Meeting documents

Report to Executive

4-Monthly Performance Report

SCOPE OF REPORTING AREA

Adult Residential Care

Housing Services

Homelessness

Main achievements

A7 Homelessness performance continues to show a steady improvement. The Housing Advice and Homeseekers teams have been working competently together to reduce the number of households in bed and breakfast accommodation. The figures at the end of December 2004 were very encouraging and evidenced this good on-going work.

o 119 Households classed as Live Homeless Cases at end of Dec 2004. Lowest monthly figure during the last 12 months.

o 73 Households in Temporary Accommodation at the end of Dec 2004. Lowest monthly figure during the last 12 months.

o 11 Households in B&B at the end of Dec 2004. Lowest monthly figure during the last 12 months. Highest monthly figure during the last 12 months as 35.

o 2 families in B&B at the end of December. Same as December 2003 figure. Highest monthly figure during the last 12 months was 6 in March 2004.

o 100% of decisions were made within the target time of 33 days. This represents the highest monthly figure during the last 12 months.

A7 The Homeseekers Team successfully implemented the changes to the revised Homeseekers policy, which simplified the scheme and makes it considerably more user friendly. Over 4,000 letters were sent to applicants advising them of the changes and meetings with internal and external services have been held to advise of the changes and how these may affect their clients' Homeseekers application.

A7 A 93Festive Fact-Finding Exhibition94 was held for Members on 7^th and 8^th December to inform and raise the awareness of elected members to the work undertaken by Housing & Supported Living, Social Services and Environmental & Consumer Services.

A7 Housing Services hosted a Members and Officers briefing event to present the findings of the recently commissioned House Condition Survey. The consultants who carried out the survey on our behalf gave a very informative presentation. The report will be available on our web site from April.

A7 The Supporting People team have been successful in achieving ODPM savings targets for the current financial year (in the region of A3110k). This has been achieved through efficiency savings negotiations with a selected number of providers and has not resulted in a reduction in service to users.

Planned Actions not achieved

A7 The bid for beacon status that was been submitted in conjunction with housing colleagues from Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire was not successful. However, this process has been useful in continuing joint working and sharing of best practice with the other authorities. Also, in exploring how consistency on planning for affordable housing can be achieved along with the new HomesWest development partnership.

Development Opportunities

B7 Submissions for inclusion in Bath & North East Somerset Housing Local Partnership have been received and interviews held during February. The Executive Member for Housing & Community Safety will make a decision during March. Local housing partners (all registered social landlords) will receive housing developed through HomesWest and will fulfil the landlord functions. This is part of a national change that will see the number of Registered Social Landlords that are developing affordable housing reduce significantly. But with regional or national RSLs developing properties there is a danger that there will be a loss of local presence - hence the local partners.

Potential threats

A7 Bath & North East Somerset's Supporting People Programme allocations for 2005/06 is A34,083,000, which represents a reduction of approximately 5% on the 2004/05 allocation. In anticipation of a reduced allocation, savings in the Programme have already been identified. However, the 5% saving is greater than had been hoped for and it is likely that further reductions in the Supporting People Programme allocations will be made in future years.

Update on Corporate Projects

A7 Work to develop a new model for the provision of care in the new Community Resource Centres is progressing well. Partners from three Local Authority areas participating in the Training Organisation for Personal Social Services (TOPSS) funded piloting of new roles in social care have agreed the NVQ 3 in Care units and associated training specification. Training providers have been appointed and the first two groups of care staff commenced training in November.

A7 The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has given the green light to recruitment of the in-reach nursing team, which is now going ahead. It is anticipated that conditions for a significant variation in registration for the three care homes participating in the in-reach nursing pilot will be agreed by the end of the year.

A7 A manager has been appointed to the In-reach Nursing Service along with four members of the In-reach Nursing Team.

A7 Works to upgrade St Johns Court are progressing according to timetable. Planning approval has been given for the provision of a temporary base for Carrswood Day Centre for people with learning difficulties at Tyndale, Bathford. Planning approval has also been given for the first new Community Resource Centre at Carrswood, Twerton, Bath. Construction is due to start in May 2005.

2. Reporting on targets and commitments made in the Performance Plan

Note 1: It is not appropriate to compare against the top 25% of English Councils for this BVPI because of the two part nature of the indicator and the different use made of B&B and hostel accommodation in different authorities. The averages (mean) for English Councils in 0304 were 6.81 weeks and 14.96 weeks for parts (i) and (ii) respectively.

Note 2: Because the target for 183(i) was not achieved in 2003/04 therefore it was decided to set a new target for 2004/05 that was higher than previously published but more realistic.

3. Disability and Ethnicity - Reporting Housing & Supported Living Staff

Access to Services by BME and Disabled People

We have the following information on access to services: