Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:

That, in the absence of the Chair, Councillor Cummins be appointed Chair for this meeting of the Board.

Apologies for absence were received from the Chair - Councillor Moncur, Councillor John Joseph Kelly, Dr. Rob Caudwell, Steve Warburton and Richard Freeman.

Members are requested to give notice of any disclosable pecuniary interest, which is not already included in their Register of Members' Interests and the nature of that interest, relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the Members Code of Conduct, before leaving the meeting room during the discussion on that particular item.

No declarations of any disclosable pecuniary interest were received.

Minutes of the Meeting held on 15 March 2017.

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2017, be confirmed as a correct record.

The following item of business which was not included on the Agenda for the meeting was accepted by the Chair and the Board to be presented.

The Board received a presentation from the Head of Children’s Social Care in relation to the Ofsted Improvement Plan.

The Head of Children’s Social Care reported that the Ofsted inspection had concluded that Children’s Social Care in Sefton required improvement to be good across all areas and had made 11 recommendations which had been incorporated under the following three objectives:-

·         Objective One – To ensure that frontline practice is consistently good, effective and focussed on timely, measurable outcomes for children.

·         Objective Two – To improve management oversight at all levels to ensure effective services for children and young receive good quality supervision.

·         Objective Three – To ensure that frontline services are sufficiently resourced and the workforce are appropriately skilled to enable high quality work to be undertaken with children and young people.

It was reported that steady progress had been made since the inspection and further improvements were ongoing.

The Head of Children’s Social Care reported that, in relation to Objective One, the following outstanding issues had been identified:

·         Re-referral rates had increased by 21.6%.

·         Child Protection re-plan rates was now a significant area of focus.

·         Assessment should be undertaken within 10 days of referral.

·         Child in need plan should be in place within 25 days from the date of referral.

·         Children Looked After Health check compliance.

·         Care Leavers - Not in Employment Education or Training, focus on help and support for this cohort.

·         Reports for conferences and reviews to be shared with parents three days before the conference.

·         Improvements required on the quality of the recording of audits.

The Head of Children’s Social Care reported that, in relation to Objective Two, the following issues had been addressed:

·         Frontline Managers development programme in progress.

·         Performance meetings with managers were taking place.

·         Data refreshed to ensure that managers understand overall performance, team, and individual performance.

·         Supervision policy reviewed and refreshed.

·         All staff quarterly practice and performance workshops implemented.

·         Governance structure agreed and scorecard developed for Improvement board, Health and Wellbeing Board and Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

·         Supervision audits undertaken which do show improvements.

·         Annual Survey of supervision completed and the findings being collated

The Head of Children’s Social Care reported that, in relation to Objective Three, the following issues had been identified and addressed:

·         Introduced Practice Standards.

·         Reviewed and refreshed policies and procedures.

·         Consulted on and moving to implementation of service restructure which will address what Ofsted reported:

-       Children experience too many changes of social worker at important transition points.

-       Caseloads are too high in certain areas, (assessment, Corporate Parenting and IRO’s)

-       Management oversight and supervision needs to improve.

·         Delivered Workshops on all aspects of recording information on the child’s record.

·         Reviewed and refreshed core training offer to social workers.

The Head of Children’s Social Care reported that the actions within the Improvement Plan were complete but more focus on impact and outcomes was required.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation in relation to the progress of the Children’s Social Care Ofsted Improvement Plan be noted.

Report of the Director of Public Health

Further to Minute No. 4 of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 25 May 2017, the Board considered the report of the Director of Public Health which incorporated his independent annual report on the health and wellbeing of the population of Sefton highlighting key issues. The annual report had been developed through collaborative working with a range of Council and external partners and it considered the root causes of health inequalities across Sefton, what actions were already being undertaken locally to address these issues, as well as recommendations for future actions on nine key areas, which were:-

·         The best start in life;

·         Healthy schools and pupils;

·         Helping people find good jobs and stay in work;

·         Active and safe travel;

·         Warmer and safer homes;

·         Access to green and open spaces and the role of leisure services;

·         Strong communities, wellbeing and resilience;

·         Public protection and regulatory services; and

·         Health and spatial planning.

The Public Health Annual Report was a statutory independent report of the Director of Public Health and identified key issues affecting health in the Sefton population.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

To receive a verbal update from the Director of Social Care and Health.

The Board received a verbal update from the Director of Social Care and Health in relation to the recent joint inspection undertaken by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission on the Special Educational Needs and Disability Service.  The outcome of the inspection identified a number of areas that required improvement and an Improvement Plan had been developed to address those identified areas.

RESOLVED:

That the verbal update in relation to the joint inspection of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Service be noted.

Report of the Director of Social Care and Health

The Board considered the report of the Director of Social Care and Health providing supporting information behind the national drive to create Regional Adoption Agencies across England and to set out the proposed model for the Merseyside Regional Adoption Agency across Knowsley, Wirral, Sefton and Liverpool.

RESOLVED: That

(1)       the proposed model for the Knowsley, Wirral, Sefton and Liverpool Regional Adoption Agency (RAA), including the recommendation that local authority staff are seconded into the RAA, be noted;

(2)       the intention for the new model to move into shadow arrangements during the third quarter of 2017 and go live in January 2018 be noted; and

(3)       the proposal to use the name AIM (Adoption in Merseyside) as the brand for the RAA going forward be noted.

Report of the Head of Health and Wellbeing

The Board considered the report of the Head of Health and Wellbeing sharing key findings from for the Sefton Suicide Audit 2015.

RESOLVED:

That the report and the Suicide Reduction Plan for 2017/18 be endorsed.

To receive a presentation of the Director of Social Care and Health

Further to Minute No. 105 of the meeting of the Cabinet of 6 April 2017, the Board considered a presentation of the Director of Social Care and Health on a review of the Sefton Community Equipment Store. The presentation set out the background to the matter; the national policy context; the local policy context; the legal framework for equipment provision; Sefton population needs; Sefton population projections; the demand for community equipment; monitoring and service performance targets of the service; the budget arrangements for the provision of equipment; what equipment was provided; “core stock” and recycling; the stock workforce; issues and opportunities; and next steps to be taken.

The presentation indicated that community equipment was vitally important to support care at home and in a range of settings, particularly with an ageing population. A maximum of one year had been agreed from 31 March 2017 to extend the current Section 75 Partnership Agreement between the Council and Liverpool Community Health Trust for the operation of the Store to enable the review and to insure that the “incoming Partner”, North West Boroughs Healthcare Foundation Trust, was proportionately consulted. The review approach had been used to engage with the workforce, referrers, Healthwatch and other key stakeholders, and some of the areas under consideration included the legislation, policy context and vision; the increase in our older population and the increased demand for equipment; same day requests for equipment; and the implementation of an operational level improvement plan.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation in relation to the Community Equipment Store Review be noted.

To receive a presentation from the Chief Officer of the Southport and Formby and South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group.

The Board received a presentation from the Chief Officer of the Southport and Formby and South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Groups in relation to Primary Care Medical Services.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted.

Verbal update from the Chair of the Adult Forum, Councillor Cummins

The Board received a verbal update from the Chair of the Adult Forum, Councillor Cummins in relation to the following recent activities undertaken by the Adult Forum; the progress made regarding integration across the region in relation to social care and housing, the integrated wellness service, older people with mental health issues and dementia and personalisation.  

RESOLVED:

That the update in relation to the recent activities of the Adult Forum be noted.