Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Brennan.

Members and Officers are requested to give notice of any personal or prejudicial interest and the nature of that interest, relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the relevant Code of Conduct.

No declarations of interest were received.

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 November 2009 be confirmed as a correct record.

Report of the Strategic Director – Adult Social Services (Heath and Social Care)

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Strategic Director of Adult Social Services (Health and Social Care) on the Common Financial Assessment Project, seeking approval to include funding received from the North West Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (NWIEP) into the Capital Programme to improve the efficiency of Financial Assessments.

The report indicated that there were 25 eligibility checks across 47 services relating to 2 needs, namely “Warm, safe and secure housing” and “Staying in general good health as long as possible”; and that a reduction in unnecessary and sometimes, stressful, contact with service users and Council overheads in relation to undertaking assessments could be achieved through data sharing between Sefton Council and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The report also indicated that £200K had been made available (£150K to Sefton Council) to fund a project to improve the effectiveness of financial assessments in adult social care for non-residential care across the whole of the North West through the adoption of best practice guidelines and closer working with DWP. The funds would support a joint programme with Sefton, Tameside and Lancashire councils and the DWP would share Financial Assessment information; that the project would be carried out in three phases - baseline, scenario generation and process redesign, and Pilot; that the NWEIP funds would be used to employ staff to undertake the project tasks; and that staff would be a mix of Sefton employees and contractors. 

RESOLVED: That

(1)               the Common Financial Assessment Project as detailed in this report, be approved; and

(2)               Cabinet be requested to included the funding of up to £150,000 in the Health and Social Care Capital Programme 2009/10, noting that financial commitment will only be entered into as and when grant approval is gained for each phase of the project.

Report of the Strategic Director – Adult Social Services (Heath and Social Care)

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Strategic Director of Adult Social Services (Health and Social Care) on the Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG) Programme, seeking approval for the endorsement of a virement of £250K within the Health and Social Care Capital Programme in support of the Disabled Facilities Grants obligations; indicating that the Government helped to fund the grant programme through the provision of a direct grant totalling to £1.157m for 2009/10; that this funding did not meet actual demand which resulted in Sefton Council supplementing the provision from local housing capital resources; that current demand trends were increasing due to a number of factors including improved administration which had resulted in grant approvals flowing through more quickly, changing demographics and an ageing population, joint funding obligations in relation to applications for RSL tenants, and the removal of means testing for DFG applications for children which had all resulted in increased pressure on resources and the need to implement higher value adaptations.

It was proposed to allocate significantly increased resources to the DFG budget line via a virement of £250K of currently unallocated resource which existed in the Social Care Capital Programme.

RESOLVED: That

(1)               the report be noted; and

(2)               Cabinet be recommended to endorse the proposal for a virement of £250K from the Social Care SCP (C) 2008/09-2010/11 Capital Grant provision for 2009/10 in the Health and Social Care Capital Programme to DFG Budget.

Report of the Strategic Director – Adult Social Services (Heath and Social Care)

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Strategic Director of Adult Social Services (Health and Social Care) which provided an update of his Department’s performance activity for the second quarter 2008/09, in relation to achieving key objectives.

RESOLVED: That

Report of the Head of Regeneration and Technical Services

Further to Minute No 15 of the meeting held on 25 June 2008, the Cabinet Member considered the report of the Head of Regeneration and Technical Services on Sefton’s Affordable Warmth Strategy Review 2009 (SAWS); indicating that the purpose of the SAWS annual review was to reflect upon what had already been achieved, to refresh the strategy and take into account any changes in legislation and policies to ensure aims, activities and targets continued to be focused in the relevant areas.

RESOLVED:

That the adoption of the SAWS as continuing Council Policy to underpin and expand its ongoing work in tackling fuel poverty be approved.