Councillors and committees

Agenda and minutes

Venue: REMOTE & INFORMAL MEETING

Contact: Ben Cullimore, Scrutiny Officer 

Media

Items
No. Item

32/21

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

    Purpose of the item: To report any apologies for absence and substitutions.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Apologies were received from Rebecca Jennings-Evans. Jonathan Hulley attended as a substitute for Rebecca Jennings-Evans.

     

     

33/21

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING: 20 OCTOBER 2021 pdf icon PDF 266 KB

    Purpose of the item: To agree the minutes of the previous meeting of the Adults and Health Select Committee as a true and accurate record of proceedings.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The minutes to be agreed at the next public meeting on 14 January 2022.

     

34/21

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

    Purpose of the item: All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter:

          I.        Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or

        II.        Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting.

     

    NOTES:

    ·         Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

    ·         As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner).

    ·         Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Trefor Hogg declared a personal interest as a community representative for Frimley Clinical Commissioning Group.

     

35/21

QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS

    Purpose of the item: To receive any questions or petitions.

    NOTES:

    1.    The deadline for Members’ questions is 12:00pm four working days before the meeting (Friday, 10 December).

     

    2.    The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting(Thursday, 9 December).

     

    3.    The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    None received.

     

36/21

SCRUTINY OF 2022/23 DRAFT BUDGET AND MEDIUM-TERM FINANCIAL STRATEGY 2026/27

    Purpose of the item: To scrutinise the Draft Budget and Medium-Term Financial Strategy.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

          Sinead Mooney, Cabinet Member for Adults and Health

          Simon White, Executive Director for Adult Social Care

          Ruth Hutchinson, Director of Public Health

          Wil House, Strategic Finance Business Partner (Adult Social

    Care and Public Health)

          Anna D’Alessandro, Director of Finance (Corporate and

    Commercial)

          Rachel Wigley, Director of Finance (Insight and Performance)

          Adam Whittaker, Senior Strategy and Policy Lead

          ImmyMarkwick, Mental Health Lead (Independent Mental Health Network)

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

     

    1.    The Director of Public Health provided an update to the Select Committee regarding the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Surrey had some of the highest rates of positive COVID-19 cases in the country, which was different to the trends seen in 2020 where higher rates were found in the north of England. The Director shared a slide (Annex 1) which showed a ranking of seven day case rates for lower-tier local authorities in England from 5 December 2021 to 11 December 2021. Three out of the top 20 of the lower-tier local authorities with the highest seven day rates were found in Surrey, with Reigate and Banstead recording the highest rates in the whole country. The Director highlighted that the number of confirmed Omicron cases within the county were only the tip of the iceberg, as they were likely to be a significantly higher in reality. The Director noted that this was a rapidly changing situation. 

     

    2.    The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health introduced the report and the context which underpinned it. The Cabinet Member welcomed the government’s decision to reform Adult Social Care (ASC) and its focus on the front-line social care workforce and prevention agenda. Both demand and cost in ASC exceeded the funding provided by central government which had led to higher thresholds to access services. The proposed increases in national insurance would drive up cost for providers and would add to challenges with recruitment and retention. The Cabinet Member noted that arrangements were being made for her to shadow a care home and a care provider in the community once it was safe to do so, and the findings of these visits would be shared with the Select Committee in due course. The invitation was extended to Members of the Select Committee.

     

    3.    The Director of Finance (Corporate and Commercial) noted that the Council was expecting the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement from central government today (16 December 2021). Following a briefing with Cabinet Members, information on the settlement would be shared with all Members. It would take longer to understand how the settlement could change the budgetary gap. The draft budget was established in line with the Community Vision 2030 and the Council’s priority objectives. The 2022/23 draft budget presented a net gap of £19.5 million. It had been assumed that the Council would receive circa £16 million from the settlement and this had been factored into the draft budget. The Council presented a circa £50 million efficiency programme, which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36/21

37/21

ADULT SOCIAL CARE COMPLAINTS APRIL - SEPTEMBER 2021 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

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    Purpose of the item: The report provides a detailed summary of complaint activity in Adult Social Care for the period April to September 2021.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

          Sinead Mooney, Cabinet Member for Adults and Health

          Simon White, Executive Director of Adult Social Care

          Kathryn Pyper, Senior Programme Manager (Adult Social Care)

          Kate Scribbins, Chief Executive Officer (Healthwatch Surrey)

          Nick Markwick, Co-Chair (Surrey Coalition of Disabled People)

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

     

    1.    The Senior Programme Manager introduced the report and stated the importance of complaints within ASC and the learning opportunities they provided. Complaints received had increased from this time last year (2020), due to the impact of the pandemic. The Ombudsman investigated six complaints during quarters one and two, and of those, upheld three complaints. On a national scale, the Ombudsman tended to find fault more often with local authorities and providers. A monthly summary was produced for members of the ASC leadership team which covered complaints in their area and the learning that was emerging. Compliments were a useful insight into what was working well, themes of compliments would be featured in future reports. There was no formal process for recording issues of concern at this stage, but they would always be addressed by officers and recorded in case notes. Work was underway to launch a Quality of Practice Dashboard in ASC, the first phase to be launched in January 2021.

     

    2.    The Chairman asked about the timeline of achieving changes regarding learning from complaints and how such changes had been monitored. The Senior Programme Manager explained that in terms of learning that had emerged from a complaint, there would be an action plan in place which would be monitored to ensure the actions had been implemented. There was no

    response to address general themes of complaints, rather they were addressed on an individual basis. A lot of improvement work was ongoing and occurred as business-as-usual pieces of work. The Chairman questioned how robust the customer relations management technology was within the Service. The Senior Programme Manager shared that there was a new corporate system introduced a couple of years ago which was fairly robust, and it was within this system that actions and learnings were recorded. 

     

    3.    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Healthwatch Surrey highlighted the importance of the complaints process being well publicised and accessible to all, as well as the learning opportunities from issues of concern. The Senior Programme Manager explained that the ‘listening to your views’ leaflet had been refreshed and offered to community hubs, and replenishment of the stock could be offered. Best practice issued by the Care Quality Commission required residential homes to have a complaints procedure and complaints literature available to residents and families. The CEO asked how ASC assures itself that it is hearing complaints regarding all aspects of the Service, especially those in residential care, and from service users from all demographics. The Senior Programme Manager stated that at the moment, complaints were looked at in terms of the Service’s main client groups, rather than in terms of protected characteristics. Work could be undertaken to review complaints received  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37/21

38/21

RECOMMENDATIONS TRACKER AND FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 24 KB

39/21

DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING

    The next public meeting of the committee will be held on 14 January at 10:00am.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The next meeting of the Select Committee will be held on 14 January 2022.