Agenda and minutes

Councillor Jane Kidd declared an interest in Agenda Item 6 by virtue of being an employee of SYCIL.

Councillor R.Allan Jones declared an interest in Agenda Item 7 by virtue of being a Board Member of St Leger Homes of Doncaster.

The minutes were approved as a true record.

[A period not exceeding 20 minutes for statements from up to 5 members of the public on matters within the Committee’s remit, proposing action(s) which may be considered or contribute towards the future development of the Committee’s work programme.]

There were no public statements made.

The Chair welcomed Mayor Ros Jones and Deputy Mayor Glyn Jones along with Officers to the meeting and invited Patrick Birch, Assistant Director of Improvement, to discuss issues around Adult, Health and Wellbeing.

ADULTS, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

In respect of Transforming Adult Social Care Services, concern was raised that it wasn’t progressing quickly enough.  It was noted that Doncaster historically had a high reliance on residential places compared to other local authorities.  Members were informed that a strategy in place to reduce this by one or more a week had not been successful and that the demand for places had risen by 5 per week.  Members were informed that information gathered for the Quarter 3 performance report should provide more clarity and more accurate data.

In respect of preventative measures, Members were informed that there were a number of areas being looked at, which included;

·         Customer contact and response.

·         Community capacity and resources – what were the issues and what could the wider community achieve?

·         Changes in culture – currently there was a tendency for residential care to be referred to in the first instance rather than being used as a last point of call.  Members were informed that Doncaster Council officers were working collectively with health colleagues to look at this area.

·         Commissioning the right services rather that re-contract them.

Members expressed strong concern about the problems within Adult Social Care and the decisions that would need to be taken.  In terms of residential care placements paid for by Doncaster Council, Members were informed that there were now an additional 400 placements which at £500 per week per person resulted in around £25,000 per annum additional cost to the Council.  Members were informed that action was now being undertaken to address the £2m overspend in order to bring this budget back in line although other solutions may take longer.

The Mayor added that monthly projections were being reviewed and steps taken to make sure that figures and projections were robust and timelines were in place.  It was recognised that there was a significant undertaking to reduce the number of placements to bring Doncaster’s residential care levels back in line with the other areas.

Action: OSMC Quarter 3 report to include outline of alternatives proposals.

Members were told that there was an ambition expressed by many individuals to return back home.  It was commented that there was a tendency to treat commissioning like contracts without considering the desired outcomes.  It was noted that Directors had been asked to take a lead role in commissioning to take a collective view.  Finally, it was recognised that there had been some disconnection with the voluntary communities which needed to be changed. 

The Deputy Mayor added that Adults and Social Care both needed improving upon both structurally and financially, that an Adults Improvement Board had been set up and an Assistant Director of Improvement in place to drive through the necessary changes.  It was noted that an Interim Director of Adults, Health and Wellbeing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

The Committee welcomed Julie Crook, Director of Corporate Services to the meeting, thanking her for her attendance to present the report which provided information on St Leger Homes of Doncaster’s performance for Quarter 2. The report aimed to highlight areas in which SLHD were performing well and raise any areas of concern.

Out of the ten key performance indicators, it was noted that five were currently on target, two were within the ‘acceptable’ tolerance levels, and three were below target, these being as follows

•           Void Rent Loss

•           Days Lost to Sickness per Full Time Equivalent

•           Percentage of invoices paid within 30 days

It was reported that work was being done on all of these indicators in order that these were addressed and improvements made.  The following was raised during the Committee’s discussion: -

Void Rent Loss: - It was noted that void rent loss had slightly improved throughout the quarter (1.51% in June to 1.45% at the end of September, against a year-end target of 0.92%).  Members were informed that of the three of the four areas that had improved performance, the north area had shown deterioration throughout the quarter.  It was reported that the deterioration was due to a review of the voids process which had been undertaken in the north area where different methods had been trialled and in some cases had created slight delays as staff became more familiar with the new ways of working. 

Days Lost to Sickness per Full Time Equivalent: – Members were told that the projected year end outcome was 9.19 days per FTE based, an outcome that was close to the target for the whole year at 8 days per FTE. It was reported that the increase in sickness during September was due to long term sickness cases.

Percentage of invoices paid within 30 days: – It was reported that performance at quarter 2 was 83.66% against a target of 95%.  It was explained that a new system for P2P (procure to pay) had been introduced across Housing and Corporate Services and there had been significant staff turnover within the Accounts Payable team.  It was added that the team was now fully staffed up and were going through additional training and working with different jobs. 

RESOLVED that the Committee note the progress of SLHD performance outcomes and the contribution SLHD makes to supporting DMBC strategic priorities.

The Senior Governance Officer presented the current Overview and Scrutiny work plan highlighting areas of work undertaken by the Scrutiny Panels since the last meeting.

RESOLVED that:

i.           the 2015/2016 Overview and Scrutiny workplan, be noted.

ii.          the correspondence made following its meetings held on the 15^th and 8^th October, be noted.