Agenda item

To receive verbal updates from the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health.

1.    Graham Gibbens (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care) gave a verbal update on the following issues:

Christmas Tour – The Chairman and Mr Gibbens visited various parts of Kent to see groups of service users. The sites and teams which had been visited were Worrall House in Kings Hill, Older People and Physical Disability – West Kent (OPPD), Gravesham Place Integrated Care Centre, and Milton Haig Centre, for people with learning disabilities. A visit would be arranged in Spring 2018 to meet with Mental Health staff.

LGA Challenge on Dementia 2020 – Mr Gibbens was a Member of the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020. Key outcomes were discussed in a meeting he attended last Wednesday. It was important to ensure that Kent has a skilled workforce to support people living with dementia, that there are good processes in place to measure how we are improving the situation for people living with dementia and that there was close working with the voluntary sector in post diagnosis support.

Social Isolation and Loneliness update – The Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness had been looking at current loneliness and isolation issues. The Prime Minister spoke very strongly about the fact that loneliness and isolation was not just an issue for older people, it affected all sectors of the community. The Prime Minister made it clear that everybody who was represented in the gathering should be looking at loneliness and isolation as being key items to focus on. Mr Gibbens said that a loneliness and isolation item would be brought to the next meeting of the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee on 9 March 2018 to provide further information to Members regarding loneliness and isolation in Kent and how issues were being addressed.

1.    Anu Singh (Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health) gave a verbal update on the following issues:

Managing in Winter – Kent and Medway had consistently been on an OPEL alert 3 and OPEL alert 4 (Operational Pressures Escalation Levels), which was an indication that there was not sufficiency and flow across the system. This was in place across all hospital sites in Kent and Medway, social care beds and the capacity across the workforce to handle the movement of people in the most appropriate way through the system. The way in which this issue had been managed over the holiday period in Kent and Medway had been very positive, social care staff had done all within their power to ensure that people were able to access the care and support that they needed. This work was ongoing, leaders across health and care had put different leadership arrangements in place to allow Kent to have the support of the national teams at NHS England and NHS improvement. This in turn would bring together a programme management office that would allow workers to work together in a different way and pull together information about what could be done individually as organisations and access the care and health support that people need.

Sustainability Transformation Plan update – An important element of the STP was the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) which allowed organisations to work together in a different way. There were currently 8 CCG’s across the Kent and Medway region. There was work being undertaken which would enable all of the groups to work collectively in a different way and act as a single organisation, it would be an important factor for the success of Kent’s STP and how best to work together as an integrated health and care system.

Windchimes Short Break Centre – Windchimes continued to maintain its outstanding rating for the second year in a row. Anu Singh congratulated staff and thanked them for their hard work which made achieving the outstanding rating possible.

3.    RESOLVED that the verbal updates by the Cabinet Member and Corporate Director, be noted.