Decision details

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care seeking approval to commence consultation on transformation of a number of SCC Adult Social Care provider services and some commissioned day care provision.

(i)  To authorise the Director of People to initiate a process of consultation regarding proposals to re-provide and redesign the care services for adults specified in Section 11 of this report.

(ii)  To note the indicative savings to be realised as shown in Section 17 of this report should proposals for re-provision and re-design be subsequently taken forward.

Proposals to change a service provision require consultation with those affected, including staff, service users  carers and other stakeholders. Consultation must be at a time when proposals are still at a formative stage. Sufficient reasons must be given for any proposal, and adequate time must be given for consideration. A decision should not be taken until such consultation has occurred and the outcome of the consultation must be taken into account in making the decision

1. Doing nothing is not a viable option. Without exploring the potential of radically redesigning the way that adult care is provided, it will not be possible to meet the increasing demand for care within the diminishing resources available. It is imperative within the Care Act 2014 to reduce reliance on residential and nursing home care to move to a model of preventative services which promote choice, independence and wellbeing.
2. Re-provision and re-designing the service without consultation is not a viable option. Proposals to re-provide any adult care services should only be taken after full consultation, failure to do so would  likely to result in court action and/or formal complaints. Any court action could be costly to defend and could lead to substantial delay in implementing any changes. There could also be reputational damage. A failure to consult could also increase the risk that re-provided services would fail to meet local need, increase resistance to change
3. Incremental or service-specific change not requiring formal consultation could deliver marginal improvements to the quality of adult care services in their current form, but only more transformative change would be capable of achieving cost reductions and more substantial qualitative change at the scale and pace required.

None