Agenda and minutes

[The Chair to welcome everyone to the meeting. The Scrutiny Officer will then read out a list of those invited to the meeting to confirm who is in attendance.]

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 member of the panel:

Cllr Christopher Haynes

There were no declarations of interest recorded.

The panel members approved the minutes of the meeting held on 28 October 2022 as being a correct record.

[James Amphlett, Head of Data and Analytics and James Barlow, Finance Business Partner, to present report]

Becky Wilkinson, Director of Adult Services, introduced the report and advised the panel that it was the first time a collective performance and finance report has been presented. The presentation will include the service priorities and how they link to the Council Plan. The Director of Adult Services commented that feedback from the panel on the budget plans would be welcome.

The Director of Adult Services advised the panel that James Barlow, Finance Business Partner, would present budget section of the presentation and James Amphlett, Head of Data and Analytics, would present the performance section of the presentation.

James Barlow, Finance Business Partner, advised the panel of the annual budget setting consultation process and that the Council has a legal requirement to set a balanced budget each year, which includes corporate resources, for example, rates, fees and charges, and council tax grants, matches the expenditure for payments such as care packages, building costs and salaries.

The Finance Business Partner advised the panel that the latest budget update report was presented to Cabinet on 16 October 2022.  The involvement of scrutiny is an important part of the annual budget setting process. The Finance Business Partner commented that every year changes are made annually to the format to improve the way the information is presented, and panel feedback would be welcome.

The Finance Business Partner commented that the Council has a strong track record of setting a balanced budget and the feedback from the panel will be included in the report to Scrutiny Board in February 2023 and a further report presented to Council in March 2023. The Finance Business Partner invited James Amphlett, Head of Data and Analytics, to present the performance data for Quarter 2.

The Head of Data and Analytics advised the panel that are overall 56 KPIs in the Our City: Our Plan performance framework and at the quarter 2 period, 33 KPIs have shown improvement, 17 KPIs are yet to be updated and 6 KPIs have seen a decrease in performance, compared to the previous quarter. The missing information about KPIs will be updated following publication of the relevant national data sets.

The Head of Data and Analytics commented on the decrease in the KPI  percentage of adults with learning disabilities in paid employment and the changes in overall performance of the service area against four of the indicators in the Adult Social Care performance framework. The data is based on the national statutory returns published on 20 October 2022.

The Head of Data and Analytics invited the Finance Business Manager to present the details about the forecast budget position.

The Finance Business Partner commented on the summary forecast budget position statement was presented to Cabinet in November 2022 and gave details about the overall use of the budget.  Adult Services was at this stage forecast to have an underspend of £1.182m.  The Finance Business Manager gave details of areas which contributed to the forecast underspend estimate, for example, in adult safeguarding, the delay in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

[Laura Carter, Deputy Principal Social Worker, to present report]

The Chair invited Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to introduce the presentation. The Principal Social Worker advised the pane that Laura Carter, Deputy Principal Social Worker, would present the detailed presentation of highlights in The Adult Social Care Annual Report: The Local Account 2021 -2022.  

The Principal Social Worker commented that there is no mandatory requirement to publish the Local Account report, but it is good practice and shows public accountability to residents by sharing information about the quality of the care service provided. The Principal Social Worker outlined the purpose of the Local Account. 

Laura Carter, Deputy Principal Social Worker, gave a short presentation highlighting the changes made to the service in response to different challenges, how social care interventions has positively impacted on the lives of people who access the services, and the priorities for 2022 – 2023. 

The Deputy Principal Social Worker commented that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will be carrying out an assurance review from April 2023 which will assess performance against four areas of adult social care practice. 

The Deputy Principal Social Worker commented on the changes made to the structure and content of the report linked to the partnership work with Think Local Act Personal (TLAP). TLAP is a national partnership of more than 50 organisations committed to transforming health and care through personalisation and community based supported. The approach is based on a set of six principles focusing on issues that matter most to people and that makes a real difference to their lives. The Local Account has been structured around these six principles. 

The Deputy Principal Social Worker commented that the length of the report has been reduced by 46 to 27 pages, the use of jargon has been limited and accessible images (with the persons consent) and easy read language as part of the new approach to the drafting of the document. The Deputy Principal Social Worker added that report includes positive images of people with protected characteristics in response to previous feedback. 

Becky Wilkinson, Director of Adult Services, congratulated the Deputy Principal Social Worker about work done in preparing the annual report highlighting the effort to engage and involve the views of people which demonstrate good examples of the positive impact of social care interventions on the lives of local people.  The Director of Adult Services commented on work being done to prepare for the visit by the CQC. 

The panel were invited to comment on the report. 

The panel congratulated the presenter on the approach to involving local people and the work done to draft the report and effort to make it as accessible as possible. The panel welcomed the progress made and supported the future priorities of the service. The panel asked for their congratulations to be formally recorded. 

The panel suggested that they would welcome more details in safeguarding section of the next annual report reference to the work being done to address and prevent cases of ‘mate crimes’, where vulnerable adults with learning disabilities are  ...  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 report. The Scrutiny Officer commented on the agenda for the next meeting of the panel and suggested consideration given to rescheduling an item to a future meeting in view of the number of items. 

The Director of Adult Services suggested possible changes to draft agenda. The panel agreed that the issues should be discussed further in the agenda planning meeting.  

The panel were invited to share thoughts on areas they would like the reports to cover. 

Resolved: 

The panel agreed to note the report and proposed changes to the work programme.