Agenda item

The Panel considered the report of the Scrutiny Manager which recommended that the Panel challenged and considered the appended information provided by the Director of Adult Social Care, relating to the performance of Community Wellbeing services, the current financial position of the service and the service transformation programme.

Adult Learning Disability Residential Respite Service User Group Representatives, Lynette Hall, Pat Larmond and Amanda Guest; Way Ahead Representative, Alex Grant; Southampton City Council Officers, Robert Henderson, Executive Director for Community Wellbeing, Children and Learning; Kay Reeve, Director of Adult Social Care and Councillor Finn, Cabinet Member for Adults and Health were in attendance and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

Kay Reeve, Director of Adult Social Care, provided the Panel with an overview of the performance of Adult Social Care services in Southampton and an update on the service transformation programme.

The Panel discussed a number of points including:

·  The requirement for further development of the performance dashboard. Consultants from Newton (Europe) had been engaged to assist with the development of performance metrics for the service.

·  A new performance lead had been appointed to collate and analyse data and drive improvement plans for the service.

·  Clarity of purpose and roles within the service had been established, and service development focused on making processes more efficient, promoting cultural transformation, with clear values, and career paths for staff.

·  The number of people who had indicated they were satisfied with the decisions reached at the end of safeguarding investigations had increased.

·  The new home care framework had led to an increase in satisfaction with the speed of arranging home care from when the request was made.

·  Direct payments were still underutilised but the increased visibility provided by the virtual wallet that had been introduced had helped to identify where more support was needed.

·  The whole life pathway transformation programme focussed on the themes of living well and ageing well, good decision making enabled, putting in place the right support at the right time to help promote independence, prevent people from needing more intensive care, and to help people return to living independently after hospital discharge.

·  Transformation also focused on ensuring that young adults were supported to, where possible, live independently in the community rather than being placed in residential care.

·  The consultation phase for proposed changes to overnight residential respite for adults with learning disabilities was ongoing. The proposals aimed to achieve best value and economies of scale for the council by providing services directly, which would help to achieve budget savings whilst maintaining service quality.

·  Representatives in attendance raised concerns about the consultation process, the potential impact of the options proposed on service users and carers, the potential long-term cost to the council and the NHS associated with the options presented, and the lack of trust in the council. 

·  The representatives expressed appreciation for the quality of service that was being provided at Weston Court by the current service provider. 

·  Reflecting concerns about the limited financial information provided, representatives requested information on the financial assessments that had underpinned the selection of the proposed options.

·  The Adult Learning Disability Residential Respite Provision decision making report would be scrutinised at the 23 January 2025 meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.  This would enable the views of representatives to be considered prior to Cabinet decision on 28 January 2025.

RESOLVED  That the Cabinet Member and senior officers would continue the dialogue with carers and families about the future of respite care provision in Southampton throughout the consultation process.