Agenda item

1.         The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, Mrs C Bell, gave a verbal update on the following issues:

Symptom-free Testing sites – nineteen sites were already open, with five more opening shortly, spread across the county, with the target of having two testing sites in every district of the county being reached by the end of January, giving capacity for 20,000 tests a day across Kent. Appointments could be booked on the County Council website, and anyone without covid-19 symptoms could book and attend. Anyone with symptoms should book a test via the NHS. It was recommended that symptom-free testing be repeated every two weeks, as it was known that 1 in 3 people carried the virus without showing any symptoms. As at 15 January, 93,862 tests had been completed, with 956 showing a positive result. Results would be texted to people very shortly after tests, and those testing positive would be advised to self-isolate for seven days to avoid spreading the virus to others.  Mrs Bell thanked colleagues in Public Health, Property and Amey for their work in establishing and running testing sites.  The County Council was appealing for people to assist at testing sites. 

NHS Vaccination programme – vaccinations were being given to eligible frontline CountyCouncil social care employees, who would be told how to book an appointment. Vaccinations were being organised by the NHS and they and the Council’s social care teams worked closely together.

Guidance on visiting care homes – this had been updated on 12 January 2021 and could be found on the Gov.UK website.  Each home had set its own policy about visiting, based on a risk assessment of its residents and taking account of the Government guidance. The aim was to enable outdoor and screened visits, including visits to people receiving end-of-life care.

Community Wellbeing services – the first three contracts had been awarded, covering East and West Kent, starting on 1 April 2021. These contracts would cover services for people aged 55+ and for people with a sensory impairment.  In East Kent, services would be delivered by Social Enterprise Kent, in West Kent services by Involve Kent and the countywide sensory service would be delivered by Kent Association for the Blind.

2.         Mrs Bell and Mr Smith responded to comments and questions from the committee, including the following:-

a)    asked how many care homes were not allowing visits at all, Mr Smith undertook to find out and provide information outside the meeting.  He assured Members that homes understood the distress of residents and families who were unable to enjoy visits and emphasised that care homes would consider each case individually, applying the Government guidance.  He emphasised that there had been very few hospital admissions from care homes due to covid-19 and homes were generally managing the restrictions well; and

b)    asked how community wellbeing services would be transferred from existing to new providers, how the difference in price would be funded and how the changeover would be communicated to service users, Mrs Bell and Ms Maynard advised that the organisations mentioned previously were only the lead providers, who would sub-contract service delivery to a number of smaller organisations. Concern was expressed that some current service providers did not feel positively engaged by the new arrangements and that their experience and expertise of service delivery may be lost as a result. Ms Maynard assured Members that new providers would be fully informed of current service users’ care needs to ensure that all needs would be covered, and undertook to advise the speaker of the arrangements for service transfer outside the meeting. 

3.         The Corporate Director of Social Care, Mr R Smith, then gave a verbal update on the following issues:

Winter Planning – the hospital discharge plan was constantly being reviewed, most recently in the wake of media coverage of a new strain of the covid-19 virus which had appeared in Kent. Infection and death rates in Kent from the previously-existing virus had seen significant, and statistics were received daily.  He assured the committee that he was always very aware of the individuals and families behind the statistics and emphasised the importance of acknowledging the human impact of the virus and people’s need for end-of-life and bereavement support. Managing hospital discharges, in partnership with community hospitals, had been challenging due to the rising number of people needing specialist services, for example, for dementia.  Increased discharges from hospital placed more pressure on community settings, and work was going on to establish bespoke services. The designated bed system was working well, with 44 beds currently occupied. Eligibility criteria for these was any adult over 18.

The care market was fragile, and staff shortages were a national problem. Some people had proved difficult to place but this was not unusual for the time of year.

Covid-19 cases in care homes – 87 providers so far had reported cases of covid-19 but the referral rate to hospital was low. Central Government had allocated £4.7m of Infection Control Funding to Kent, which the County Council was required to allocate within 10 days of receiving it. It was planned that some of this funding be allocated to care homes to enable more testing.

Vaccination programme – this had been the subject of many enquiries.  There were 9 priority groups in which people would receive vaccinations, with care home residents being first, followed by those aged 80+, 75+ and so on, with the least vulnerable being last. An all-Member briefing on 22 January would provide more detail on the vaccination programme.   

4.         Asked about the permitted length of stay in a designated bed, and the arrangements for moving on from this provision, Mr Smith and Mr McKenzie advised that, although an average stay was expected to be about two weeks, this time limit was not applied arbitrarily; occupants were assessed clinically on a case-by-case basis. Anyone leaving a designated bed would first need to have a negative covid-19 test.

5.         It was RESOLVED that the verbal updates be noted, with thanks.