Agenda item

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health, setting out how Adult Social Care is working with a range of partners to implement its End of Life Care Strategy against a national framework.  The committee is asked to comment on the Strategy and agree that an annual progress report be presented to the committee.

Mrs A Tidmarsh, Director for Older People and Physical Disability, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Mrs Tidmarsh introduced the report, which looked at the ambitions and development of palliative and end of life care and said that the local authority and health economies needed to work collectively to implement end of life care.

2.            A Member asked a question about the level of interaction and support offered to close family and friends when someone was approaching the end of their life. Mrs Tidmarsh said work had been carried out with carers and provisions had been put in place to support them.

3.            A Member asked a question about the national framework and how community was defined. Mrs Tidmarsh said that the majority of community support was provided by the voluntary sector, however, focus remained on what was important to the person receiving end of life care, protecting their dignity and looking at how the community offered support to them. This varied depending on individual need. Mrs Tidmarsh provided examples of community support in which people from a local village gathered to support someone with complex needs, all of which was organised via the local community, not via local authority intervention. A Member commented on the support provided by the Church, with which Mrs Tidmarsh agreed. A Member commented on the excellent work done by hospices and how crucial community funding was in supporting them.

4.            A Member asked a question about co-ordinated care and whether it was an intentional moving target, if this would be reflected in future reports and how often a review would be carried out. Mrs Tidmarsh said that the activity would be reviewed every year and there was an operational action plan that would be reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis. It was requested that action plans be brought to future meetings of the Cabinet Committee more often than once a year.

5.            A Member asked a question about the support given to staff around end of life care as they were undervalued. Mrs Tidmarsh said that it was a valuable point and agreed to look at this again as the bereavement of staff was just as important as that experienced by carers, families and friends.

6.            A Member asked a question about the training provided to GPs around end of life care. Mrs Tidmarsh said that this was instigated in East Kent and South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group and a nurse provided training on end of life care for staff and GPs. Whilst the NHS held responsibility for this, the local authority supported rolling this out throughout Kent and Medway.

7.            Mr Gibbens said that the End of Life Action Plan was an important piece of work and that, if endorsed by the Cabinet Committee, he would like to take a similar report to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

8.            RESOLVED that the information set out in the report and comments made by Members be noted, and an annual progress report be presented to the committee.