Agenda item

This annual report provides a summary of Medway’s performance for 2013/14 against its priorities, which it set out in The Council Plan 2013/15. The following information against the relevant Council priority is provided for this committee:

• Performance against Key Measures of Success
• Updates on Key projects
• Customer feedback from our Quarterly Tracker phone survey

Discussion: 

The Director of Children and Adults stated that she would welcome questions from Members and drew attention to the improved performance in the indicators relating to services for carers which put the Council in a good position to respond to the new requirements under the Care Act 2014.  The Deputy Director, Children and Adults clarified the differences between the adult social care survey and the feedback received in relation to the Adults Mental Health Social Work Team which had been moved back in-house.

The Committee then raised questions and discussed a number of issues including:

·        General observation The comment was made that the short trends were performing better than the long trends.  It was also agreed that, in view of the importance of dealing with this report more robustly the item should be placed earlier on the agenda for future meetings.

·        The proportion of people with learning difficulties who use services who say that those services have made them feel safe and secure Members were disappointed that this trend was on a downward trend. The Deputy Director, Children and Adults referred to new data received which indicated an upward trend in the proportion of people who use services who say that those service have made them feel safe and secure.

·        Numbers completing the MEND programme it was felt that the targets were rather modest.  The Director of Public Health stated that it had proved challenging to get people to use the MEND programme but the Change4Life programme had proved a more flexible way of helping people with losing weight and living more healthily.  She did acknowledge that more needed to be done.

·        Rate of self-reported 4 week smoking quitters aged 16 or over it was disappointing to see the trend down and a question was asked as to whether this was affected by use of e-cigarettes.  The Director of Public Health stated that the downward trend was reflected in results nationally but highlighted that Medway was 13^th in the country in getting people to commence the smoking cessation programme and 40^th out of 152 as far as the quitting rate was concerned.

·        Number of adults taking part in healthy weight and exercise referral interventions

Questions were asked as to what more could be done to encourage people to take part in these interventions.  The Director of Public Health confirmed that it was often difficult for GPs to raise the issue of obesity with their patients.  The Chief Clinical Officer, NHS Medway CCG referred to ongoing improvements in primary care which meant it would be easier for data to be collected and used by GPs to address obesity issues with patients.

·        Support for victims of domestic abuse a Member at the meeting commended this support.

·         Support for carers  Further detail was given by the Deputy Director, Children and Adults about the types of support that carers requested which were often very modest and related to support with housework, gardening etc.

·        Better for less In response to a question the Deputy Director, Children and Adults explained how the three community hubs were being used and the ways in which there had been an increase in services available to people there including a signer who attends once a week to assist service users to access information about Council services. Members were particularly pleased to hear details of the Changing Places programme, which provided changing facilities in Rochester community hub with a hoist to accommodate adults or children.  He undertook to provide more detail about the usage of the hubs.

Decision: The report was noted.