Agenda and minutes

[The Chair to welcome everyone to the meeting.]

Cllr Val Evans, Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised it was being live streamed to the press and public. A recording of the meeting would be available for viewing on the Council’s website at a future date.

[The Chair will explain how the meeting will proceed.]

Cllr Evans explained the protocol to be followed during the meeting for asking questions.

Apologies were received from the following:

Cllr  Dr Michael Hardacre

No declarations of interest recorded.

Minutes of Meeting 21 March 2023 approved as correct record.

[Becky Wilkinson, Director of Adult Services, to present briefing]

The Chair invited Becky Wilkinson, Director of Adult Services (DAS), to present the briefing.

The DAS advised the panel that when the review was originally scheduled in June 2023 to be presented the Covid-19 count situation was zero. However, the updated Covid-19 situation reflects a changed situation where there have been nine outbreaks in care homes of infectious diseases since June 2023 and two of the outbreaks are ongoing. There has recently been increase in the number of infection cases as the weather has started to change.

The DAS gave a summary of the headlines and background to statistics relating to Adult Services, for example, overall service users are now above pre-pandemic numbers with over 4,000 people with an active service agreement, care home numbers are beginning to show an upward trend, which dropped significantly during Covid 19 pandemic.

The DAS advised that at the time of the original update there were no outbreaks of Covid-19 cases in care homes, but recently there has been an increase.

The DAS commented on changes to testing regime for Covid-19 and not as many tests are being done. The spring Covid-19 booster campaign had a low initial uptake across care home residents at the time but since then there is evidence of improved uptake of booster vaccines. A further vaccine booster rollout programme by Primary Care Networks to all care home residents will be completed by 22 October 2023

The Director added that the Infection Prevention and Control Service will continue to support care homes and has offered to provide a range of training to all care home settings in preparation for the winter months. The situation will be reviewed in conjunction with colleagues in health and public health.

The Director commented that the way Covid -19 is managed has changed in recent months and people will be tested if they are immunosuppressant.  The advice from Public Health England is that general testing should not be done and there is evidence of a rising numbers of Covid -19 cases.

The expectation is that the number of flu and Covid 19 cases will increase ahead of the winter period. The rollout of the autumn vaccine booster programme including care home residents, and front-line care, health and social care workers is expected to help keep the number of cases under control.

The Director reassured the panel that the service will continue to with colleagues in the sector to manage the situation in best way possible.

The Chair thanked the presenter for the update and invited panel members for their comments and questions.

A panel member queried if in response to rising numbers of infection cases in care homes, a decision will be made to close them and asked for more information about the plans for supporting care homes in a situation when residents are not being routinely being tested.

The Director commented that the Council works closely with care home providers so that do tests. If more than one member of care staff or a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

[Becky Wilkinson, Director of Adults Social Care, to jointly present report withPaul Tulley, Wolverhampton Managing Director Integrated Care Board , Sian Thomas, DCOO at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Partnership Director, OneWolverhampton, and Rachel Murphy, Head of Adult Services]

The Chair invited Becky Wilkinson Director of Adults Social Care, to introduce the report.

The Director advised the panel the presentation would be given jointly with the following representatives - Paul Tulley, Wolverhampton Managing Director Integrated Care Board, Sian Thomas, DCOO at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Partnership Director RWHT and Rachel Murphy, Head of Adult Services.

The Director gave a brief explanation of the One Wolverhampton Partnership role in the development of the draft Winter Plan document.

The partnership was based on previous joint work done in response to national changes to Integrated Care Board and Integrated Care Systems. The One Wolverhampton Partnership Board brings together representatives from social care, primary care, voluntary and community organisations and local GPs.

The aim is to work together to ensure that people in Wolverhampton have the right care in the right place at the right time and work better together with a focus on health inequalities.

The Director commented that the draft Winter Plan is a result of 12 months’ work with partners and is a good example of how the partnership arrangement are working. The Director added that Paul Tulley, Wolverhampton Managing Director Integrated Care Board and Sian Thomas, DCOO at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust were invited to contribute to the presentation and reflects the close working relationship among the partner organisations involved.

The Director advised the panel that current draft builds on the lessons learnt from the key initiatives developed in the previous Winter Plan presented for comment and the aim is to build on what worked and did not work.

The work on the Winter Plan started in July 2023. The Director commented that the quality of the Winter Plan was recognised by the Kings Fund and the partnership has been working with the organisation, who have provided advice and feedback, on how the Board can work better together taking a whole system approach.

The Director commented that the essential aim of the Winter Plan is to keep people in the right place at the right time and that they get the right care. The work is monitored by the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Strategic Working Group. The Director listed the priorities of One Wolverhampton UEC and highlighted the focus on how partners work together to discharge people from hospital in a timely way and a shared approach to manage demand.

The Director invited Paul Tulley, Wolverhampton Managing Director Integrated Care Board to comment on the current position as regards levels of demand and bed capacity.

The Managing Director advised the panel that as part of preparing for winter period hospitals were asked by Government to look at their bed base position and analyse what happened in the last winter. The Managing Director gave details of the future projections about the number of people expected to be admitted to hospital and commented on the best-and worst-case scenario based on current modelling assumptions about who will be coming into hospital. The modelling work predicts a worse case  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

[Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present report]

The Chair invited Jenny Rogers, Principal Social Worker (PSW), to present the report.

The PSW advised the panel that the report is published annually. The report details an assessment of social work practice across Children’s and Adult’s Services during 2022 - 2023 and the main priorities for 2023 - 2024.

The PSW advised the panel that this is a joint role covering children’s and adults and the main remit is the recruitment and retention of social workers and social work staff given the national challenges in this area.

The PSW is also responsible for overseeing learning and development, quality assurance. The team manged by the PSW is responsible for overseeing policies and procedures, as well as inspection activity, including now CQC assurance activity. The annual report covers children’s and adults social work, but the focus of the presentation would be on adults as this is within the remit of the panel.

The PSW outlined the key areas of responsibility covered by the role and achievements and progress to date.

The PSW outlined the key priorities for 2023-2024.

The issue of recruitment and retention will remain a key priority. ThePSW commented that further work planned to develop the Quality Assurance Framework and the feedback from people receiving services was seen as being central to understanding what good social work practice looks like.

The PSW highlighted the work of the team in developing the quality assurance frameworks and associated quality assurance activity for Adults, SEND and Children’s Services.

The PSW also the plans to support the wellbeing of social workers by looking at a trauma informed approach across the service. The work will cover trauma informed supervision, training for social managers, and seeing what more can be done in terms of policies and procedures to reduce the risk of secondary trauma and provide help and support. The PSW highlighted the issue of secondary trauma as important area of work.

The DAS commented that the role of PSW is a statutory role and there is a commitment to keep the independence of the role to allow. The DAS commented on the critical friend role of the PSW in reviewing and raising concerns about policy and decision making. The DAS highlighted an example where she was challenged by the PSW to ensure the Council is compliant with the requirements of the Care Act 2014.

The DAS wanted to formally record her appreciation for the work done by the PSW, highlighting examples of excellent work done during the year and that she should be proud of achievements detailed in the annual report.

The panel endorsed the comments about the excellent work and professionalism of the PSW in meeting her responsibilities.

A panel member queried the issue raised when a similar report was presented and the request at the time that the figures should be shown alongside percentages used to give context to the assessments being made. A request was made to check this information is included in future reports to the panel.

The PSW advised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

[Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, to present report]

The Chair invited Martin Stevens (DL) (Scrutiny Lead) to present the report.

The Scrutiny Lead advised the panel of the report items scheduled for the rest of the municipal year.

The panel agreed to add an update report on impact of the Winter Plan to the work programme for 2024-2025.

The Chair thanked the presenter for the report.

Resolved:

1. The panel agreed to note the annual report.

2. The Director of Adult Services to present an update on the Winter Plan to panel in 2024.