Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence were received.

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.

Minutes of the Meeting held on 17 March 2010

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2010 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Cabinet Member and Spokespersons requested that their thanks be passed to Councillor Barry Griffiths, former Cabinet Member – Health and Social Care, for all his efforts in developing the work of the Health ans Social Care Department during his tenure.

Report of the Adult Social Care Director.

Further to Minute No 134 of the Cabinet meeting held on 1 October 2009, the Cabinet Member considered the report for the Adult Social Care Director on charges for the Specialist Transport Service and indicating that a review had been undertaken to assess the impact of the introduction of the flat rate charge on all service users who had transport arranged by the Council’s Specialist Transport Service.

The report indicated that the a flat rate charge of £3.00 per day (£1.50 per journey) had been introduced on 1 October 2009 for all service users who had transport arranged by the Council’s Specialist Transport Service; that since that date, 49 complaints had been received regarding the charge; that the complaints centred around charging for trips which had not occurred and had been caused by miscommunication between Adult Social Care Department, the Specilaist Transport Unit and the care agencies. All parties continued to work to improve upon this issue.

As the charge did not come under the fairer charging policy there was no financial assessment.  34 appeals against the charge had been received and 30 had already been visited by the Department’s Finance Visiting Officers to submit financial information in support of their appeal.  In response to the level of allowance given against expenditure over and above usual living costs claimed and to ensure that the system was not overly bureaucratic, a percentage allowance discount could be introduced.

The Cabinet Member and Spokespersons asked a variety of questions relating to Specialist Transport; welcomed the findings of the report as a “step in the right direction”; and thanked the Specialist Transport team for all their continued efforts to improve the services for all users, and requested that specific thanks be passed to Karen Lee, Team Leader, Health and Social Care Department and her team be for their valuable assistance and the additional workload they had undertaken to improve this situation.  Colin Speight agreed to take details of any individuals experiencing difficulty due to the new charge from Members and follow up as appropriate.

RESOLVED: That

(1)         the contents of the report be noted;

(2)         the treatment of expenditure in reaching the decision on an appeal, as outlined in paragraph 8 of the report, be approved;

(3)         the fact that a further report would be submitted on this matter in six months time be noted; and

(4)         the report be referred to Cabinet for information.

Report of the Adult Social Care Director

Further to Minute No 62 of the meeting held on 17 February 2010, the Cabinet Member considered the report of the Adult Social Care Director, which provided the final year-end report of his Department’s performance activity for 2009/10, in relation to achieving key objectives.

RESOLVED:

Report of the Adult Social Care Director

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Adult Social Care Director on the Single Capital Pot – Mental Health and seeking approval for its allocation.

RESOLVED: That

(1)         the report be noted;

(2)         the applications received for funding in support of mental health initiatives, as detailed in the report, be approved; and

(3)         the reserve balance of £150,000 be retained for future mental health projects.

Report of the Adult Social Care Director

Further to Minute No 63 of the meeting held on 17 February 2010, the Cabinet Member considered the report of the Adult Social Care Director regarding the activity and developments in relation to Safeguarding Adults in Sefton.

RESOLVED: That

(1)               the report updating on the activity and developments in Safeguarding Adults in Sefton be approved; and

(2)               the fact that further reports would be submitted on a quarterly basis on the performance in relation to Safeguarding Adults be noted.

Report of the Adult Social Care Director

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Adult Social Care Director on the Care Quality Commission’s inspection of Adult Social Care in Sefton which took place in December 2009.

A copy of the Care Quality Commission’s full inspection report was attached as an appendix to the report.

RESOLVED: That

(1)         the report of the Care Quality Commission on the inspection of Adult Social Care be noted; and

(2)         the recommendations being addressed through the Improvement Plan, as detailed in the report, be endorsed.

To consider passing the following resolution:

That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.  The Public Interest Test has been applied and favours exclusion of the information from the Press and Public.

RESOLVED:

That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.  The Public Interest Test has been applied and favours exclusion of the information from the Press and Public.

Report of the Strategic Director - Communities

Further to Minute No 22 of the Cabinet meeting held on 20 May 2010, the Cabinet Member considered the report of the Strategic Director – Communities on the Independent Living Centre, Scarisbrick Avenue, Southport.

The Cabinet Resolved that:

RESOLVED: 

That the decision of the Cabinet be noted.