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Cabinet
Wednesday, 3rd March, 2004

Report to Directors Group

Date

2nd February 2004

Reporting Area

Social Services

Lead Director

Jane Ashman

SCOPE OF REPORTING AREA: Social Services are provided under Adult and Children and Family Service Heads, with Elderly Persons Homes managed by a third Head of Service. The Adult Services includes the assessment and commissioning of services to meet individual needs identified in care plans and the direct provision of day and residential services for people with a disability, learning difficulty, or mental health problems and older people.

The children and family services include social work involving child protection, looked after children, adoption and fostering, leaving care and providing support services to children in need to live with their families, such as day nurseries, family centres and home support workers.

Social Services is involved in cross service working on social inclusion, community safety, agenda 21, drug action team etc, and with other agencies such as the Police, probation service, Primary Care Trust & NHS trusts.

1. PROGRESS/ISSUE REPORTING

 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Status/

Who ?

By When

Leadership

Updates on October 03 report

Leadership

New Items

Following on from the `dry run' for delayed discharge fines, we have now entered the formal charging stage. Agreement has been reached with the RUH and BANES PCT that any fines incurred will be invested in services to help prevent delayed discharges.

Interviews have been held to select a construction partner to take forward the building phase of the Centres of Excellence and final negotiations for the preferred bidder are being held. The lead designer has produced some initial ideas and stakeholders meetings and design focus groups have been

  

Strategic Director / Head of Adult Care

Strategic Director /

Head of Housing & Supported Living

On-going

On-going
 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Status/

Who ?

By When

Leadership

New Items

People Management

Updates on October 03 report

People Management

New items

Held to feedback on plans. An all encompassing stakeholder event is taking place on 27th January 2004

The negotiations with the Trade Union around the changes in home care and residential care are still on-going.

Formal consultation on the improvement of homecare services has been completed. An up-date report of the outcomes of the consultation and recommendations for changes to the service were presented to the Overview & Scrutiny Panel in November. A report is being prepared for the Executive Member.

A Conference for Social and Housing Services Staff was held on 6th December 03 at Bailbrook House. The theme for the day was Improving Service, Improving Outcomes. Staff had the opportunity to share ideas and celebrate service developments that had lead to improvement in service users lives.

Feedback from the day will be provided for distribution to all staff within Social and Housing Services. SMT to consider how to take forward the ideas and issues raised by staff during the event.

Strategic Director /

Head of Housing & Supported Living

Personnel & Training Manager /

Head of Housing & Supported Living

Head of Adult Care / Project Manager

.

Personnel & Training Manager /

Head of Housing & Supported Living / Performance Manager

On-going

On-going

On-going

Feb 04
 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Status/

Who ?

By When

Policy and Strategy

Update on October 03 report

It has been agreed by the Workforce Strategy Development Group that the focus of attention will be on Extended Services; Traineeship/Modern Apprenticeships; Retaining Staff; Remote Working; Managing Sickness Absence; and Recruitment.

The national publication of star ratings was produced in November 2003. Bath and North east Somerset Social & Housing Services were very pleased to retain their two star status.

Providers for Drug and Alcohol treatment services for tier 2 & 3 adults, tier 3 young people, have been finalised and contracts are being drawn up in all but one area where negotiations are currently underway with the preferred provider.

A draft up-dated Older Peoples Joint Commissioning Strategy has been produced.

The Joint Commissioning

Board for mental health and learning difficulties have agreed in principal new joint arrangements for the commissioning and provision of services for people with learning difficulties. An interim lead commissioner for services for people with a learning difficulty is now in post, commissioning both Health and Social Services.

Continue work that is currently underway for each of the specified areas.

Work is ongoing to analyse performance indicators and identify areas for improvements

In future this item will be reported via the Community Safety Report

Final agreement of the strategy to take place following the SSI inspection of Older Peoples Services to allow incorporation of any recommendations.

The January Joint Commissioning

Board will be asked to agree the appointment of a joint operational manager from April 04

Personnel & Training Manager /

Head of Housing & Supported Living

Performance Manager

Community Cohesion Manager

Commissioning and Planning Manager

Head of Adult Care

On-going

On-going

June 04

April 04

April 04
 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Status/

Who ?

By When

Policy and Strategy

New items

Resources

Update on October 03 report

Children & Family Services

and Education Services held a workshop for frontline staff in November 2003 to consider the Green Paper Every Child Matters. Outcomes form the day, along with comments from the Area Child Protection Committee and the Children & Young People Strategic Partnership have been fed into the Governments consultation process.

A joint (with Education and the PCT) "Statement of Intent" on the way we work together and intend in the future has been informally agreed for formal adoption by the 2 Executive Members and the PCT Board.

The inter-agency Children's Fund partnership that funds the Youth Inclusion and Support Panel linked to the Youth Offending Team (YOT) is now operational and is now referred to as The Compass Project

It has been confirmed that the additional money that had previously been ring-fenced for the now ended QP initiative will continue to be included in the Government grant.

External pressures have increased the predicted overspend from the figures reported in the October report.

Work is underway to further develop services in accordance with the recommendations of the Green Paper

Head of Children & family Services

Head of Children and Family Services

Acting Service Finance Manager

Strategic Director / Acting Service Finance Manager

On-going

End Jan 04 and ongoing
 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Status/

Who ?

By When

Resources

New Items

Process

Update on October 03 report

In preparation for Council consideration for the financial plan, a three year budget is being prepared for the Executive to identify ways in which the Social Services spend above formula funding share can be reduced.

A review of the improvement plan, following the audit of services against the recommendations of the Climbie Inquiry, was completed at the end of October 2003. Subsequent reports detailing progress were made to the Council Executive and Overview and Scrutiny Panel, where positive comments were received. The improvement plan has also gone before the Area Child

Protection Committee (ACPC) where it has been considered alongside improvement plans from both Health and the Police.

Actions to respond to the recommendations made by the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) following the Inspection of Fostering Services have been implemented within the given timescales for completion by 30.12.03

The Autumn up-date for the Delivery and Improvement Statement (DIS) was complete and return to the SSI.

Monitoring improvements achieved through the plan are key objectives within the Children & Families Service Plan for 2004-05.

Respond to the SSI's draft evaluation regarding the Autumn up-date.

Head of Children & Family Services

Head of Children & Family Services

Performance Manager

On-going

Feb 04
 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Status/

Who ?

By When

Process

Update on October 03 report

Process

New Items

The new computer system for the Joint Equipment Store is expected to be functional by the end of January 04. The proposed temporary manual sampling system was considered to be inappropriate and over burdensome for staff therefore was not implemented. However, it

is understood that there will be a full migration of data from the old computer system to the new system which should provide an acceptably robust and reliable audit trail for BVPI 56.

Preparations are well underway for the SSI Inspection of Older People's Services. A Self Evaluation Document, Position Statement and supporting documented evidence has been submitted to the SSI prior to their field work visit due to take place during the last week of January and

the first week of February.

Discuss the available data for BVPI 56 with the auditors

Prepare the timetable for the inspectors fieldwork visit and ensure the smooth running of the inspection process

Performance Manager

April 04

End of Jan 04