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. Cllr Evans advised that she was not expecting any exempt or restricted items on the agenda. 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, how questions are to be asked and any matters of meeting etiquette.]

Cllr Evans explained the protocol to be followed during the meeting for asking questions and reminded everyone that microphones should be muted and cameras off, unless they have been invited to speak.

Apologies were received from the following members of the panel:

·       Councillor Rupinderjit Kaur

·       Councillor Rashpal Kaur

Cllr Anwen Muston declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 7 as a relative receives personal care arranged by the local authority.

The panel members voted and approved the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2021 as being a correct record.

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

The Chair invited Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present her report to the panel. The Principal Social Worker (PSW) advised the panel that the 2020 -21 annual report sets out the progress made during the year and key priorities identified 4for 2021-2022. The report details the work of the PSW in improving the quality of social work practice across both children’s and adult’s services.

The PSW commented that a key area of work has been the response of the service to the Covid-19 pandemic and maintaining the safety and wellbeing of social workers. The PSW advised the panel that new policies were developed in response to the pandemic.

The PSW was responsible for leading the Council’s response to Care Act easements, which allowed adult social care providers to re-prioritise their resources if there was a spike in demand for lower priority needs and if met would mean the Council being unable to meet their statutory duties.

The panel were advised that local guidance was drafted after a short public consultation which had positive responses, including an easy read version, however it was not necessary to implement to any changes to the process.

The PSW advised the panel that she supported social work teams to consider legal and human rights challenges for people living in care home and the need to reduce the risk of infection by restricting visits by their carers and relatives.

A key role of the PSW is ensuring the quality of social work practice and support continual learning and improvement of social workers. The PSW led on quality assurance activity in adults during 2020-2021. The percentage of audited case files rated as ‘good’ or above decreased slightly from 83 percent (2019-2020) to 78 percent (2020-2021). The reduction in quality may have been due to the early impact of the pandemic as social workers adjusted to different ways of working. 

The PSW advised the panel the situation has since improved and in January 2021, 90 percent of case files were rated as being ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ as result of changes in social work practice. The PSW advised the panel of the findings from an external peer review challenge of social work practice completed in October 2020. The case files examined during the review were consistently rated as ‘good’ and there were no causes for concern.

The PSW commented on the work done to develop and deliver the recruitment and retention plan with colleagues in Human Resources, Organisations Development and Communications Team. The PSW outlined a range of other initiatives aimed at supporting the current and future workforce and to further embed good practice.

The Chair invited the panel to comment on the report.

The panel thanked the PSW for the report, which was well presented, and covered progress made during the year in response to the challenges, particularly the pandemic.

The panel queried reasoning for the conclusions about the quality of social work practice based on sample of 80 cases which represents about two percent of people  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

[Becky Wilkinson, Deputy Director Adult Services, to present report]

Emma Bennett, Director of Children’s and Adult Services, introduced the report to the panel on behalf of Becky Wilkinson, Deputy Director Adult Services, who had submitted apologies for the meeting.

The Director outlined the progress from earlier consultation on Government proposals to make it mandatory for care home staff, volunteers, ancillary and visiting professionals to receive the COVID vaccination. The consultation was done between April and May 2021 and included staff, residents, providers and families.

The Director advised the panel that following the consultation the Government announced that the proposal would be implemented. The proposal was approved in Parliament last week and will be considered by the House of Lords. If the proposal is approved, it will be implemented in October 2021.

The Director advised that any worker entering a care home will need to have received double vaccination and the Government are also considering extending the mandatory vaccines rule to include the flu vaccination.

The Director updated the panel on the current vaccine situation in Wolverhampton care homes.

 The Director advised that the number of care home staff who have refused to be vaccinated has reduced from 500 to 310 since the report was published.

The number of care home residents who have been vaccinated has increased to about 94 percent. It is estimated that 85 percent of care home staff have now been double vaccinated. The Director advised the panel that it is unlikely that the percentage of residents vaccinated will increase any further, this may be due to a small cohort of residents either refusing or who have a medical exemption.

The service is working with those care homes where they have less than 100% staff vaccination rate.

The Director briefed the panel on the most common reasons given for ‘outright refusals’ when asked, for example concerns about the impact of the vaccine on fertility. There is work being done to better understand the concerns of people in the group who are not medically exempt, and focus efforts on persuading them about the safety of the vaccine.

The Director briefed the panel on the potential impact on the Council and the care market of the proposed changes. The Director highlighted the risk that the change will reduce the supply of care workers at the time when the sector is recovering from the impact of the pandemic and shortage of workers in retail and hospitality services. This development has led to care workers moving away from the sector as lockdown measures ease attracted by higher wages. The Director also highlighted the increased costs for the sector as fewer people are working in the sector, which has led to an increase in the hourly rate and agency costs.

These changes will increase costs for the Council and the fees paid by residents if there are fewer permanent staff in the market and the greater use of agency staff.

The Director briefed the panel about the work being done across the Council and with the care home sector on vaccination  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

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

The Chair invited Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, to present the draft work programme report.

The Scrutiny Officer outlined the criteria for suggesting topics for the work programme and the opportunity to add extra meeting dates, if needed. The Scrutiny Officer added that there was also the opportunity for panel members to meet informally with lead officers on matters of interest and report findings to a future meeting. The Scrutiny Officer briefed the panel about future work programme items and invited panel members to comment on the draft document.

The panel discussed the issue of increased cases of domestic violence during the pandemic and suggested this should be included as part of the report on safer city theme for the panel meeting in October 2021. The panel requested details of the support for people in Wolverhampton and suggested inviting representatives of community organisations to also share their experiences at the meeting. The panel agreed to invite representatives of The Haven to the panel meeting.

The panel welcomed the future agenda item on the care home fees in view of the comments made about the impact of the pandemic on the finances of care home and evidence to suggest people are looking at alternative forms of care.

The panel requested details of the membership and remit of the Safety Advisory Group. The Scrutiny Officer agreed to investigate and arrange for the information to be sent to panel members.

The panel agreed to add an extra panel meeting in March 2022 to the schedule.

Resolved:

1.    The panel agreed to note the report.

2.    The panel agreed to add the 16 March 2022 to the schedule of meetings for 2021- 2022.

3.    The panel work programme to be updated to include suggested additional items and comments from the panel.

4.    The Scrutiny Officer to send panel members details of the membership and terms of reference of the Safety Advisory Group.