Agenda item

This report sets out the Quarter 4 / Year End Council Plan performance management report. 

Discussion:

The Director of Children and Adults introduced the quarter 4 year end Council Plan performance management report and she and the Research and Review Team Manager responded to Members’ questions.

The Director referred to the outstanding performance regarding hospital delayed discharges over the past year and said that none had been attributable to adult social care.  She paid tribute to the social workers in the hospital team.  She also announced that, now the final data for the year had been assessed, NI 133 timeliness of services commencing post-assessment, which had been a red target, was now green.

Responding to a request the Research and Review Team Manager undertook to provide the colour charts in A3 format in future to make them easier to read.

A question was asked about the handover with Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) and asked whether the outstanding issues had been resolved.   (This matter had been raised at the last special meeting).

The Director updated Members by stating that a briefing note had gone round to say that there was now access to the KMPT database, Rio, which had been a critical improvement.  She stated that access to Rio was vital particularly due to the nature of mental illness being episodic and it was important for the social work staff working with service users to understand the history of their condition.  A meeting would take place between commissioners and the Chief Executive of KMPT within the next month to make sure all outstanding issues had been addressed.

Discussion then took place about Appendix 3, the key targets for 2012/2013, in particular PH1 the number of adults taking part in healthy weight and exercise referral interventions which had been set for 1,000 when the outturn had shown an achievement of 1,030.  The Director of Public Health stated that the target had been set on the basis of a predicted outturn and she would be looking at this again with a view to increasing the 2012/2013 target.  She did stress, however, that this would be dependent on resources within her team.

In relation to the key measure LD1 adults with learning disabilities in employment and a request was made for information about the number of adults with learning disabilities employed by Medway Council. Officers undertook to inform members on the number of people with a learning disability employed by Medway Council.

The point was made that if the Council wished to persuade other employers to employ adults with learning disabilities it should be leading by example.  The Director agreed and stated that this had always been a challenging target and very difficult to achieve mainly because only those people eligible for services, and therefore classified as those with substantial or critical needs, could be counted within the figures so this was a limiting factor.  She welcomed any ideas from Members on how improvements could be made to ensure better outcomes for adults with learning disabilities.  Members queried what the Council was doing to try to resolve this issue and the Director cited examples of a service user being supported with a ‘travel buddy’ to help support the individual to travel to work in the Council as well as efforts being made through the Learning Disability Partnership Board, as this was a priority focus for them and they are well placed as a multi agency group, with Job Centre Plus.  She emphasised that it was important to ensure that employment was sustainable.  The current economic climate would inevitably affect the situation.

Decision: 

(a)   The report was noted with the comments as set out above;

(b)   Officers agreed to inform Members how many adults with learning disabilities Medway Council currently employ.