Agenda item

To receive a report which provides an update on the commissioning and performance management of the Commissioned Services for Adult Carers of Vulnerable Adults.

(Jo Empson (Commissioning Manager – Community Support) and Anne Tidmarsh (Director of Older People and Physical Disability) were in attendance for this item)

1.    Jo Empson introduced the report and provided Members of the Committee with an update on the commissioning and performance of the Kent Carers’ Grants and Contracts.

a)    In response to a question, Jo Empson said that, with pre-set budget for carers’ services, it was important for Kent to ensure greater parity of service to ensure as many carers as possible had equal access to services. She said that it was important that Kent continued to show its support for Carers by continuing the commissioning of carers’ services to enable carers to support vulnerable people in Kent. She said that the Kent Integrated Data Set (KIDS) would help Kent to both understand interdependencies and base future commissioning decisions on a sound evidence base. Anne Tidmarsh re-iterated Jo Empson’s comments and said that the intelligence would support Kent to focus on areas which required attention and work being undertaken with both NHS and provider organisations. She said that continuing pressure on Local Authority budgets meant that Kent needed to utilise this information to ensure the best outcomes within financial constraints to balance this.

b)    In response to a question, Jo Empson said that services were in place to both support Carers and prevent the build-up of need as well as provide carers with access to a statutory carers’ assessments. Jo Empson re-iterated that the ‘cared for’ also had a right to a statutory needs assessment.

c)    In response to a question, Anne Tidmarsh said that good progress had been made so far. Carers’ support was in place and teams within Adult Social Care had a good understanding of what carers needed and how best to provide for them. Penny Southern re-iterated Anne Tidmarsh’s comments and said that significant Learning Disability Mental Health (LDMH) funding had been put in place for carers through these contracts, and that Kent could therefore see how people were being supported. She said that the contract allowed for a stable delivery of a network for carers and had enabled people that were isolated to have opportunities to share and benefit from these additional services.

d)    Mr Gibbens invited the Committee to speak to him directly with regards to individual issues or cases that needed to be raised, as each case would be investigated.

e)    In response to a question, Anne Tidmarsh said that a more in-depth report could come back to the Committee in the future, once further work had been carried out following the findings of the research included in the report and would contain general population statistics and those of carers for comparison purposes in regard to carers in Kent.

f)     In response to a question, Jo Empson said that the new contract would allow Kent to better target the areas where there was under-representation and over-representation to ensure greater parity of access to services. Penny Southern supported this and said that the Kent Community Teams could work locally to seek to contact people that were not accessing the service.

g)    In response to a question, Anne Tidmarsh said that Kent provided short breaks in both residential settings and in people’s own homes, confirming that on occasions there were waiting lists for carers support in the home.

h)    In response to a question, Jo Empson said that reference to emotional wellbeing was included in the category ‘mental health’.

i)     In response to a question, Jo Empson said that the Carers One-Off Payment service (COOPs) was funded at a particular level and was a demand-driven service which was progressed through the carers’ assessment and support organisations. An underspend occurred when demand was lower than expected and, in these circumstances, not all of the budget was utilised. Kent would continue to look at ways in which the available budget was utilised in the most equitable way possible.

2.    RESOLVED that the report be noted.