Agenda and minutes

To approve the record of the meeting held on 25 January 2011.

The record of the meeting held on 25 January 2011 was agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct. 

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Jones, Murray and Sheila Kearney. 

The Chairman will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he/she has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report. 

There were none. 

(a)               Personal interests under the Medway Code of Conduct.

A Councillor who declares a personal interest in a matter, including the nature of the interest, may stay, speak, and vote on the matter.

(b)               Prejudicial interests under the Medway Code of Conduct.

A Councillor who declares a personal and prejudicial interest in a matter, including the nature of the interest, must withdraw from the room and take no part in the debate or vote on the matter.

Councillors who have declared a personal and prejudicial interest may make representations, answer questions and give evidence before leaving the room but only if members of the public are allowed to attend for the same purpose.

If an interest is not declared at the outset of the meeting, it should be disclosed as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

(c)               Whipping – the Council’s constitution also requires any Member of the Committee who is subject to a party whip (ie agreeing to vote in line with the majority view of a private party group meeting) to declare the existence of the whip and the nature of it before the item is discussed.

Shirley Griffiths, LINk Co-ordinator, declared a personal interest by virtue of being a member of Medway NHS Foundation Trust, Medway Older People’s Forum and a GP Patient Forum Member. 

This report is the main theme of this meeting and will be to initiate discussions on the topic of transition from children’s to adult services for children with a disability and invite partners, service users and their families to contribute.   A guest speaker will also attend.  

Discussion:

The Chairman welcomed partners, officers, service users and their families and the guest speaker Nic Crosby to the meeting.

The Director of Children and Adults gave a brief introduction stating the importance of making sure that transition was as smooth as possible from childhood to adulthood for children with a disability. 

The Commissioning Manager, Aiming High for disabled children, illustrated through a route map the processes set out for transition and explained the inter-agency working which enabled this to happen.  He gave an overview of the contents of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Green Paper, which had just been produced.  One of the important suggestions in the Green Paper was the need for a single assessment process and the introduction of an Education, Health and Care Plan from early years to adulthood, regularly updated, replacing Statements.

Other issues identified were the need for a broad range of education and learning opportunities post 16, employment opportunities and support and a co-ordinated transition to adult health services.   

He explained that the Medway Transition Strategy, which was currently being developed, should encourage:

• Strategic joint partnership working
• Joint assessment processes
• Personalised approaches - `Getting a Life’
• Post 16 opportunities
• Involvement of Medway Parent and Carers Forum.

Nic Crosby from In Control, a national charity which supports independent living, then gave examples of where personal budgets had transformed the lives of young people in different areas of the country.  He referred to the case of a young disabled person in Newcastle who, through a more innovative way of using his budget, had involved other young people of a similar age to socialise with him regularly in place of an older Personal Assistant having to take him out.  By a more focussed use of her budget his mother was able to go back to work and use that budget at times when her son had a seizure to put in support from people who her son trusted.  As such the budget enabled him to attend events of his choice and to live more independently.

He referred to another project in Sheffield, which had enabled young disabled people to attend their local college rather than having to move away to a residential college.  One young person there had been assisted to turn his interest in gardening into a new skill by employing an expert to train him.

Anton Smith, from Shoutout, a self advocacy group for adults with learning disabilities in Medway then introduced a DVD produced by the group expressing views on the Transition Strategy being developed in Medway.

The DVD set out the frustrations of the group at the difficulties they experienced in getting employment and acceptance and identified clearly the things that were important to them.  They emphasised the importance of being involved directly in the Transition Strategy.

David Hinks, co-chairman of the Medway Learning Disability Partnership Board requested a place on the Transition Strategy Steering Group for a young person with learning disabilities and stressed the importance of people with learning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 860.

To consider a report back from the independent consultant who has been investigating Medway’s adult safeguarding service.  A Member task group set up to consider safeguarding vulnerable adults will contribute to this item at the meeting. 

Discussion:

Tony Benton, independent consultant, gave a presentation on his findings in respect of safeguarding of vulnerable adults in Medway.  He explained that he had been invited to undertake the review by the Committee and also by the Assistant Director, Adult Social Care to drive forward improvements in the service and improve outcomes for service users.  A secondary purpose was to assist with preparation for a future inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

He then outlined the key findings of the review, the areas of strengths and achievements and the areas in need of further development.  He praised the work undertaken to improve publicity about adult safeguarding which had generated an increase of 17% in referrals.  He also pointed out that as the lead for adult safeguarding in Medway, Medway Council took its role very seriously and he was particularly impressed by the positive attitude of the staff that worked across all agencies on the safeguarding of vulnerable adults.

The main areas for development and challenges were identified as follows and it was stated that the Council needed to:

• Develop awareness raising strategies that target specific professional groups (such as GPs), businesses and communities of interest
• Develop an approach to auditing work under the Mental Capacity Act that focused on quality and outcomes
• Ensure that adult social care made a more distinct and visible contribution to the community safety agenda
• Ensure, through review, that staff in the Customer First Team received safeguarding training that is geared to their specific role and responsibilities
• Implement the following recommendations made as a result of the case file audit which were:
  1. Develop a case file audit regime for safeguarding case work in Medway adult services and Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT)
  2. Develop an improved plan that addresses the areas for development identified through the audit
  3. Develop a high level flowchart that maps the key stages of the safeguarding process and associated time targets
  4. Develop an approach that collects qualitative feedback from people who have been through the formal safeguarding process
  5. Organise an audit workshop specifically geared to the needs of KMPT staff

• Ensure that staff working in the Customer First Team are confident that they can maintain the privacy of customers, some of whom will be calling when under stress and may have hearing impairments.  Feedback from customers should inform such a review.

Members thanked Tony for his helpful presentation and for the review he had undertaken and requested the Director of Children and Adults to pass on their congratulations to staff involved in the safeguarding of vulnerable adults.

Officers responded to Members questions and it was suggested that the Member task group should review progress within a year.  The Acting Chief Executive of NHS Medway undertook to clarify the advice given to GPs about their duties to protect vulnerable adults over and above the requirement to maintain patient confidentiality under the Data Protection Act.  As GP’s took on responsibility for commissioning she felt they would need to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 861.

To consider a report on the quarter 3 performance against the Council Plan 2010-2011.

Discussion:

The Director of Children and Adults gave a brief introduction to the third quarter Council Plan monitoring report and explained that the Council was working hard to remedy the areas identified as being not on target.  Responding to a query she stated that Carers First had been given trusted assessor status to deal with the carer’s assessments and it was accepted that this was not yet satisfactory. 

Members queried the fact that the data in the report was three months out of date and it was suggested that Members should be made aware earlier when things were not going well.  The Director of Children and Adults and the Assistant Director, Adult Social Care reassured Members that action was being taken in respect of the targets which were under performing and that historically this type of performance data would always show direction of travel.  The new performance management data should be more helpful in this regard and would also relate to numbers of people involved rather than merely percentages, which were less helpful.

Decision:

The report was noted.

To consider whether to add to or amend the current work programme and to update Members on any developments since the last meeting. 

Discussion:

The Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinator advised Members that at a Member briefing on 8 March the Acting Chief Executive of NHS Medway had undertaken to provide an update on phlebotomy at the next meeting.  There would also be a consultation report on the proposed merger of Medway Maritime Hospital with Darent Valley Hospital.

A report on progress with setting up the GP consortia and transition arrangements was requested for the next meeting.

Responding to a question, the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinator explained that should the safeguarding vulnerable adults task group be reconvened in a year’s time this would count as one of the maximum of three task groups set up by Overview and Scrutiny Committees agreed at a recent meeting of the Council.  On this basis Members decided to agree to a progress report in a year’s time rather than reconvening the task group.

Decision:

The Committee noted:

(a)               that the carer’s support task group would report back in the autumn

2011;

(b)               that for the 23 June meeting there would be

·                    an update report on phlebotomy to the next meeting;

·                    a report on the proposed merger between Medway Maritime Hospital and Darent Valley Hospital;

(c)               an update on the setting up of the GP consortia and transition arrangements would be provided in a briefing note from the Acting Chief Executive, NHS Medway;

(d)               a report on the progress made with the safeguarding of vulnerable adults recommendations would be brought to a meeting of this Committee in a year’s time.