Agenda and minutes

Mr D Pascoe has now left the Committee.

Mrs Bell has taken over being Vice Chairman from Ms Marsh.

The Committee noted that Mr Pascoe was no longer a member of the Committee and that Mrs Bell has taken over as Vice Chairman from Ms Marsh.

(Post meeting note – it was clarified that when the meeting was held Ms Marsh had not formally resigned as Vice-Chairman. Formal notification was received on 26 March 2019 and an item would be placed on the agenda of the next meeting of the Committee to note the resignation from this role and elect a Vice-Chairman.)

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

Apologies had been received from Mrs Allen, Mr Homewood, Mr Koowaree, Ms Marsh and Mr Monk.

Mrs Stockell attended as a substitute for Mrs Allen, Mrs Dean attended as a substitute for Mr Koowaree, and Mrs Crabtree attended as a substitute for Ms Marsh.

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 22 January 2019 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)    Kent and Medway Joint Health and Wellbeing Board

The Kent and Medway Joint Health and Wellbeing Board had recently focused on addressing health inequalities across Kent. Mr Gibbens expressed the importance of addressing health inequalities and confirmed that a report would be submitted to the Health Reform and Public Health Cabinet Committee on 13 March 2019 which would set out the work that Kent County Council had undertaken to collaborate andcoordinate a whole-systems approach through the Sustainability TransformationPartnership, and with wider partners, to address widening health inequalities.

b)   Meeting with Age UK Chairs in Kent

An annual Age UK meeting took place on 25 February 2019 in which the Chairmen of Age UK’s across the county gathered together to discuss the proposed plans to change Age UK’s current grant arrangements to a commissioned basis. Mr Gibbens said that the event was well attended and that the discussions in relation to supporting small organisations and providing better outcomes for Kent residents were positive.

c)    Safeguarding Update

A Safeguarding Member’s briefing took place on 26 February 2019 and case studies which related to safeguarding issues in Kent were shared.

d)   Sustainability and Transformation Plan Update

A Local Government Association summit took place on 27 February 2019 which focused on addressing local care needs, reducing admissions to A&E and increasing focus in relation to GP practices.

2.          In response to a question relating to accommodation for ex-offenders, Mr Gibbens confirmed that Kent County Council received a letter from the Ministry of Justice which could be shared with Members of the Committee outside of the meeting. The letter stated that The National Probation Service for England and Wales were responsible for caring for individuals on a one-to-one basis once they had been released from custody. He said that a further update on the matter could be provided at the next meeting of the Committee.

3.          Penny Southern (Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health) welcomed Richard Smith (Interim Portfolio Manager) to his first meeting of the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee, and then she gave a verbal update on the following issues:

a)          Past Year Reflection

Mrs Southern reflected upon the key events and achievements within Kent County Council’s Adult Social Care and Health directorate in 2018, as she had been in post as Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health for a year. Some of the key events highlighted were: staff members had been shortlisted for the Social Worker of the Year awards, the Kent Supported Employment team received two awards, the County Placement team received a Chairman’s Award, and Emma Peasgood, a Senior Practitioner Social Worker received a scholarship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and visited Finland and Sweden to work with Deaf children, digital technology global screening, and Kent’s Learning Disability Services Day Opportunities received a Chief Constable certificate.

b)   Visit to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 138.

To receive a report which sets out the proposed rates and charges for Adult Social Care Services for the forthcoming financial year, along with any potential changes to the Adult Social Care charging policy and sets out officer recommendations to the Cabinet Member for decision.

Ms Goldsmith (Finance Business Partner – Adult Social Care and Health) was in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Goldsmith introduced the report which set out the proposed rates and charges for Adult Social Care Services for the forthcoming financial year, along with any potential changes to the Adult Social Care charging policy.

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

a)    Ms Goldsmith referred to the pay award for 2019-20 and confirmed that the rates payable and charges levied for adult social care services for 2019/20 would increase by either the council’s agreed pay award for 2019/20 of 2.8% or in line with the Consumer Price Index as at September 2018 of 2.4%. She said that whilst it was unlikely that the rates payable and charges levied for adult social care services for 2019/20 would be reviewed, a key decision would be brought to the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee in such an instance.

b)    Ms Goldsmith referred to Client Contributions for Residential Care within the report and confirmed that the preservation of the status quo was open-ended, although a key decision would be brought to the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee if it were to be reviewed.

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

a)    approve the proposed changes to the rates payable and charges levied for adult social care services in 2019-20 as set out in sections 2.5.1, 2.5.2, 2.6.4, 2.8.3, 2.10.2, 2.10.3, 2.12.1, 2.13.1, 2.14.1, 2.16.1,.3.2 and 3.3 of the report; and

b)    delegate authority to the Corporate Director for 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 sets out the details of the review of current legal arrangements supporting the partnership working between Kent County Council and Kent and Medway Partnership Trust to deliver mental health social care and health services across Kent.

Ms Stone (Transformation Project Manager) was in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Stone introduced the report which set out details relating to the review of the current legal arrangements supporting the partnership working between Kent County Council and Kent and Medway Partnership Trust to deliver mental health social care and health services across Kent.

Mrs Southern then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Mrs Southern said that many productive changes were being made in relation to mental health social care and health services and emphasised the importance of integrated working.

b)    Mrs Southern talked about the effectiveness of partnership working within social care and health and the need to work seamlessly with individuals in mental health. She suggested that a progress report be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee, Members of the Committee supported this.

c)    Mrs Southern referred to the Cabinet Member decision which had been taken in July 2017 (17/00053 - Direction of future provision of social care and support to adults with mental health needs) and briefly explained the importance of the decision-making process.

d)    Mrs Southern drew Member’s attention to the background documents that were listed within the report and explained the rationale behind each stage of the journey.

e)    Mrs Southern said that robust processes were in place in relation to confidentiality within mental health social care and health services and explained how information could be shared across social care systems.

f)     Mrs Southern provided further information to Members in relation to The Forensic Service and explained that social workers undertook forensic training which allowed them to work with individuals with complex needs that had been discharged from acute care hospitals.

2.          Mr Gibbens (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) reiterated the importance of mental health services and the need for a progress report to be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee.

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

a)    approve the new legal framework to support the partnership arrangements for the provision of mental health social care and health services in Kent; specifically, approval for Kent County Council to terminate the existing Kent County Council and Kent and Medway Partnership Trust Section 75 Agreement (based on mutually agreed termination between Kent County Council and Kent and Medway Partnership Trust) and approval for Kent County Council to enter into a Service Level Agreement with Kent and Medway Partnership Trust; 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 outlines both the process and outcome of the procurement exercise undertaken in order to implement the decision made in relation to care and support in the home services.

Ms Schneider (Senior Commissioner) and Ms Maynard (Head of Commissioning Portfolio - Outcome 2 and 3) were in attendance for this item.

Prior to the discussion, Ms Schneider provided a Care and Support in the Home Cluster Map to Members of the Committee as an additional piece of information.

1.          Ms Maynard introduced the report which set out the process and outcome in relation to undertaking the procurement of the new integrated Care and Support in the Home Service for adults and children with assessed needs from April 2019.

Ms Schneider and Ms Maynard then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Ms Maynard talked about Kent’s consideration for small providers within the service and said that within the lotting strategy, Kent had restricted the number of providers within each of the lots and the amount of lots that each provider could bid for to ensure that smaller providers were encouraged to work and form partnerships with other providers.

b)    Ms Schneider referred to the cluster map that was provided to Members of the Committee as additional information and said that Kent had worked closely with providers to ensure that all areas within each of the clusters were covered.

c)    Ms Schneider talked about the relationship between providers and individual’s that received the care and support in the home services and said that measures were in place to ensure that disruption to residents was minimal and to maintain continuity of care.

d)    Ms Maynard confirmed that care workers within the workforce received the National Living Wage.

e)    Ms Tidmarsh talked about the support that was offered to providers in relation to learning and development and said that a learning and development hub was available which was part-funded by the NHS and Kent County Council, and Kent County Council were launching a Leadership strategy, training and support for providers to assess development needs and be of support in every way possible. She confirmed that the majority of the training support that was offered to providers was funded by Health and Social Care to support the sector.

f)     Ms Maynard referred to the award criteria and quality questions appendix within the report and confirmed that the criteria and questions were regularly reviewed to ensure that they accommodated changing needs.

g)    Ms Schneider referred to the cluster map that was provided to Members of the Committee as additional information and talked about provision and workforce issues in Sevenoaks, Canterbury, Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley.

h)    Ms Southern talked about the robust contingency plans that were in place within Adult Social Care and Health in regard to Brexit.

i)     Ms Tidmarsh added that the contract would allow staff to work in a more flexible way and said that a pilot would be undertaken to understand how best to incorporate night-time cover for individuals.

j)     Ms Maynard explained the moderation process in detail, and the advantages and disadvantages of the process.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which sets out the activity and outlines both the process and outcome of the procurement exercise for the provision of a Community Navigation and Social Prescribing Service.

Members of the Committee indicated that they would be referring to information contained within the exempt appendices and therefore consideration of this item was deferred to the exempt part of the meeting (Minute 149 below refers).

To receive a report which provides an update on the Community Day Opportunities for Individuals with Disabilities Contract.

Ms Sheppard (Commissioning Manager - Community Support) and Ms Maynard (Head of Commissioning Portfolio - Outcome 2 and 3) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Sheppard and Mrs Southern introduced the report which provided an update on the Community Day Opportunities for Individuals with Disabilities Contract and detailed the background to the recommissioning of day opportunities and the performance of the current contract.

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

a)    Ms Sheppard said that the Community Day Opportunities for Individuals with Disabilities was a contract specifically for individuals with disabilities, as opposed to older people with dementia.

b)    Ms Sheppard referred to the figures detailed within the report in relation to lot providers and explained the importance of tracking the number of contract providers that delivered lots and the number of providers that worked with individual contracts.

c)    Mrs Southern talked about Kent County Council’s robust in-house market commissioning and how gaps were identified and addressed.

d)    Ms Sheppard said that Kent had liaised with providers in relation to supporting and encouraging individuals with disabilities into employment. Mrs Southern emphasised the positive progress that Kent had made in regard to supporting individuals with disabilities into employment and the range of opportunities that were available to assist with ensuring that these individuals entered and remained in employment.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which sets out the Strategic Delivery Plan, which will be the strategic business plan for Kent County Council, which supports the delivery of the outcomes in the Strategic Statement.

Mr Whittle (Director of Strategy, Policy, Relationships and Corporate Assurance) was in attendance for this item.

1.          Mr Whittle introduced the report which set out the Strategic Delivery Plan (SDP) which would become the strategic business plan for Kent County Council, which supported the delivery of the outcomes in the Strategic Statement.

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

a)    Mr Whittle and Ms Tidmarsh confirmed that although information relating to staffing, workforce and career pathways was not contained within the SDP, it would be covered in Adult Social Care and Health’s directorate strategies.

b)    Mr Whittle confirmed that he would liaise with Corporate Board to find out whether or not they wished to include recommendations from recent Select Committee meetings relating to social isolation within the Strategic Delivery Plan, as the Select Committee had not been concluded during the timeframe in which the plan had been developed.

c)    Mr Whittle said that a statistical analysis indicated that a projected 73% of shortlisted activity identified the need for strategic commissioning support.He talked about the advantages of the SDP, one key advantage being that the plan allowed officers to identify areas in need of strategic commissioning support more easily.

d)    Mr Whittle referred to the compliance risks that had been raised within the SDP in relation to the sufficiency of equalities and data protection analysis and recognised that the number of Equality Impact Assessments (EQIA) that were undertaken needed to increase. He added that the Corporate Management Team and the General Counsel were providing leadership on the issue to ensure that activity would be unable to proceed without having met compliance requirements and address any immediate risks.

e)    Mr Whittle said that many district Council’s in Kent had requested a refreshed Kent Design Guide to assist with planning documentation. He added that Kent County Council Member’s had commented on the need for environmental needs and place-shaping to be reflected more strongly within the SDP. He reassured Members of the Committee that the Leader of Kent County Council had recognised the need to refresh Kent County Council’s Strategic Statement.

f)     Mr Whittle referred to the new approach for Business Planning for 2019/20, for which a report was submitted to the Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee in June 2018 and said that elected Members had been actively engaged in the development of the SDP through the Commissioning Advisory Board, Political Group meetings and Member’s briefings. He added that a review of the business planning process would take place and a report on the review would be submitted to a future Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee meeting.

g)    Mr Whittle talked about integration and partnership working and emphasised the importance of public services collaborating and integrating with partners, working across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors and added that he recognised the need to review Kent County Council’s Voluntary and Community Sector policy.

h)    Mr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 144.

To receive a report which sets out a brief summary of the risks relating to adult social care.

Mr Mort (Customer Care and Operations Manager) was in attendance for this item.

1.          Mr Mort introduced the report which set out a brief summary of the risks associated with Adult Social Care.

a)    Mrs Southern talked about the risks that were associated with the Adult Social Care and Health system replacement from Swift to Mosaic and the future developments that were taking place.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which sets out progress against targets set for key performance and activity indicators for January 2019 for Adult Social Care.

1.          Mrs Southern introduced the report which set out the performance dashboard which provided Members with the progress against targets set for key performance and activity indicators for January 2019 for Adult Social Care.

a)    Ms Tidmarsh referred to the figures within the Performance Dashboard and highlighted the positive trend in individual’s that were able to remain independent for longer and said that fewer people required ongoing domiciliary care.

b)    Mr Gibbens (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) and Mr Thomas-Sam referred to a health inequalities tracker which was a key policy objective within the NHS’ long-term plan and Mr Thomas-Sam confirmed that he could provide further information to Members of the Committee outside of the meeting in relation to the work that Public Health were undertaking with Kent’s CCG’s on addressing health inequalities in Kent.

c)    Ms Tidmarsh referred to the figures which related to Social Care delays within the Performance Dashboard and commented on the positive progress that had been made throughout the last two years on improving delays within Social Care.

d)    Mr Gibbens, Mr Thomas-Sam and Mrs Southern referred to Adult Social Care’s Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) backlog project and explained the application process in relation to DoLS applications. Mr Gibbens said that the increasing number of DoLS applications was a national issue.

e)    Mrs Southern talked about the number of people in Kent with mental health needs that had been provided with care and support packages and said that the demand for care and support packages had been met.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

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

1.          RESOLVED that the work programme for 2019/20 be noted, subject to the inclusion of the following items:

• Annual Equalities Report
• Community Based Welling Service Contract Update
• Partnership Arrangements for the Provision of Mental Health Social Care and Health Services in Kent (19/00011)

RESOLVED that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following business as it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Exempt Items

(open access to minutes)

Ms Sheppard (Commissioning Manager - Community Support) and Ms Maynard (Head of Commissioning Portfolio - Outcome 2 and 3) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Ms Sheppard introduced the report which summarised the activity and outlined both the process and outcome of the procurement exercise for the provision of a Community Navigation and Social Prescribing Service.

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

a)    Ms Sheppard confirmed that a young carer’s contract was available within Kent’s Commissioning team for children and young people that cared for relatives with disabilities.

b)    Ms Sheppard talked about contract investments and the different types of service lots within the contract.

c)    Ms Sheppard emphasised the importance of communication and talked about the communication methods that were being used for both stakeholders and individuals.

d)    Ms Sheppard and Ms Maynard talked about the variety of providers that were available and explained the provider evaluation process.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.