Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence and notification of any substitutes present.

1.          Apologies had been received from Mr Koowaree, Mr Homewood and Ida Linfield.

2.          Mrs Dean attended as a substitute for Mr Koowaree.

To receive any declarations of interest made by Members in relation to any matter on the agenda.  Members are reminded to specify the agenda item number to which it refers and the nature of the interest being declared.

No declarations of interest were received.

To consider and approve the minutes as a correct record.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee held on 30 November 2018 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

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

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

a)    Recent visits

Mr Gibbens and the Chairman of Kent County Council, Mr Angell, had visited the Mental Health Unit at St Martins Hospital, Canterbury, the Disabled Children’s team in Brook House, Whitstable, and King Edward Court, Herne Bay, over the Christmas period to meet with staff and residents and wish everybody a Merry Christmas.

b)   Adult Safeguarding Members Briefing

An adult safeguarding all-Member briefing would take place on 26 February 2019 which would provide Members with the opportunity to understand Kent County Council’s role in adult safeguarding and the role that Members had in adult safeguarding.

2.          Penny Southern (Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health) gave a verbal update on the following issues:

a)          Recent visits

Ms Southern had visited The Hedgerows, a residential service which provided respite care to adults with a learning disability in Staplehurst, and the Community Mental Health team in Ashford. She said that meeting service users and understanding the different types of benefits that they received from Kent County Council’s services was a very valuable experience.

b)          NHS 10-Year Plan

Ms Southern referred to the NHS 10-Year Plan which had been published on 7 January 2019 and advised Members to read the plan and grasp the long-term priorities which would form a core part of the 10-year plan.

c)          The Esther Inspiration Day

Kent County Council’s Esther Inspiration Day and Kent’s programme to introduce the Esther model had been recognised nationally. An Esther Inspiration Day would take place on 21 March 2019 in recognition of the work that Kent County Council had undertaken in implementing the Esther Model in Kent and improving care for elderly patients with complex needs.

d)          Thanks to Staff

Ms Southern thanked all of Kent County Council’s staff that had worked over the Christmas period for continuing to ensure that individuals were able to access care and support services. She added that Kent County Council had received a formal letter from the Chief Executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust which congratulated Kent for their hard work in continuing to deliver vital services to Kent residents over the festive period.

3.          RESOLVED that the verbal updates be noted.

To receive a report which provides an overview of Kent County Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Being Digital Strategy and a summary of the implementation plan that will allow the vision set out in the strategy to be delivered.

Ms Tidmarsh (Director of Adult Social Care and Health Partnerships) and Ms Letchford (Project Manager) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Tidmarsh and Ms Letchford introduced the report and presented a series of slides which providedan overview of Kent County Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Being Digital Strategy and a summary of the implementation plan.

Ms Tidmarsh and Ms Letchford then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Ms Tidmarsh talked about the importance of strengthening stakeholder and user engagement within the strategy.

b)    Ms Tidmarsh said that Kent County Council had undertaken work with Brighton in relation to digital programmes in assisted living homes and extra care housing and were exploring ways to develop extra care and the current technical digital infrastructure. She talked about intergenerational work and said that pilots had taken place recently which allowed school children to engage with older people and teach them how to use technology.

c)    Ms Tidmarsh said that the Digital Strategy had been developed to set out the strategic direction for, and help to enable the delivery of, digital innovation and technology to transform and support the new adult social care operating models. She added that work was being undertaken to develop Kent and Medway care records to allow both Kent and Medway to jointly-work with the NHS and access all service user’s data. She talked about the locally-supported apps that were being developed to allow individual’s access to useful healthcare links.

d)    Ms Tidmarsh confirmed that face-to-face conversations with individual’s would not be replaced by technology.

e)    Ms Southern talked about the technology and technology training that Kent County Council provided to its staff and Members and said that it was important that users felt confident and comfortable when using the technology.

f)     Ms Tidmarsh said that the Kent Housing Group had launched a new working group which scrutinised housing, health and social care and considered future accommodation and planning accommodation options.

g)    Ms Tidmarsh referred to the implications that the Digital Strategy contract could carry and confirmed that once the implications were better known, a further report on the overall strategy and direction of travel of the contract would be submitted to a future Cabinet Committee meeting.

h)    Ms Tidmarsh confirmed that the technology that Kent County Council provided to service users was rented and therefore it could easily be improved.

i)     Ms Tidmarsh said that upcoming exhibition dates and would be circulated to Members of the Committee outside of the meeting.

j)     Mr Gibbens reassured Members of the Committee that private briefing sessions could be held for Members to attend if they had specific concerns in relation to the Digital Strategy contract.

2.          RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health, to

a)    approve the Adult Social Care and Health Being Digital Strategy 2019-2021 and the high-level implementation plan;

b)    delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Adult Social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 127.

To receive a report which outlines the proposal to implement a single assessment and rehabilitation service for people with sensory impairment in Kent.

Ms Palmer (Manager, Sensory Disabilities) and Ms Sheppard (Senior Commissioner) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Mr Gibbens (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) reminded Members of the Committee that the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health’s portfolio included services for disabled children.

2.          Ms Palmer introduced the report which set out the proposal to implement a single assessment and rehabilitation service for people with sensory impairment in Kent. This would improve outcomes for Kent residents through reducing duplication, improving quality and aligning support into clear pathways.

Ms Palmer and Ms Sheppard then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Ms Sheppard said that Kent County Council were working closely with Hi-Kent and Kent Association for the Blind (KAB) in relation to proposing to implement a single assessment and rehabilitation service for people with sensory impairment in Kent and developing a more robust preventative offer. She talked about the focused engagements that had taken place with Hi Kent and KAB in relation to the assessment and rehabilitation service, preventative and specialist support services for people with sensory impairments.Ms Tidmarsh reiterated Ms Sheppard’s comments and confirmed that funding would not be retracted from the agencies that were undertaking the work.

b)    Ms Palmer said that the sensory team were hoping to recruit staff in the future that would have a particular focus on the rehabilitation and visual impairment rehabilitation of 18 to 25-year olds.

c)    Ms Palmer confirmed that Hi-Kent provided a hearing-aid maintenance support service to individuals that had been given hearing aids. She said that it was important to improve the communications that took place between Health and Social Care, and Hi-Kent and audiology departments to ensure that individuals received relevant information, advice and easy access to technology.

d)    Ms Southern said that it was crucial to ensure that Kent County Council’s statutory responsibilities were met and expressed the importance of monitoring systems and managing impacts regularly. She said that the contribution from all of Kent County Council’s wider sector was greatly valued and referred to the importance of close working relationships.

e)    Mr Gibbens (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) suggested that an update on the progress of the service be submitted to the Committee at a later date. Members of the Committee supported this.

3.    RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health to:

a)    implement a new arrangement for the provision of statutory assessment and rehabilitation services for sight impaired adults, assessment and habilitation for sight impaired children and statutory equipment assessment and rehabilitation for hearing impaired older adults aged 65 years and over; and

b)    delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health, or other nominated officer, the undertake the necessary actions to implement the decision,

be endorsed.

To receive a report which sets out the proposed re-provision ofinterpreting, translation and transcription services for d/Deaf and deafblind people.

Ms Palmer (Manager, Sensory Disabilities) and Ms Sheppard (Senior Commissioner) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Palmer introduced the report which set out Kent County Council’s statutory responsibility under The Care Act 2014, Equality Act 2010 and the Accessible Information Standard 2016 to deliver interpreting, translation and transcription services for d/Deaf and deafblind people. She said that the current service was delivered through a contract with an external provider, the Royal Association for the Deaf (RAD) and was accessed by other public sector partners. The re-provision proposed to recruit three qualified interpreters and one Coordinator to deliver the core of the interpreting work with additional demand met through a Framework Agreement which had integrated use of Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) and Video Relay Interpreting (VRI) Services.

2.          RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health to:

a)    approve the reprovision of interpreting, translation and transcription services for d/Deaf and deafblind people; and

b)    delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health, or other nominated officer, to undertake the necessary actions to implement the decision,

be endorsed.

To receive a report which provides Members with an opportunity to comment on the draft budget proposals and make recommendations to the Cabinet Member as part of this process.

Ms Goldsmith (Finance Business Partner) was in attendance for this item.

1.           Ms Goldsmith introduced the report which set out the draft budget proposals and provided Members with the opportunity to comment on the proposals before they were presented to Cabinet on 28 January 2019 and full Council on 14 February 2019.

Ms Goldsmith, Ms Southern and Mr Gibbens (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health) then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Ms Goldsmith referred to the savings and income proposals within the report and confirmed that the figure of £3.1 million for transformation, including the implementation of the core operating model for Adult Social Care and Health was an anticipated saving.

b)    Ms Southern confirmed that Mr Shipton (Head of Finance (Policy, Planning and Strategy)) would circulate a document to all Members which would present a table of information relating to the government grants that Kent County Council received.

c)    Mr Gibbens (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) referred to the overdue Adult Social Care Green Paper from government and the need for a long-term funding solution for Adult Social Care.

2.           RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which provides Members with an update on Adult Safeguarding activity in Kent, for the period April to September 2018.

Ms Tidmarsh (Director of Adult Social Care and Health Partnerships) and Mr Thomas-Sam (Strategic Business Adviser, Social Care) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Southern introduced the report which provided an update on Adult Safeguarding activity in Kent for the period April 2018 to September 2018.

Ms Southern, Ms Tidmarsh and Mr Thomas-Sam then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Ms Southern said that she worked closely with colleagues in Kent County Council’s Education department in relation to safeguarding children and adults.

b)    Ms Southern confirmed that she would provide further information to Members in relation to the ‘not recorded’ figures within the report.

c)    Ms Tidmarsh referred to the reasons for concern within the report and confirmed that the mental health category did not include dementia as dementia was part of the Older People and Physical Disability cohort.

d)    Ms Southern referred to the self-neglect figure within the report and said that staff received comprehensive training specifically related to self-neglect. Mr Thomas-Sam said that the Care Act 2014 had increased the emphasis on neglect and Kent County Council were responding accordingly.

e)    Ms Southern referred to the layout of the report and said that it was important that everyone recognised how efficiently Kent County Council’s Adult Social Care and Health colleagues worked with Kent’s vulnerable individuals and provided person-centred support. Mr Thomas-Sam reiterated Ms Southern’s comments and said that the Local Government Association had produced a useful document for Members which provided information on the scrutiny of local systems.

f)     Mr Gibbens (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) confirmed that Members briefings could be repeated for Members that were originally unable to attend.

g)    Ms Tidmarsh said that all safeguarding alerts raised in Kent were incorporated into Kent County Council’s safeguarding figures. She added that Kent County Council worked closely with Trading Standards in relation to safeguarding, abuse and exploitation alerts and reassured Members that preventative measures were being put in place.

h)    Ms Southern said that if safeguarding alerts were not raised, Kent County Council would not be aware of them.

i)     Ms Tidmarsh referred to the figures within the report and confirmed that the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) figure remained at 0% as individual’s had not reported it as a reason for abuse. Mr Thomas-Sam said that FGM was a live reason for abuse in relation to Kent’s Safeguarding Children’s services.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which provides Members with an update on End of Life Care in Kent, a revised action plan setting out current achievements and developments, on-going work, areas for improvement, gaps that have been identified and how they will be addressed.

Ms Tidmarsh (Director of Adult Social Care and Health Partnerships) was in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Tidmarsh introduced the report which providedan update on End of Life Care in Kent, a revised action plan setting out current achievements and developments, on-going work, areas for improvement, gaps that had been identified and how they would be addressed.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report from General Counsel on the Committee’s work programme.

RESOLVED that the work programme for 2019/20 be noted.