Agenda item

[Paul Smith, Head of Commissioning, and Linda Sanders, Strategic Director People, to present report]

Cllr Sandra Samuels (Cabinet Member for Adults), David Watts, Service Director, Adults and Paul Smith, Head of Commissioning presented for review and comment the draft People Directorate Commissioning Strategy ‘Shaping Futures and Changing Lives’.

Members of the Panel made the following observations on the draft strategy:

·         It was an ambitious document and its broad thrust was welcomed as a good way forward.

·         Investment in good quality officers would be crucial to the successful implementation of the strategy. The increase in the numbers of quality assurance officers was therefore welcomed. Conversely the ambitiousness of the strategy could mean that it might be difficult to quality assure.

·         A forward be written into the document to include statements:

-        that all of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 are to be fully consulted;

-        that organisations bidding for Council funding would need to respect the standards of the Equality Act and the Public Service Standards; and 

-        on the expectations from service commissioners to care providers.

(The Head of Commissioning agreed with the principle of this suggestion).

·         The strategy was unwieldy and difficult to navigate through to fully understand the picture of commissioning it was trying to portray.  It was missing information. Some of the terminology and jargon used was confusing and would possibly be meaningless to some i.e. the terms ‘stakeholder’, ‘market shaping activity’, ‘positive asset based approach’, ‘shaping futures’. It was also not clear to some of the Panel what was meant by ‘thematic approach to commissioning’ compared to the previous commissioning arrangements. These points should be addressed during the process of finalising the strategy.  A summary/easy read version of the strategy should also be produced to go out for the public consultation.

In response to questions, the Head of Commissioning and the Service Director, Adults reported that:

·         The risk to the delivery of the Strategy would be that it misses its target audience and as a result the wrong services are delivered. In order to mitigate that risk the correct consultation exercise would have to be delivered in order to find out stakeholders views.

One aim of the People Directorate’s draft Commissioning Strategy was to try and minimise some of the risks that may exist with having separate commissioning strategies in the thematic areas across the directorate.

·         The officer resource was in place to deliver the strategy.  The Council had invested £1.8 million of resources into commissioning in the directorate and it was expected that £90 to £100 million would be invested by third sector organisations.  The Council’s investment was incredible compared to its peer Authorities across the Black Country s and it was felt that the resources were appropriate. The number of Quality Assurance officers had increased.  A report had also been presented to Cabinet in March 2017 who approved investment of £1.1 million in additional fees into the city for all active domiciliary care providers and residential and nursery care in order to accommodate the needs of the National Living Wage.  The City Council therefore paid more for its homecare than our neighbouring Black Country Councils.

The Council had a stable home care market because of the fees it paid.  The Council had two care homes that ceased operating in the last twelve months.  The level of the fees paid by the Council meant that it was able, with minimal disruption, to rehouse the residents with a more sustainable and better quality of care. The best way to maintain this stability was to invest in quality assurance within the city.

The 2% precept enabled the People Directorate to fund the costs of the National Living Wage which contributed to there being a stabilised market.

·         Regarding monitoring of support/services provided, annual statutory reviews on peoples support takes place.  These are the face to face reviews.  The Directorate also had a number of forums with providers where the Service articulates its expectations to providers.

·         Regarding more funding for mental health services, the Directorate’s budget had been set for this year. A Scrutiny Review of Adult Mental Health Commissioning was shortly due to commence.  Once the recommendations from that review are published they would be used to undertake a review of commissioning mental health services.

·         Feedback from the consultation and engagement had been positive.  One comment was that the draft strategy document is unwieldy.  It was therefore intended to produce a user friendly version of the final document in different mediums.

·         It is not intended that the Strategy would mimic those of larger cities but would be contextualised for Wolverhampton’s situation.

·         Some of the terminology used in the Strategy was drawn direct from statute. The Care Act uses the phrase ‘market shaping’ and it is a statutory responsibility of the Director of Adult Social Services to ‘shape the market’.  All of the missing text, sources for demographic trends, and graph/picture references in the draft document would be completed in the final version of the strategy.  

An easy read version of the strategy would be produced for the consultations. The proposed public engagement documents would be circulated to members of the Panel.  The engagement would be much more than giving out documents.  The Directorate would also engage with people specifically and talk to them about their priorities in the language they understand.

The finalised version of the Strategy would be submitted to Cabinet on 19 July 2017 for approval.  There would be a six week consultation period on the Strategy.  It would commence soon after HealthWatch had completed its work to support to consultation process.  An updated strategy and the engagement documents would be forwarded to the Scrutiny Officer for circulation to the Panel.

·         Responsibility for the areas of overlap between the Health and People Directorate commissioning as depicted in the chart on page 50 of the draft strategy are generally picked by the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Resolved:

1.     That the draft People Directorate Commissioning Strategy be endorsed to go forward to Cabinet for approval subject to the abovementioned comments by the Panel regarding the inclusion of a Forward, the language used in the strategy, missing text, sources for demographic trends, and graph/picture references, being taken on board in the finalisation of the Strategy as well as the production of a user friendly/easy read version of the final document.

2.     That the proposed final engagement documents on the People Directorate Commissioning Strategy be circulated to members of the Panel.