Agenda item

(1)       Mr Mills presented a series of slides (which are appended to these Minutes) setting out the work of KASS around Active Lives for Adults and new ways of working which were currently being developed, particularly Self Directed Support (SDS).  The self-generated major restructure of the directorate which had taken place over recent months was closely linked to the changing methods of service delivery and had been undertaken to support these new approaches.

(2)       Mr Mills, Mr Gibbens and Mr Leidecker answered a number of questions from Members, and the following points were highlighted:-

(a)       all new clients assessed by KASS would have a personal budget, and existing clients would gradually transfer to personal budgets;

(b)       the nature of KASS’s work, assessing and delivering services to meet individuals’ needs, meant that change to a new delivery model would necessarily be very gradual.  Individual plans would allow service users maximum personal choice, so the patterns identified when referring to change would be general trends only. Clients would never all be using exactly the same ways of accessing services;

(c)        the personal assistants who are employed by clients using personal budgets are not employed by KASS, but KASS staff would act as brokers/co-ordinators to ensure that local provision was sufficient to meet the needs of the local client population;

(d)       when making changes to day centre services for clients with learning disabilities, full consultation was always undertaken to ensure that no-one was left without a service that they wanted and relied upon;

(e)       the option of using direct payments would always remain a choice for clients and was never imposed upon them.  Currently, some 2,300 clients were using direct payments;

(f)         KASS staff have the responsibility to emphasise the importance of Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks and encourage vulnerable adults who are employing personal assistants via direct payments to undertake CRB checks on those people, but could not force them to undertake these;

(g)       Personalised Care Plans (PCPs) would take account of the views of clients and their carer/s and seek to reach a compromise and satisfy both as far as possible if these views differed;

(h)        it was the intention that area briefings for Members would continue, as these had been shown to be very useful in keeping local Members informed of service developments.  By combining two neighbouring districts, briefings could be made more frequent;

(i)         the range of services provided was vital in delivering ALfA, so KCC worked actively with transport providers and district councils as well as health partners.  The KCC’s ‘Living Later Life to the Full’ Policy Framework addressed this issue in more detail;

(j)         social networks, companionship and good communication were also vital in giving support to clients who might otherwise become isolated and would allow them to live independently for as long as possible; and

(k)        in response to a question, Mr Mills said he was confident that all measures possible had been put in place to address the swine flu pandemic.  The Kent Resilience Forum, which included public health and NHS input, had a well-established procedure which would be used to address the pandemic. Mr Leidecker added that KASS had a dedicated Emergency Planning Officer who would ensure the needs of vulnerable adults are included in planning.

(3)       RESOLVED that the information given in the presentation and in response to Members’ questions be noted, with thanks.