Agenda item

To receive a verbal update from the Cabinet Member and Director on the issues listed.

1.    Mr G K Gibbens, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, announced the launch of the formal consultation for the Physical Disability Core Offer. The Physical Disability Core Offer involved reviewing all historic grants which funded services for people with physical disabilities, designing a service to meet needs equitably, being more inclusive and delivering better outcomes. The consultation would be open until 4 September 2017 and feedback or recommendations would be presented to the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee on 29 September 2017.

2.    Mr Gibbens spoke about a presentation on Loneliness which was made at the Community Wellbeing Board at the Local Government Association recently. This needed to be looked at as a major issue as Loneliness and Suicide was the biggest single killer in males under the age of 40.

3.    Mr Gibbens discussed the Social Care Integration seminar held by the County Council network and KPMG which looked at ways in which the new monies could be used most effectively and what needed to be achieved from the new money.

4.    Mr Gibbens spoke about the successful opening of the two new Extra Care Housing schemes. Locals in Tenterden and Dover said that they were pleased with how the scheme had changed over the years and could see improvements in the design and building of the Extra Care Housing. People with serious disabilities were able to live independently and were optimistic about their future.

5.    Mr Gibbens said the Autism Strategy launch had been greatly supported and the response to the launch had also been very positive. A Member commented on the success of the Autism Strategy launch and was pleased to hear that it had been supported.

6.    The Cabinet Member paid a tribute to the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, Andrew Ireland, and thanked him for the work that he had done for Adult Social Care over the last 6 years. Mr Ireland thanked Mr Gibbens and the Committee for their kind words.

7.    The Chairman paid a tribute to the Director of Commissioning, Mark Lobban, and thanked him for the work that he had done for Adult Social Care.

8.    Mr Ireland spoke about the greater clarity that had been received with regards to setting targets for NHS and Local Authorities. The overall position nationally was within the middle bracket and Kent County Council was far from a major cause of concern in terms of overall performance. There were 12 Local Authorities which the Care Quality Commission had been asked to inspect in relation to this issue.

9.    Mr Ireland discussed the work of the Associated Directors of Adult Social Services; the region to which Kent belongs was doing a lot of focused work around hospital discharge to enable Authorities to have greater clarity on their current position. However, the national reporting of the data could become out of date quickly. As a region, the aim was to develop a template and protocol that provided more up to date information. In addition, Mr Ireland said that Anne Tidmarsh was currently working on the high impact of the changes around hospital discharge.

10. Mr Ireland said that the Transformation programme was coming towards the end of the design phase and would be reporting through various Committees in September 2017.

11. Resolved that the verbal updates be noted, with thanks.