Agenda item

To provide Members of the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee with information relating to the current waiting list pressures in Adult Social Care and to provide reassurance regarding the actions being taken to reduce waiting lists for care assessments and reviews, for Medway residents.

Discussion:

The Head of Long-Term Care and Support introduced the report which provided Members with information relating to the current waiting list pressures in Adult Social Care and the actions being taken to reduce waiting lists for care assessments and reviews. Numbers in demand had increased, as had the complexity of cases, on an upwards trend since 2019. Adult Social Care rightsizing of the workforce and a restructure which came into force on 1 March 2025, was enabling there to be additional focus on tackling the backlog.

Members then raised a number of comments and questions, which included:

• Unplanned reviews – reference was made to the number of people waiting for an unplanned review, triggered by a change in their health or personal circumstances and concern about safeguarding around this for people who may be in crisis as a result. It was confirmed that officers were working hard to tackle the waiting list and that assessments were RAG rated to identify anyone in crisis who would still be seen the same day. Equally, clients on this particular waiting list were already in receipt of services and so those staff going in to see these clients helped to raise any concerns about wellbeing, enabling them to be reprioritised if necessary. Every effort was made to avoid people ending up as a hospital admission and close partnership working took place with Medway Community Healthcare to manage that.
• Rise in demand – in response to a question about why demand had risen by 21%, officers explained that exact reasons were not known but it was a trend mirrored within children’s services and nationally.  More work was needed to identify trends and whether there were ways of supporting people differently, as not all new referrals would require adult social care support.

·       Statistics request – a briefing note was requested to provide more information on the following:

o    Social work vacancies, including numbers in post, the number the service would ideally like, how many agency staff Medway was reliant on and how many social workers move on each year.

o    Deprivation of Liberty – numbers involved and additional information regarding that, for both community and residential.

o    More information on transition from children to adult services, particularly the numbers that do not move into adult services and why.

• Impact of Local Government Reform (LGR) – in response to a question about what impact LGR would have on the service, officers explained it was too early to tell. They confirmed that Kent County Council’s Care Quality Commission report identified the same challenges as Medway and there could be some positives in terms of larger economies of scale but until the configuration of the future unitary authorities was known, it would be difficult to establish any meaningful impact.
• Backlog support – in response to a question about how long the team put in place to address the backlog would take, officers were uncertain but were hopeful that it would be rapid and interim targets across the year had been set to monitor progress on the reduction in waiting lists.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report and requested a briefing note covering the following areas:

·         Social work vacancies, including numbers in post, the number the service would ideally like, how many agency staff Medway was reliant on and how many social workers move on each year.

·         Deprivation of Liberty – numbers involved and additional information regarding that, for both community and residential.

·         More information on transition from children to adult services, particularly the numbers that do not move into adult services and why.