Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Guildhall, Bath. View directions

Contact: Mark Durnford  Email: mark_durnford@bathnes.gov.uk 01225 394458

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Items
No. Item

70.

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

71.

EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 5.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure.

 

72.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Paul Crossley, Councillor Onkar Saini and Councillor Bharat Pankhania had all sent their apologies to the Panel.

73.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

 

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest, (as defined in Part 4.4 Appendix B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

 

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were none.

74.

TO ANNOUNCE ANY URGENT BUSINESS AGREED BY THE CHAIRMAN

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There was none.

75.

ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC OR COUNCILLORS - TO RECEIVE STATEMENTS, PETITIONS OR QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE BUSINESS OF THIS MEETING

At the time of publication no notifications had been received.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Gillian Taylor addressed the Panel on the subject of Special Educational Needs, a summary of her statement is set out below.

 

She informed them that she was a mum of two children with SEN and wished to share her experiences regarding both of her children. She stated that she felt that SEN was in a national crisis and hoped that by telling her story some simple improvements could be made within B&NES.

 

She explained that her son was born with a metabolic condition called PKU and that he was now 19. She said that they were made aware from 8 days old that their son may have cognitive learning difficulties. She said that he struggled a lot in school and that they tried to get support and a diagnosis with little help.

 

She said that she was told that her son was ‘lazy’ and that she was an ‘anxious parent’. She added that after five years of seeking help and eventually winning a tribunal it was revealed that her son had severe processing problems – how had this been missed?

 

She stated that they had made an official complaint to B&NES and were promised that things would change in the future.

 

She informed the Panel that her son required CAMHs support due to the treatment at school and damage to his self-esteem. She added that this was despite multiple enquiries and refusals to be assessed.

 

She explained that her daughter, following another five year battle with the Local Authority and a tribunal, had finally been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD at the age of 15. She added that again they won this tribunal.

 

She said that her son required 1:1 support in school, her daughter only needed the diagnosis and work printed on blue paper to support her learning – a simple remedy.

 

She stated that both her children’s reports were not passed on from schools to their respective colleges. She asked why B&NES would assess a child and then not share those findings. She added that this was surely a simple improvement that should be made.

 

She said that improvements need to be made to save time, money and stress on all sides and that more importantly it leads to better outcomes for those children with SEN.

 

She said that she felt that the attitude to SEN in B&NES’s schools was not good and neither was the communication. She added that had she been listened to, the cost of the tribunals (2 x £30,000) could have been avoided.

 

She said that she hoped her comments would give the Panel some ideas to work on and to improve things for the future.

 

Councillor Liz Hardman asked what were any immediate actions that she felt the Council could take.

 

Gillian Taylor replied that the thing that must improve is the communication and the sharing of reports with other relevant bodies. She added that so much money and time has been wasted.

 

Councillor Joanna Wright asked if she  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

76.

B&NES, SWINDON & WILTSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD (BSW ICB) UPDATE pdf icon PDF 283 KB

The Panel will receive an update from the B&NES, Swindon & Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB) on current issues.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Laura Ambler, Place Director, B&NES, BSW ICB addressed the Panel. She referred the Panel to some presentation slides that had been circulated to them. A summary is set out below and a copy of the presentation will be attached as an online appendix to the minutes.

 

BHIF Projects (2023/24)

 

Overview: In addition to 2022/23 infrastructure funding to address health inequalities, NHSE allocated £2.057m to the B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) Integrated Care System (ICS) in 2023/24.  The funding was aligned to the three localities and B&NES ICA was allocated £357,896 by BSW ICB to address health inequalities.

 

BSW Priorities for BHIF allocation

 

BSW ICB Population Health Board identified the following priority areas for allocation of 2023/24 health inequalities funding.

 

Core20Plus5 for adults

·  Smoking cessation

·  Cardiovascular disease

·  Serious mental illness

 

Core20Plus5 for children and young people (focus on early years)

·  Mental health and wellbeing

·  Asthma

·  Oral Health

 

Prevention

Restoring services inclusively

Data and intelligence

 

BHIF projects funded 2024-25 (deferred from 2023/24)

 

·  Bath City FC Foundation

·  Bath Rugby Foundation

·  BEMSCA

·  Bright Start Children’s Centres

·  DHI

·  Dorothy House

·  HCRG Care Group

·  Mental Health Motorbike

·  Off The Record

·  Southside Family Project

·  Soundwell Music Therapy

·  VOICES

 

Primary Care Based Projects (Total value £36k)

 

In addition to the BHIF projects the following primary care focused projects have been funded from the initial 2022/23 infrastructure funding.

 

·  Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Friendly GP Project (underway)

Development of a Toolkit to include resources and a Training and awareness Programme for primary care team

 

·  Primary Care Outreach at Pennard Court in Twerton & Whiteway (core20) Completed

Partnership approach to taking services to people in a manner that is acceptable to them – Pennard Court Care Home

 

·  Targeted Smoking Cessation Project (underway)

Identifying cohorts within target practices to run searches and explore innovative ways to engage patients to consider a quit journey, utilising the Swap to Stop programme

 

Evaluation of the BHIF Projects & Next Steps

 

BHIF projects have been running for 6 months and completed Q2 monitoring (Q3 due Jan 2025)

 

At System level there is a BSW group which has oversight of performance and monitoring

 

At locality level, a delegated sub-group of the B&NES Health Inequalities Group (BHIG) met for deep dive into performance with a focus on

·  Project Status (RAG) Milestones Achieved

·  Reporting by Exception

·  Any Risks

·  Good Practice and Lessons Learned

 

An annual report (June 2025) will present more detail with high level outcomes, expenditure and performance across all funded projects to demonstrate impact and share learning.

 

Councillor Liz Hardman asked how the uptake of the measles vaccination can be increased in local areas of deprivation.

 

Laura Ambler replied that over the Christmas period they had worked with colleagues in Public Health to attempt to target areas that might have a lower uptake of this vaccination. She added that B&NES typically is slightly above the national average in these figures, but would always look to improve where possible.

 

Kevin Burnett asked how the need for Pharmacies is assessed and what criteria is used to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

Health Inequalities pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Additional documents:

77.

Adult Social Care Update pdf icon PDF 116 KB

This report provides an Adult Social Care Service update to the Panel on ASC performance measures, ASC commissioned services, ASC provider services and the report also includes an update on Public Health and the Community Wellbeing Hub.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Adult Social Care addressed the Panel and highlighted the following points from report.

 

Performance – December 2024

 

·  The latest National Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) data was published 1st January 2025. Of the 22 National measures B&NES performs better than the England average in 17 measures, better than the South West average in 18 measures and we are in best quartile in the country for 12 measures.

 

·  The number of people with long-term services funded by Adult Social Care (ASC) at the end of December 2024 was 1,844. This was an increase of 26 on the previous figure of 1,818 as of December 2023. The service has completed 688 Care Act Assessments and 53 Carers Assessments in the last 12 months. 80% of Care Act Assessments lead to a service being provided to the individual.

 

·  Occupational Therapy assessments continue to be a focus of high demand, receiving on average 85 new requests per month, robust management has seen the numbers waiting for assessment reducing from 247 people waiting to 201 people waiting, with 137 people waiting for an assessment from an Occupational Therapy Aide and 64 people waiting for an assessment from an Occupational Therapist; this is the lowest figure for 12 months. All referrals are risk rated and prioritised accordingly and people waiting have a point of contact should their needs become more urgent.

 

·  Our Mental Health teams continue to experience increased demand of approx. 10% more referrals month on month. Between April 24 and September 24, we received 244 referrals for detention under the Mental Health Act, with 197of those referrals accepted by the Approved Mental Health professionals for a full assessment. The AMHP team works with people of all ages, although the numbers remain relatively low in comparison with other age groups, we have seen a 50% increase in requests for under 16s to be detained under the Mental Health Act in the last 12 months.

 

Commissioning

 

·  On 11th November, the Council introduced a Strategic Commissioning Hub that has oversight and responsibility for implementing a new all-age commissioning model across the Early Help, Special Education Needs, Children and Adult Social Care portfolios. This strategic initiative is aimed at improving efficiency, standardising commissioning processes, and enhancing service delivery for the residents of B&NES. The design for a single team was based on 5 core principles; Start Well, Live Well, Age Well, Commercial and Quality Assurance.

 

Newton House

 

·  Newton House is a 5-bed house in Twerton owned and operated by Dimensions. It provides residential respite for families of adults with learning disabilities and/or autism, also known as short breaks. In January 2024 Dimensions identified that the service had become financially unviable. Following a review by the commissioning team, Dimensions decided to change the service provided at Newton House and sent a joint letter to families of the current service users advising of the planned change of use from February 2025. This was an error because alternative provision had not been identified for all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.

78.

Budget Proposals (Adults & Children's Services) pdf icon PDF 304 KB

This report will present the draft revenue budgets together with proposals for increases in Council Tax and the Adult Social Care Precept for 2025/26.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive Director for Operations introduced the report. She explained that they were the first Panel to discuss the proposals for 2025/26 and that a public consultation was also ongoing.

 

Councillor Alison Born, Cabinet Member for Adult Services commented that public finances remain tight and will be challenging across the coming year. She added savings were still expected to be made whilst meeting their statutory obligations.

 

Councillor Paul May, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services stated that the increase in care needs had also made the budget for the service very challenging. He said that there was a black hole with regard to SEND funding.

 

Councillor Liz Hardman referred to the proposed saving of £750,000 through maximizing the use of the Better Care Fund and Improved Better Care Fund to protect social care expenditure and asked how successful this similar proposal had been last year.

 

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that there is a Cabinet agreement in place to provide an additional £5.9m into the budget for Adult Social Care to allow for growth and inflation. She asked for members to bear with them over the coming year in terms of new proposals as they had recently brought staff back in-house and undergone an inspection from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

 

She added that they had delivered their savings within the current financial year whilst ensuring quality of care.

 

The Executive Director for Operations added that the funding agreed by the Cabinet would be from core funding, not reserves.

 

Councillor Hardman asked how the proposed saving of £900,000 through a Review of Adult Care Packages will be achieved.

 

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that this would be a big challenge due to the growth in Mental Health needs, Respite and Leaning Difficulties whilst remaining Care Act compliant.

 

Councillor Hardman asked how will the £1.4m savings be delivered with regard to family reunifications.

 

Councillor Paul May replied that they have worked on this issue in great detail into how we can reduce costs and enable young people to be reunited with their families.

 

The Director of Children’s Services & Education added that she welcomed the growth in the budget for Children’s Services. She added that progress is being made regarding reunification and is a subject that is raised with young people shortly after they come into care. She said that they were confident in achieving this target over the coming year and have identified the young people / families that they hope to reunite.

 

Councillor Hardman asked if there will be enough available drivers to achieve the proposed saving of £600,000 in relation to Home to School Transport.

 

Councillor Paul May replied that due to the increase in taxi prices they have begun a process to establish more in-house drivers in order to achieve these savings.

 

The Executive Director for Operations added that driver recruitment has been identified as one of the best ways in which the Council can manage this area better. She added that they were currently  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

79.

Panel Workplan pdf icon PDF 110 KB

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel. Any suggestions for further items or amendments to the current programme will be logged and scheduled in consultation with the Panel’s Chair and supporting officers.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair introduced this item to the Panel. The following subjects were noted as future items for their workplan.

 

  • DfE Regional Lead attendance – MATs / Attainment / Performance
  • CQC Inspection of Adult Services
  • Healthwatch Update
  • Respite Care Review
  • Free School Meals – Auto Enrolment
  • Sexual Exploitation / Government’s Draft Statement of Strategic Priorities for online safety
  • Home Education – Data / Health & Support needs / Visit frequency
  • Attainment Gap Project Update - St John's Foundation
  • SEND – Process / Timescales for reasonable adjustments within schools
  • Schools Health & Wellbeing Survey outcomes

 

Kevin Burnett suggested two possible items for inclusion in future Cabinet Member Updates.

 

·  Government Priorities – Adult Social Care / Children’s Services

·  Public Health – Improving health attainment for young people outside of a school setting

 

Councillor Paul May noted that the Panel had also requested further information regarding Home to School Transport and Early Help. He suggested that the DfE attendance and the Attainment Gap Project Update be linked to the same meeting if possible.

 

He added that when the inspection reports relating to the Youth Justice System and Care Leavers were published they should be shared with the Panel.

 

The Panel RESOLVED to note their workplan and items raised during the discussion.