21 CABINET MEMBER UPDATE
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Purpose of the
report: To share details of the Cabinet
Member’s priority areas of work, including any strategy and
policy developments, and provide an overview of the budget position
and performance of services within the portfolio.
Minutes:
Witnesses:
Sinead Mooney, Cabinet Member for Adults and Public
Health
Liz
Uliasz, Deputy Director, Adult Social Care
Kate Scribbins, Chief Executive, Healthwatch Surrey
Nick Markwick, Co-Chair, Surrey Coalition of Disabled
People
Key
points raised during the discussion:
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The Cabinet Member updated the Select Committee with
regard to the Surrey Public Health Peer Challenge, mentioned in
item 15 of the report. At the Peer Challenge meeting in November
2019, agreed-on recommendations included:
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To review and simplify the governance of the
system;
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To ensure that Surrey County Council was clear about
the expectations of the Public Health team;
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To ensure that the Public Health team accepted
change and was clear about how they were delivering against the
priorities set out for them.
The action plan would detail how these
recommendations would be implemented, and the recommendations would
be closely monitored.
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The Chairman pointed out that care commitments were
over budget and queried why there had been an overspend and what
was being done to balance the budget. The Cabinet Member explained
that mitigation measures were in place to ensure the budget was
balanced, including a staffing underspend of £1.4 million,
partly because of difficulties around recruitment; the level of
inflation; managing providers’ expectations; an underspend of
around £1.5 million on ASC internal transformation; and
£1.8 million of funding carried forward from the 18/19
budget. Underspends would be offset against an increase in spending
on care packages.
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A Member expressed concern about managing
providers’ expectations, as many care providers were already
struggling financially. The Cabinet Member replied that a report
would be coming forward with details of an uplift in funding for
the upcoming year. The importance of working closely with providers
was emphasised, as were improvements in communications in the past
year. The Deputy Director of Adult Social Care added that the
commissioning function had been strengthened and restructured, and
that providers’ requests for increases in spending were dealt
with on a case-by-case basis.
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A Member asked for clarification on why there had
been an underspend on transformation, despite the relatively high
level of transformation that had been happening. The Deputy
Director for ASC responded that the underspend was partly due to
incomplete recruitment.
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A Member queried whether the Council was working
with district and borough councils to ensure that there were homes
available countywide for people who needed care, with no neglected
areas, and whether existing homes were being adapted or new
facilities built. Cabinet had recently signed off three sites for
the development of homes, with a focus on residents within those
catchment areas. In addition, there were many private developments
going through the planning process. The Council worked with
districts and boroughs to develop residents’ own homes so
that residents could live independently there.
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The Select Committee queried stock levels of the flu
jab. The Cabinet Member stated these had increased and would be
available until February 2020.
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The Co-Chair of the Surrey Coalition of Disabled
People questioned the efficacy of direct payments, due to frequent
delays, and asked ...
view the full minutes text for item 21