Agenda and minutes

Scrutiny Health & Social Care Sub-Committee - Tuesday, 3rd October, 2023 6.30 pm

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0 1NX. View directions

Contact: Klaudia Petecka  Email: klaudia.petecka@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

25/23

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 94 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 20th June 2023 an accurate record.

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2023 were agreed as an accurate record.

 

26/23

Disclosure of Interests

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and other registrable and non-registrable interests they may have in relation to any item(s) of business on today’s agenda.

Minutes:

Councillor Ward declared non-pecuniary interest in the item 'Update on the Delivery of the Transformation Programme',  as he was involved in the procurement of the strategic delivery partner through his role as a Deputy Cabinet Member.

27/23

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

 

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business for consideration of the Health & Social Care Sub-Committee at this meeting.

 

28/23

Croydon Safeguarding Adults Board - Annual Report pdf icon PDF 102 KB

The Health and Social Care Sub-Committee is provided with the Croydon Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report for 2022/23. The Health & Social Care Sub-Committee is asked to:

 

1.    Note the Croydon Safeguarding Adult Board Annual Report 2022-2023.

 

2.    Consider whether there are any considerations or concerns it may wish to submit to the Cabinet during its consideration of the Annual Report.

 

3.    In particular, give consideration as to whether the Annual Report provides sufficient reassurance on the performance and effectiveness of the Croydon Safeguarding Adult Board.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 13 to 60 of the agenda which provided an overview of the work performed by the Croydon Safeguarding Adults Board between 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. The purpose of the Croydon Safeguarding Adult Board (CSAB) Annual Report was to detail the activity and effectiveness of the Board. It ensured that the statutory partners (Council, Health and Police), residents and other agencies were given the opportunity to provide objective feedback on the work and effectiveness of local arrangements for safeguarding adults. The report covered the 2022/23 priorities demonstrating what had been achieved and the work which needs to continue throughout 2023/24.

The Independent Chair of the CSAB, David Williams; the Council’s Corporate Director for Adult Social Care & Health, Annette McPartland; the Council’s Director of Adult Social Care Operations, Simon Robson; Sally Innis from NHS South West London and Fiona Martin from the MET Police attended the meeting for this item, to introduce the report and answer questions arising.

David Williams commended and introduced the report to the Sub-Committee,  highlighting that it was an independent, multi-agency report and had been approved by the CSAB as required by the Care Act. It was also acknowledged that officers working on the report had a meeting with Sub-Committee members and all suggestions, especially concerning the CSAB Annual Reports’ accessibility, made by the Members were agreed and would be implemented before the report was published.

Annette McPartland added during the introduction of the report that Nick Sherlock, Head of Safeguarding had retired recently and that the Council had successfully recruited an officer to take over the role. The recruitment process was a multi-agency one and people with lived experience were involved in the process. The newly appointed officer started their work on 3 November 2023. Annette McPartland also thanked Nick Sherlock for his hard work and contribution to Croydon.

Following the introduction of the report, the Sub-Committee had the opportunity to ask questions on the information provided. The first question concerned the lack of Prevention of Future Death Notices received. In response it was acknowledged that this was a borough-wide issue. The CSAB had been working with the Coronial Practice to identify issues that were stopping the relevant stakeholders from receiving them. It was further clarified that the notices should be delivered and in response it was assured that the CSAB was working to resolve this issue. In response to a question about the timescale for resolving the obstacles and receiving the notices, it was advised that this would be investigated, and a response would be provided. It was also explained that at the moment the CSAB had identified it need to improve its understanding of the reporting process.

The next question concerned the number of Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) over the year. It was confirmed that in the 2022-23 only two SARs were completed. The process usually took around six months to complete. In addition to that the process could be slowed down by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28/23

29/23

Update on the delivery of the Transformation Programme pdf icon PDF 189 KB

The Health and Social Care Sub-Committee is provided with a Report on the Adult Social Care Transformation Programme. The Sub-Committee is asked to:

1.    To note delivery of the 2021/2024 Medium Term Financial Strategy savings.

2.    To note the progress of the Directorate’s transformation programme.

3.    To consider a focussed report on performance be brought to the January 2024 sub-committee meeting.

4.    To note the indicative strategic transformation forward plan being developed for the new medium term financial strategy period, April 2024 – March 2027.

 

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 61 to 72 of the agenda which provided an update on the budget and saving process in the Adult Social Care and Health.

Annette McPartland introduced the report that covered the Directorate’s performance in period 3 (April-June 2023). It was also noted that the report included information on preparation for the Local Government Association peer challenge due to happen in November 2023.

 

The first question considered the financial performance tables included in the report. It was explained that some figures were estimates based on (i) the costs that already occurred, and (ii) forecasts based on historical data. Actual to Date figures reflected what had been spend in period 3. Forecast Variance indicated the end-of-year prediction, which forecasted an overspend of £1.2 million. A supplementary question was asked about how the officers determined the spending predictions, and how the actual spending figure for period 3 compared to the last year prediction. It was explained that the officers looked at relevant economic factors, including market conditions and inflation. Also, it was stressed that different periods would have different funding, e.g. period 4 would have a larger budget due to the winter pressures, and that managing the markers and predicting the future spends was a very challenging tasks as the trends could change rapidly. When the market situation changed, the Council might need to adjust its activities. It was assured that there were robust processed in the Council to ensure that the overspend would not increase considerably.

 

The next question considered the impact of the forecasted working-age adults overspend in Croydon. It was explained that the overspend was expected to drop as a result of managing the demand. As in many other local authorities there was an underspend in staffing cost. This helped to balance the budget, however, it hindered the delivery of services. Recently, the Council recruited a considerable number of newly qualified social workers. In addition to that, the Council was successful in delivering various medium-term financial savings. Delivery of the disability provision savings have been challenging, however, a designated group was established to support it and to ensure compliance with the Care Act. Also, the Council introduced care cubed – a funding matrix to identify benchmark values to ensure value for money - to ensure that the service provider did not increase their prices by unjustifiable amount. In addition to that the Council worked on developing an alternative to the traditional form of care. However, it would take six to twelve months to implement. It was assured that the situation was generally positive.

 

It was highlighted that the working-age adult demand was not only higher, but also the cost per capita was higher. The question was asked whether the Council anticipated a decrease in number of adults who needed the required support or in the cost of the necessary support. It was explained that it was supposed to be a mixture of both. For many adults that were currently receiving support,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29/23

30/23

Update from Healthwatch Croydon pdf icon PDF 82 KB

To receive an update from Healthwatch Croydon Co-optee, Gordon Kay, on the latest report from his organisation.

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out in the agenda supplement which set out reports produced by Healthwatch Croydon.

Gordon Kay introduced two Healthwatch Croydon reports covering – (i) Young People’s Mental Health; (ii) London Ambulance Service strategy.

The Young People's Mental Health report was similar to a report conducted pre-Covid. It was acknowledged that there were some differences between pre- and post-Covid studies. However, the fundamentals were relatively unchanged. The main findings from the report include (i) recognition of signposting significance – there should be more targeted information about mental health support that was tailored for young people, as the research found that they were not fully aware of the available professional mental health services; (ii) most young people rely on friends and family as a source of support; (iii) face-to-face connections were very important and that it was young people preference over digital options.

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) strategy report concluded that LAS’ resources were sufficient to deliver services and service users acknowledged that challenges caused by the demand and issues with transferring patients into hospital. However, there were many challenges in delivering services such as first response provider. As a result, LAS changed parts of its strategy to consider more individualised care (especially in regard to neurodivergence and mental health), better communication, and more education about urgent emergency services.

During the focus group for LAS Health Watch Croydon identified that younger participants have significantly lower level of knowledge about urgent emergency services.

The first question asked whether enough had been done to ensure that people knew where to access defibrillators. It was mentioned that in the past there was a piece of work focused on mapping defibrillators in the Borough.

It was also stressed that there was a high number of Bleed Control Kits across the Borough and there could be a focus on promoting them and ensuring that people know or could easily find out where they were located.

It was acknowledged that it could be valuable to analyse the locations where heart attacks occur and locate new defibrillators based on these insights. It was added that that a potential obstacle to that can be the maintenance cost that could increase if the defibrillators are spread more sparsely.

 

Action

Following its discussion of this item, the Sub-Committee agreed the following action to be followed up outside of the meeting: -

 

-       Jack Bedeman to provide more information on the Council’s work on defibrillators (including mapping and raising awareness).

 

31/23

Scrutiny Work Programme 2023-24 pdf icon PDF 113 KB

The Health & Social Care Sub-Committee is asked to: -

 

1.     Note the most recent version of its Work Programme, as presented in the report.

 

2.     Consider whether there are any other items that should be provisionally added to the work programme as a result of the discussions held during the meeting.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee considered a report on pages 73 to 78 of the agenda, which presented the work programme for review.

 

The Chair noted that the update on transformation programme and service deep-dives would be added to the work programme.

Resolved: That the current work programme for the Health & Social Care Sub-Committee is noted.

32/23

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

 

 

Minutes:

This motion was not required.