Issue - meetings

The safe transfer of Adult Social Care Services took place on 1st April 2024 for Adult Social Work (including Direct Payments team) and Adults with Learning Disabilities and their Families Day Services (including Shared Lives, Employment Inclusion and Supported Living) from HCRG Care Group to B&NES Council.

Councillor Alison Born, Cabinet Member for Adult Services introduced the report to the Panel. She explained that the safe transfer of Adult Social Care Services took place on 1st April 2024 for Adult Social Work (including Direct Payments team) and Adults with Learning Disabilities and their Families Day Services (including Shared Lives, Employment Inclusion and Supported Living) from HCRG Care Group to B&NES Council.

She stated that the transfer of ASC services saw a compliment of 237 staff from HCRG Care Group transfer to B&NES and that the Adult Social Care Directorate now represents 19.5% of the Council’s total workforce.

She informed the Panel that there were no disruptions to services that are provided and that the support from staff in Corporate Services was very welcome, especially IT, HR and Payroll Services.

She said that the overall feeling she has is that it went very well and that positive feedback had been received from many members of staff.

Kevin Burnett asked how the project had been able to cost less than anticipated and what were seen as the key benefits to the transfer of services.

He also referred to section 5.2.3 of the report and asked for clarity on the numbers shown in the table, whether the training was compulsory and when should it be completed by.

The Director for Adult Services replied that it was difficult to know when the project began how much it would cost in total which is why the initial figure was granted by the Council. She added that they had been able reduce costs by using our own staff for a lot of the project work instead of consultants.

She said that officers were currently working through to establish the overall benefits of the transfer, but initially felt that one of the main benefits was the area of purchasing budgets. She added that the staff satisfaction was also a key guide as to how beneficial the transfer has been.

With regard to training, she accepted that it would be clearer to give the figures as a percentage and said that for all the mandatory training, in time, it would need to be 100%.

She said that further information on the transfer and its progress could be shared with the Panel in the early part of 2025.

Councillor Hardman asked if there was anything that they would have liked to have done differently during the project.

The Director of Adult Services replied that they would have preferred to have known the names of all the staff involved and their contract / terms & conditions details prior to March, ideally two months before the transfer took place. She added that she would now wished that they had had involvement with more middle tier managers during the process.

Councillor Born added that TUPE legal requirements were met by HCRG.

Councillor Lesley Mansell asked if the Infection Control training will be given as a priority to those frontline staff who need it. She also referred to risk  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9

To consider the attached report which evaluates the key aspects of the transfer of Adult Social Care services back to the Council as of 1^st April 2024 and provides an overview of the effectiveness of the transfer alongside lessons learnt.

Cllr Alison Born, Cabinet Member for Adult Services, introduced the report, moved the officer recommendation and made the following statement:

“This paper evaluates the recently completed process of bringing our adult social care services back in house. We took the decision to do this because we believe that B&NES Council is best placed to provide the social work provision that our residents need. We were cautioned against bringing the services back in house as the move was perceived to be risky and potentially costly, but we felt that the benefits outweighed those risks. We wanted to regain control of these essential, statutory services and to ensure that they could never again be transferred to a new provider without our knowledge.

Had we not done this, the alternative proposition was to continue to contract services out to other providers which has been the model in recent years. During that time, staff working in our local adult social care services have been transferred from B&NES Council to Sirona, from Sirona to Virgin Care, from Virgin Care to HCRG Care Group and most recently from HCRG Care Group back to B&NES Council.

They have not welcomed this regular change of employer, their perceived lack of influence over decisions and processes, the accompanying alterations to their working practices, changes to their terms and conditions and the inherent disruption to services and loss of productivity that tends to result from such changes. All the staff I have spoken to since the transfer have said how well the process was handled and how pleased they are to be working for Bath and North East Somerset council.

Council officers worked incredibly hard to make this happen. They learnt from the experience of previous transfers to ensure that staff were kept informed, had opportunities to influence proceedings and were moved across with minimal disruption to service provision. They also ensured that the inevitable costs of such a transfer (a cost of contracting out that tends to get little attention) were minimised and were far less than initial estimates and the budget identified for the work.

I would like to formally thank officers in the adult social care team, particularly the Director of Adult Social Care and the programme manager for her skilful leadership of the transfer.  Also, staff working in a range of corporate services such as IT, estates, HR, and payroll who ensured that services were not disrupted, that staff were made to feel welcome, could access the tools they needed to do their jobs properly from day one and were paid on time. I would also like to thank the HCRG care group who worked constructively with us throughout the transfer process.

The decision to bring these services back to the council demonstrates our commitment to the staff who provide adult social care services and underpins our belief that this model of provision offers more opportunities for collaborative work and innovation to deliver high quality, best value services that meet our residents social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13