Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Shire Hall. View directions

Contact: Paul Spencer  Senior Democratic Services Officer

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

General

Additional documents:

1(1)

Apologies

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies for absence from the meeting were received from Councillor Mandy Tromans (replaced by Councillor Dave Humphreys), Councillor Kyle Evans (NBBC, replaced by Councillor Joy Coventry-Moreton), Councillor Pam Redford (Warwick District Council), also from Dr Shade Agboola, Director of Public Health.

1(2)

Disclosures of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

1(3)

Chair’s Announcements

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair advised that Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council had appointed a new representative on the Committee, Councillor Kyle Evans. The new North Warwickshire Borough Council representative was Councillor Judy Macdonald. The Chair thanked retiring members for their service and welcomed new members to the Committee. It was noted that a number of presentations would be provided which had been circulated in advance by email.

1(4)

Minutes of previous meetings pdf icon PDF 521 KB

To receive the Minutes of the committee meetings held on 27 April and 17 May 2022.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Minutes of the committee meetings held on 27 April and 17 May 2022 were approved as true records and signed by the Chair.

2.

Public Speaking

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

3.

Questions to Portfolio Holders

Up to 30 minutes of the meeting is available for members of the Committee to put questions to the Portfolio Holder: Councillor Margaret Bell (Adult Social Care and Health) on any matters relevant to the remit of this Committee.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor John Holland had given notice of the following questions: The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) divided Warwickshire into 23 areas and identified the needs of each. How many of the areas have action plans in place to address inequalities? What progress is being made in meeting the needs identified?

 

Councillor Margaret Bell responded that three place-based partnerships had been established as part of the Integrated Care System (ICS) to look at local issues and feed into the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB). The Place Partnership Boards had taken on the JSNA activity and all were working on their respective action plans. She had attended a lot of their meetings. The priorities for each area would be based on the JSNA data and other data. This fed into the HWBB and on to the Integrated Care Partnership. Some of the priorities had changed post Covid. There continued to be updates for each area from available JSNA data. This work was fundamental, informing both priorities and the inequalities agenda.

 

Councillor Holland viewed it that nothing had been implemented and linked this to ‘levelling up’. He gave an example from his local area of a priority to provide a new community centre, in a joint scheme involving both the District and County Council. This remained a priority for the Place Partnership. The Chair suggested that this local issue could be discussed outside the meeting, which the portfolio holder agreed to do. She did not agree with Councillor Holland’s view that nothing had been done. The action plans were in place, some had been fulfilled and there had been delays impacted by the Covid pandemic.

 

Councillor Kate Rolfe referred to the shortage of care staff, using an example to show the challenges faced in arranging care packages. She asked the portfolio holder if this was happening more than should be the case. Councillor Bell agreed there was a challenge in getting care packages, which could impact on hospital discharges. End of life care was prioritised and once in place, the health and care support were excellent. There were workforce challenges and endeavours to address this. Councillor Rolfe then referred to the difficulties faced by carers through the current cost of living increases. She asked if there was any statistical data on the impact for carers in Warwickshire. Councillor Bell did not have such data to hand. It was suggested that these items could be raised under the later agenda item which would give a workforce update.

 

Councillor Chris Kettle thanked the Portfolio Holder for pursuing with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) an issue about provision of a new health centre linked to residential development. Councillor Bell added that this concerned the need for a broader consultation. The CCG had agreed to undertake that consultation and no decisions had yet been taken on the final scheme. This was followed by a discussion about planning and infrastructure contributions through Section 106 agreements. In Nuneaton, at Weddington an additional 5,000 homes would be built following a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Questions to the NHS

Members of the Committee are invited to give notice of questions to NHS commissioners and service providers at least 10 working days before each meeting. A list of the questions and issues raised will be provided to members.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

5.

Approach to Levelling Up pdf icon PDF 301 KB

The Committee is asked to consider and comment on the proposed approach to Levelling Up in Warwickshire ahead of the consideration of this matter by Cabinet.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Nigel Minns, Strategic Director for People introduced this item, supported by Sarah Duxbury, Assistant Director of Governance and Policy. In February, the Government published the Levelling Up White Paper, which outlined its strategy to “spread opportunity and prosperity to all parts of the country” by 2030, through twelve national missions. The missions were detailed in an appendix to the report. The approved Council Plan included a commitment to the Levelling Up agenda and to understanding what that meant for Warwickshire. Additionally, two reports had been considered by Cabinet setting out the overall direction on, and proposed approach to Levelling Up, with a planned further report in July after consideration by the four overview and scrutiny committees and a range of stakeholders.

 

The aim was to create a reference point for the Levelling Up agenda, complementing existing work and highlighting specific challenges and opportunities in the county. The report provided an outline of the emerging approach along with content tailored to this committee’s remit and to seek member input to feed into the subsequent report to Cabinet.

 

The detail of the report listed the twelve missions in the White Paper, and a diagram mapped these to the Council Plan areas of focus, showing a considerable degree of overlap. Equally there was overlap between the remits of the overview and scrutiny committees, the missions and areas of focus. Appendix 2 to the report set this out in more detail, highlighting the areas of most relevance to the remit of this Committee.

 

The report outlined the stakeholder engagement to date. Using the feedback received, alongside the ongoing engagement with partners and stakeholders, the working definition for Levelling up in Warwickshire was anchored around:

 

·         Increasing opportunity and social mobility

·         Reducing disparities

·         Building community power

·         Creating sustainable futures

 

The report then set out the key features of the overall approach, reflected in five key principles which complemented the Council Plan. Core to the Levelling Up agenda was the need to prioritise effort and activity to where it was most needed. Attention would be focussed on specific places and groups, determined by robust evidence, whilst enabling other places and communities to address local levelling up imperatives through more community powered approaches. Robust, credible data would be used at a variety of geographical levels to determine where interventions could have the biggest impact. The report outlined the frameworks which would be used. The Community Powered Warwickshire programme was a key lever for the Levelling Up approach and would be central to delivering the Council’s vision.

 

Following approval of the Levelling Up approach, the Committee would be able to consider how it wished to track progress, through the related strategies, elements of the Integrated Delivery Plan, and the new Performance Management Framework.

 

The following questions and comments were submitted, with responses provided as indicated:

 

  • Councillor Rolfe spoke of the difficult times presently with cost of living increases, people on low incomes, in poverty and reliant on food banks. The levelling up aspirations were wonderful, but there would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Workforce Update - the Care Market

This is a follow up to a report considered by the Health and Wellbeing Board on 12th January 2022. A presentation will give a workforce update on the success of the recruitment drive for additional carers.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a presentation from Lynn Bassett, Organisational Development Team Manager and Zoe Mayhew, Strategy and Commissioning Manager within People Strategy and Commissioning. The presentation covered:

 

  • National staffing picture – showing recruitment and retention, vacancies and a comparison between March 2021 and May 2022
  • National context, with data on the increase in the number of homecare hours delivered and those it had not been possible to deliver equating to 671%
  • Data on commissioned provision - comprising domiciliary care, specialist housing services, residential care, nursing homes, supported living services and extra care housing
  • Learning and Development Partnership – showing examples of the support offer
  • Staff learning and development – a coordinated approach with health, delivering Warwickshire specific training with a range of training offers, qualification programme, support for managers and sharing good practice
  • A data slide on qualifications and training
  • Training figures and training. In 2020/21 - 2,150 places attended; in 2021/22 - 3,091 places attended
  • Impact of training, delivered in blended approach to increase flexibility. Keeping excellent attendance, with three-month reviews taking place to monitor impact.
  • School careers support – the partnership was part of the careers hub program and was notified of career events and parents’ evenings
  • College / university careers support – the partnership attended college career days to seek additional employees in either a permanent or bank role
  • Promoting job vacancies – examples were provided of the range of methods used
  • Recruitment support – the partnership worked with providers and other agencies to raise the profile of social care
  • Impact of job vacancies and recruitment support - data for 2020/22 and 2022/23 on the number of jobs advertised, events held and what this work had achieved
  • Staff retention and wellbeing – examples of the support and incentives available
  • Next steps

 

Discussion took place on the following areas:

 

  • Councillor Matecki spoke of the need for additional frontline carers, commenting that in Warwick district there were two vacancies for every unemployed person. The report did not mention overseas recruitment to fill vacancies.  Officers replied that a proposal to do this was currently being formulated to attract carers from overseas on behalf of commissioned providers, as an enabler.
  • Councillor Marian Humphreys praised home care services. She advocated the benefits of coordinated NHS and social care visits or better still having a hybrid health and care role to reduce duplication. She outlined the many aspects to care visits at home to meet the service users’ needs and the significant training requirements. She reiterated the value of these staff which should be recognised more and be promoted in schools to attract people to this service area.
  • Chris Bain said this was a complex problem, both in Warwickshire and nationally. The image of social care and to a lesser extent health was a perception of older people who were in decline. To attract younger people, it was necessary to address this image and there was a role for the media to play. Some media reporting had a negative impact, which could deter  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Year End Performance Progress Report pdf icon PDF 1000 KB

For the Committee to consider the year end performance for the period 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Pete Sidgwick, Assistant Director for Social Care and Support introduced this item. The Council Plan year end Performance Progress Report for the period 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022 was considered and approved by Cabinet on 16th June 2022. The report provided an overview of progress of the key elements of the Council Plan, specifically in relation to performance against Key Business Measures (KBMs), strategic risks and workforce management. A separate financial monitoring report for the period covering both the revenue and capital budgets, reserves and delivery of the savings plan was also provided at the same Cabinet meeting.

 

The Committee received a tailored report with information relevant to its remit. It provided commentary on year end performance for 2021/22. It was noted that future performance reporting would be based on the new Council Plan 2022-2027. The Cabinet had also approved the implementation of a new Performance Management Framework effective from 1st April 2022, which would provide a sharpened focus on performance and trajectory to support delivery of the Council’s new priorities and areas of focus.

 

Members were reminded of the two high level outcomes within the Council Plan and progress to achieve these outcomes was assessed against 54 KBMs, of which 12 were within the remit of the Committee. One of these had been paused as a result of ongoing data restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the remaining 11 KBMs, nine were on track and two were not.

 

A series of tables were included in the report, to pull out key information around achievement of KBMs, a summary of performance from the Power Bi report and an area of note around reporting of domestic abuse incidents. Additional information was provided for those areas which were ‘not on track’, including one which required escalation on the percentage of successful completions as a proportion of all in treatment. A further table showed the forecast performance projection, it being expected that both of the KBMs that currently were not on track, would remain static over the forthcoming period.

 

The report concluded with the financial commentary for the revenue budget, delivery of the savings plan, the capital programme and risk management.

 

The following questions and comments were submitted, with responses provided as indicated:

 

  • Discussion took place about the changes to inspection requirements for care homes. These would now take place only where there was intelligence of significant concerns. Pete Sidgwick explained the changes that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had introduced to care home inspections during the Covid pandemic. A more targeted approach was expected for the future, focussing on those homes which had significant issues. For the County Council this was about its quality assurance role and a range of other information sources were available. Currently, the aim was to return to a ‘business as usual’ approach.  This also applied to CQC regulation of the reablement service.
  • A question was submitted about underspends of budgets. Generally, these were not carried forward to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 213 KB

For the Committee to review and update its 2022-23 work programme.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee discussed its work programme. A request was made for a follow up report on the care market, particularly the recruitment aspects, lost hours of care and resignations due to rising fuel costs. It was agreed that this be provided via a briefing note in the first instance, to give an update on the figures presented earlier in this meeting and was important the Committee monitored this area closely.

 

Resolved

 

That the Committee notes the work programme as submitted, subject to the addition of the requested briefing notes.