented and shared-ownership accommodation would be useful to meet a range of needs and budgets.  Ms Holden pointed out that one site, previously run as residential care home for older people, now offered a range of rented and shared-ownership units;

d)    extra care sheltered housing schemes could also benefit those with learning disabilities; one or two people could share a unit and  live independently with some support. Adults with learning disabilities would also need to be prepared for retirement. However, some adults with learning disabilities currently lived with their aging parents, and it would be necessary to ensure that suitable accommodation and support was available for the parents as well as for their adult children.  Ms Holden commented that the County Council now had a better picture than previously of the needs of adults with learning disabilities and was developing its range of services to meet and manage those needs; and

e)    in response to a question about the role played by the telecare service, Mrs Tidmarsh explained that telecare was part of the transformation programme, which was closely integrated with the accommodation strategy.  The telecare strategy would be further developed, for instance to address the need for increased complexity in the service, and would be reported to the Cabinet Committee in the future.  Mr Ireland added that performance reports showed 3,400 people using telecare services and the County Council’s target was to increase this to 5,000 users. 

2.            The Cabinet Member, Mr Gibbens, thanked Members for their comments, and Ms Holden for the huge amount of work she and her team had put in to developing the accommodation strategy.  He supported the comments made about the value of, and need to increase the provision of, extra care sheltered housing. Ms Holden said the current provision in development was 946 units and the target was to increase this to 2,500 units. Kent was also developing a number of rented and shared-ownership schemes.

3.            RESOLVED that the launch of the accommodation strategy on 2 July be noted and the current position and future direction, set out in the appendix to the report, be endorsed.