Agenda item

(1)        Mrs Bell (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) gave a verbal update on the following issues:

a)    Kent Adult Safeguarding Board – Annual Report to Full Council

At the Full Council meeting which had taken place on 17^th December 2019, Mrs Bell and Deborah Stuart-Angus (Chair of the Kent and Medway Adult Safeguarding Board) presented the Board's annual report for 2018/19. The report set out the responsibilities and structure of the Board, detailed how the multi-agency partnership delivered against its priorities for the year and provided information in relation to service user feedback. At the meeting, Ms Stuart-Angus had announced that national comparator data was available on the NHS Digital website and that Kent compared favourably across a number of indicators against the national average.

b)   The official launch of the Kent Deaf Interpreting Service (KDIS)

On 3^rd December 2019, Mrs Bell attended and spoke at the official launch of the KDIS at Sessions House, the KDIS provided interpreting and communication services for individuals in Kent who were d/Deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing. A small team of in-house British Sign Language interpreters, supported by a network of professionally trained and registered local interpreters and agencies attended the event and the KDIS could be accessed by a range of organisations. The event was successful, inspiring and very well attended and there were many speakers, including Kent Police, deaf community workers and members of the deaf community.

c)    Visit to KCC’s West Kent team – Adult Social Care for Older People (Worrall House, Kings Hill) and Sevenoaks Leisure Centre (Sevenoaks)

In December 2019, Mrs Bell accompanied Mrs Allen on her Chairman's tour to Worrall House in Kings Hill to visit staff in the West Kent team of Adult Social Care for older people, covering the area referral management service, clients' support service, KIER, teams who undertook frontline assessments, social workers, and assessment and review teams. They had also visited Sevenoaks leisure centre where they were made to feel very welcome by the staff and a small group of service users of the Learning Disability Day Service and learnt about the preparations that were in place for Christmas and the vast range of activities that they were engaged in, both within the centre and out in the community.

d)   Update on the Adult Social Care Case Management System (MOSAIC)

Mrs Bell referred to the series of slides presented at the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee meeting on 27^th November 2019 which related to the Adult Social Care and Health Being Digital Strategy 2019-2021. She referred specifically to MOSAIC, the new modernised computer system (which had replaced SWIFT) which operated across Adult Social Care in Kent and mentioned the extensive amount of work that had been carried out in relation to the new system.

e)    Visit to the Social Care Short Term Pathways Team at The William Harvey Hospital, Ashford

In January 2020, Mrs Bell visited the Social Care Short Term Pathways team at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford to understand more about how staff work in the hospitals in relation to arranging discharge for patients. She was particularly impressed by the calm atmosphere and organisation within the team’s office and was taken through the various discharge pathways and visited the Accident & Emergency (A&E) department. She expressed a particular interest in the Frailty team who operated at the front door of the hospital. The Frailty team consisted of clinical staff specialising in the treatment of elderly and frail people in A&E to allow them to return home or move onto another care facility. She added that a programme was in place which would provide her with the opportunity to visit teams in other hospitals around the county to better understand how systems operated.

(2)        RESOLVED that the verbal updates be noted.