To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Mrs B Millman and Ms M James Voluntary Sector representatives.

To receive details of any Member nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the Committee

There were no named substitutes.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on this Agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 10th June, 2005.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 10th June, 2005 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

No suggestions were received.

To report the position on a selection of priority Performance Indicators and provide information about current performance management work and the budget.

The Committee considered a report on performance and the budget.

The report stated that there were a number of areas where performance was not expected to meet the target.  In part this was considered to be due to difficulties in data collection part way through the year and the ongoing difficulties of recording information using the client index system.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection had recently issued its draft performance assessment report following the Annual Review meeting in July 2005, which once finalised would be presented to a future meeting of the Committee.

It was noted that an action plan for recovery was being prepared and that the financial implications of increasing performance would form part of the budget planning process for 2006/07 linking to the Annual Operating Plan.

It was also reported that the Government Office for the West Midlands had assessed Herefordshire’s Housing Strategy 2005-2008 as being fit for purpose, confirming that the Strategy identified the housing issues facing the County and that there were robust plans in place to address them.  The Government Office would now work with the Council and monitor the achievement of outputs identified in the Plan.

In presenting the section of the report on the budget 2005/06 the Director of Adult Social Care and Strategic Housing advised that there had been significant increases in the projected overspends on both the Social Care and Strategic Housing budgets as set out in the report.  The projected social care budget overspend of £584,000 had now risen to £755,000, before the carry forward overspend of £714,000 from 2004/05 was taken into account.  The projected overspend of £497,000 on the Strategic Housing budget had risen to £706,000, almost entirely owing to the cost of temporary accommodation for those presenting themselves as homeless. 

The Director advised that demographics were driving demand for services, in particular for older people and those with a learning disability, placing increasing pressure on the social care budget.  As the report showed these pressures were also impacting on performance.

In the course of discussion the following principal points were made:

·          Concern was expressed about the consideration being given to forming a joint team comprising Welfare Rights staff and staff from the Department of Work and Pensions.  It was suggested the concept was flawed.  It appeared that no lead department had been appointed, no budget provision had been allocated and there were no terms of reference other than to provide advice to those aged over 60.  There appeared to be a danger of replicating a service already available from the voluntary sector.  It was proposed that a report on the issue should be made to the Committee.

·          It was suggested that some of the issues presented as success stories in the report were as yet only proposals.  It was requested that in future reports evidence of successes was provided.

·          Concern was expressed about the Committee’s ability adequately to scrutinise performance on the basis of the information currently being provided to it. It was noted that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.