Agenda item

This report provides an update on the Adult Social Care Transformation programme and outlines the 2018/19 Transformation Projects.

Discussion

The report updated the Committee on the Council’s Transformation Programme within Adult Social Care. Each of the Council scrutiny committees was receiving an update on the areas of the Transformation Programme relevant to their terms of reference. The focus of the report was Adult Social Care. Key themes included making financial savings through transformation, organisational change and use of technology, including mobile working. Investment in Transformation was leading to savings being made. It was confirmed that the Council was implementing the ‘Tell us Once’ programme, with it being anticipated that this would be running in six to eight weeks.

Questions asked by Committee Members were responded to as follows:

Blue Badge delays and customer choice – A Committee Member said that there was a need to improve communication with residents and that it had been the Council’s choice to make services digital. He highlighted poor and inconsistent communication in relation to Blue Badges for disabled drivers. Another Committee Member said that Blue Badges had to be applied for online, rather than via a paper form, which was not something she found easy. She had, therefore, had to ask someone to help her with her application. The Member had been told that it would take two to three weeks for someone to be available to help her to apply over the phone.

The Assistant Director – Transformation apologised that service users were finding the application process difficult. The use of online systems had been mandated by central Government and the system had been changed without notice. The concerns raised about communication were acknowledged. With regards to Council provided services, customers were not being forced to access them digitally. Assisted digital support was provided in Community Hubs with over 300 applicants for Blue Badges, or their carers, having been supported. It was anticipated that many of these would not need support in the future but this would be provided where required. The Assistant Director undertook to investigate the 2-3 week timeframe highlighted for the Member to be provided phone support with their application. Software had been purchased that would allow customers to log in and see the current status of all their transactions with the Council, including Blue Badges. The system would be rolled out from 1 April 2019, with as many as possible Council services being added to the system over the next year. The system also enabled automated messages to be sent to update customers on the status of their application. This would reduce the need for people to phone the Council for updates.

Adult Social Care Restructure and Shared Lives – A Member asked for an update on the restructure of Adult Social Care and on the Shared Lives Services. She sought assurances on what steps would be taken when difficulties were encountered by a client placed by the scheme.

The Assistant Director, Adult Social Care said that the substantive restructure of Adult Social Care had been completed 18 months previously. The service had changed its delivery model to enable clients to be appropriately supported, regardless of need. A locality model was now used rather than separate teams for specific groups, such as older people, people with disabilities or people with mental health needs. The Three Conversations Model had been introduced across the service. There had been significant staff engagement in the 18 months since the restructure to engage with staff in order to ascertain what further improvements could be made. Previously, the locality teams had been split between an early help and prevention team and a long term team. This resulted in clients being handed from a staff member in one team to staff member in another team and them not being supported as effectively as they could be. Localities now had combined teams in order to address this. Where safeguarding concerns were identified, clients would be supported through the safeguarding process and the same staff member would work with them throughout. Work had been undertaken with frontline staff to design new ways of working.

Shared Lives supported people to enable them to live more independently and reduce the number of adults with a disability entering residential or nursing care. One of the key priorities of the Adult Social Care Transformation Programme is to increase the number of people supported by a Shared Lives Carer. The Shared Lives Service had been inspected recently by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The outcome of this had been good. The CQC had considered the quality of the vetting process, how appropriate screening was used and whether there were good matches between service users and host families. It was considered that good support was provided for shared lives carers. Work was taking place with Shared Lives Plus, the national network for Shared Lives carers, to support further improvement and transformation of the service. A recent workshop with shared lives carers and cared for people had discussed ideas for improvement.

Decision

The Committee considered the report and the project update report provided.