To note the outcome of the Adult Social Care Peer Challenge undertaken in June 2014 and to consider the council’s response to the areas for improvement identified.

Members were presented with the outcome of the Adult Social Care Peer Challenge, which took place in June 2014, and the resulting action plan from the areas of improvement identified.

Members were advised of the three areas of scope of the review and the three main outcomes that were identified.

·         The clear vision of the leadership with staff, officers and members all engaged.

·         Stronger links with service users are needed.

·         Areas for further focus were identified.

The Assistant Director, Homes and Community Services, confirmed to members the details from the outcome of the Peer Challenge had now been distilled to create an action plan for each of the issues identified.

It was confirmed there is a monitoring process in place, and updates will be reported through governance structures.

In order to clarify the ‘’clawed back’’ amount of £929k identified in the report the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing confirmed this was a large amount of money which was identified in accounts as unspent as a result of end of year reconciliation work. There are two aims in place to tackle the issue of unspent direct payments. Firstly to work with customers to make sure they understand what they can spend and secondly to make sure the correct amount is allocated.

In answer to a query about point 30 of the action plan the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing clarified that Frameworki is a nationally used IT programme and extra software has been developed so that it can be used to produce reports needed as a result of the Care Act.

Resolved:

THAT:

(a)  Note the outcome of the review attached at Appendix 1;

(b)  Approve the action plan attached as Appendix 2 as the response to the areas for improvement identified;

(c)  Make recommendations for any further actions to be added to the action plans