To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor R.B.A. Burke.

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.

Councillor P.G. Turpin declared a personal interest in agenda item 6: Learning Disability Service – Scrutiny Review.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 2nd June, 2006.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 2nd June, 2006 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.

There were no suggestions from members of the public.

To consider the final report of the scrutiny review of services for people with a learning disability.

(Councillor P.G. Turpin declared a personal interest in this item.)

The Committee considered the final report of the scrutiny review of services for people with a learning disability.

An interim report had been presented to the Committee on 2nd June 2006 identifying emerging themes from the review which had been undertaken by the Committee as a whole.  Following further discussions these had now been consolidated into recommendations to the Cabinet Member (Social Care Adults and Health).

The Head of Adult Social Care presented the report commenting in detail on each of the recommendations.

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

·          That the review had highlighted the scope to achieve efficiencies in the use of transport provided for service users, also recognising that the greater use of public transport would promote a more inclusive approach benefiting service users.  The final review report needed to reflect this finding.  It was noted that a review of social care transport was underway and that progress would be reported as part of any report back to the Committee on the Executive’s response to the review.

·          It was proposed that additional recommendations were needed to make explicit how the Committee would require the response to its recommendations to the Executive to be monitored.

RESOLVED:

That       (a) the findings of the review of services for people with a learning disability be approved for submission to the Cabinet Member (Social Care Adults and Health) subject to additional text being added on the scope to achieve efficiencies in the use of transport provided for service users;

               (b) the Executive's response to the Review including an action plan be reported to the first available meeting of the Committee after the Executive has approved its response;

               and

               (c) a further report on progress in response to the Review then be made after six months with consideration then being given to the need for any further reports to be made.

To consider the Committee’s work programme.

The Committee considered its work programme.

The current work programme was appended to the report.

The report noted discussions being held by the Strategic Monitoring Committee on how work programmes might better reflect Council-wide themes and issues identified as priority areas. 

The Director of Adult and Community Services reported that following an informal meeting of the Strategic Monitoring Committee it had been suggested that in addition to focusing on the important theme of homelessness, the Adult Social Care and Housing Scrutiny Committee should lead on the following key themes:

·         Every Child Matters (examining matters including the transition from social care to adult life, the exchange of information between schools and social workers, whether plans being put in place with the Council’s partners are working well in practice and whether the Council is fulfilling its corporate parent role?).

·         Older Peoples Strategy and Improving Adult Social Care (examining whether the strategy is robust enough, how it fits with the Council’s medium term financial Strategy, what the implications are for other services,  and what is the view of the assessments of adult social care needs and services that are being produced, including the wider implications for health services and housing.)

It was noted that the extensive work programme would require additional administrative support and considerable input from Members.       

RESOLVED:   That work proceed to develop and progress the work programme incorporating the key themes set out above.

To report on the current budget position in Adult Social Care and Strategic Housing.

The Committee considered a report on the current budget position in Adult Social Care and Strategic Housing.

The report stated that the projected outturn for adult social care was an overspend of £3.4 million.  Paragraph 3 of the report detailed the overspends on Learning Disabilities, Older People, Physical Disabilities, Mental Health and Service Strategy.  It noted the consideration given to the adult social care budget by Cabinet on 29th June and the variations to the forecast budget position.

Changes to the risk sharing aspects of the Section 31 Agreements with the Primary Care Trust for 2006/07 were also referred to in the report.  In the case of Mental Health this meant that any overspend relating to the Council’s proportion of the mental health service expenditure would not be funded by the Primary Care Trust (PCT) and the whole risk would fall to the Council.  In the case of the learning disabilities service the Council carried the full financial risk for the Council and PCT outturn position.

The Assistant County Treasurer commented that it was early in the financial year and drew attention to ongoing efforts to manage the overspend.  He reminded the Committee that the findings of the analysis of adult social care needs and services were expected by the end of the Summer.  Work to draw on the experience of high performing authorities was also continuing.  The focus was on the longer term and the introduction of preventative measures which would reduce demand for services.

The projected outturn for Strategic Housing was an overspend of £83,000 although it was noted that if demand for temporary accommodation increased this would create pressures.  Attention was drawn to the success of measures introduced to reduce the number of people presenting themselves as homeless.

In the ensuing discussion the following principal points were made:

·          The findings of a recent internal audit of budget management in social care were welcomed.  It was suggested that these findings demonstrated that the difficulties in the social care budget were not a result of poor financial management but were clearly a consequence of increasing demand for services.  Concern was expressed that there had been undue delay in reaching this conclusion and that the restrictions on services as a consequence had had a detrimental impact.  The position would not be remedied until priorities changed and resources for social care were added to the base budget.

      It was noted that in October 2005 the Committee had urged that there should be a careful reassessment of the budget with a view to establishing a realistic budget for 2006/7.  It was asked why at such an early stage in the 2006/7 financial year such a large overspend was projected.

            It was also asked whether the projected overspend assumed that the contingency for social care which had been created as part of the 2006/07 budget had been spent.

      The Director of Adult and Community Services replied that in 2005/6 Cabinet had felt itself to be faced with monthly reports showing ever-increasing overspends on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.