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, 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.

Apologies were received from the following members of the panel:

Cllr Olivia Birch

Cllr Rashpal Kaur

There were no declarations of interest recorded.

The panel members approved the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2022 as being a correct record.

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

The Chair invited Becky Wilkinson, Director of Adult Services, to present the report. 

The Director of Adult Services advised the panel that the presentation is an update on report presented earlier in the year about Government proposed health and social care reforms. At that time there was a commitment to bring a more detailed update on the plans to a future meeting. 

Wolverhampton along with five other authorities were invited by the Department of Health and Social Care to participate in the Adult Social Care Reform Trailblazer. The aim of the plan was to test out how the introduction of the fair cost of care reforms would work in practice. The local authorities involved would share best practice from the implementation of the changes ahead of a national roll out of the scheme. The Director of Adult Services advised the panel that the trailblazer scheme is expected to start in January 2023 and the national rollout is planned for October 2023

The Director of Adult Services outlined the background to the Government’s proposals and the key objectives of the reforms, for example, from the plan to introduce a new cap of £86,000 on the amount anyone in England will have to spend on their personal care over their lifetime. 

The Director of Adult Services commented that the fair cost level will differ according to the area. There will also be changes to the social care means test for accessing local authority funding. The upper capital limit will increase from £23,250 to £100,000 and the lower capital limit will increase from £14,250 to £20,000.  

The Director of Adult Services advised the panel that there will be additional money from government to support the implementation of the reforms as it is expected that the current rate the Council pays for care will increase and the amount that self-funders pay will decrease. The Director of Adult Services commented on the benefits of being part of the trailblazer programme. 

The Director of Adult Services advised the panel that in addition to implementing the statutory requirements of the reforms those local authorities involved in the trailblazer would also need to implement specific non-statutory requirements.

The Director of Adult Services gave an update on the progress to date and the assessment of different risks linked to being involved in the trailblazer project. The Director of Adult Services commented on the good progress made to date and the success in recruiting additional social workers and other specialists to better understand the impact of the proposals. 

The response from home care providers has been good but there is an issue about engaging some care home providers, especially nursing care home providers. 

The Director of Adult Services reassured the panel that work is being done to improve the returns from care home providers and that overall, the work is on track to be completed by the deadline.

The Director of Adult Services advised the panel that work is being done to identify the number of self-funders in the city  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

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

The Chair invited Becky Wilkinson, Director of Adult Services, to present the report on the adult service transformation programme and the services being delivered to the residents of Wolverhampton. The Director of Adult Services outlined the vision for adult services and the key elements of the strategy for achieving it.

The Director of Adult Services commented on the impact of Covid 19 pandemic, and the changes made to the service model over the last few years, for example, embedding the ‘three conversations model’ into social work practice, taking a more local approach to delivering social care and understanding the needs of different parts of the community, and not simply telling people what they need.

The Director of Adult Services commented on the progress made since the Transforming Adult Services Programme Refresh was launched in January 2021.

The Director of Adult Services outlined the details of the previous transformation programme and the new transformation projects that have been introduced since June 2022. The Director of Adult Services commented on the importance of early help and prevention and supporting communities to provide for themselves. There will be a focus on adopting a more local approach to providing social care and understanding better what different parts of the community want and how to deliver it.

The Director of Adult Services commented that the level of demand for services is heavy on long term support and the probability is that once someone starts getting this level of care it will continue at this level into the future. The panel were reassured that the service is looking at what can be done earlier to prevent people from needing this level of long-term support in the future.

The Director of Adult Services gave further details of the new transformation projects in terms of their aims, expected outcomes, objectives, and progress to date.  The work on existing transformation programme will continue as it complements the work being done on the service redesign.

The Director of Adult Services highlighted the challenges of implementing a co-production in the development of a new approach to service redesign, which will involve having conversations with people rather than deciding for them what it is they need. The work on adult co-production approach is still to be scoped.

The Director of Adult Services invited panel members to share their ideas about how to engage with local people. Based on previous experience, the transformation is expected to take up to five years before the full impact will be seen, but there is hope that people will start to see a difference in the service by the end of this year.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report and extended their thanks and congratulations on the progress of the service redesign work.

The panel commented on the overall good progress made to implement projects aimed at delivering the aims of the transformation programme. The panel queried if the Early Help and Prevention project was on track to deliver support to families from October 2022.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

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

The Chair invited Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present the report. 

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the annual report details the progress report on the work done during 2021- 2022 in promoting and improving the quality of social work practice and the key priorities for 2022-2023. 

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the main remit of the work is around the retention of social workers, learning and development and quality assurance policies.

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the report covers both children’s and adult’s social work. 

The Principal Social gave a summary of the key highlights and areas of progress from adult’s social work and the work done to support excellence in social work practice.

The Principal Social Worker outlined the key priorities for 2022 – 2023. 

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that she will be supporting the Adult Service Transformation Programme, focusing on the preparation for Care Quality Commission regulation, and the implementation of the new social care charging reforms.

The Principal Social Worker commented that work is also being done to prepare social workers for the introduction of Liberty Protection Safeguards, which replaces the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards scheme. 

The panel were invited to ask questions and to comment on the report.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report and commented on the importance of having a benchmark of good practice. 

The panel expressed concern about the challenges in providing a quality of service due to the shortage of social workers and other experienced public sector workers which all affect the delivery of adult care services. The panel welcomed the plans for improving the recruitment and retention of social workers and the reduced use of agency workers.

The panel also welcomed the reference in the report to supporting social workers, and monitoring caseloads, and the importance of regular supervision in helping workers to manage work which can be very stressful.

The Principal Social Worker thanked the panel for the comments and the assessment of the challenges facing the service. The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the adult social care service is not having the same difficulties in recruiting to permanent vacancies, compared to children’s services. 

The Principal Social Worker acknowledged the issues of quality and increasing costs of recruiting agency workers and commented on the benefits of having an experienced peripatetic social work team that can help support social work teams during a period of increased demand. The Principal Social Worker commented on the importance of keeping people at the centre and listening to their experiences to help shape how services are delivered.

The Principal Social Worker discussed the importance supervision in supporting social workers and adopting a trauma informed practice approach. The Principal Social Worker outlined plans to discuss the issue at the next joint social work conference.

The panel congratulated the Principal Social Worker on the progress and key achievements detailed in the report. 

The panel asked for more details about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.