Agenda item

Report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance.

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance formally presenting the final report of the Care Services (Domiciliary) Working Group which had been established by this Committee.

The Working Group, had undertaken a review on customer satisfaction and quality with regard to the provision of domiciliary care, against the background of a number of recent developments, and had produced a number of recommendations that required approval by both this Committee and the Cabinet.

The Lead Member for the Working Group outlined the difficulties encountered by the Working Group in obtaining information and acknowledged the feedback received, particularly by Sefton Carers and staff from Sefton New Directions. She considered that the largest area of complaint had been regarding lack of continuity of care and that the annual surveys produced by Providers should be considered by this Committee in future. She also welcomed the recent decision made by the Cabinet to implement Stage One of the Ethical Care Charter.

One of the Healthwatch Sefton representatives commented on errors in medicines management and indicated that Healthwatch Sefton would be building on the work commenced by the Working Group, in gaining views on home care.

Fiona Taylor, Chief Officer for NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Southport and Formby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), welcomed the report and indicated that the Head of Medicines Management from the CCGs was keen to engage on this finding, although this area fell under the remit of NHS England.

Councillor Cummins, Cabinet Member –Adult Social Care, complimented the Working Group on its final report and commented on the recent agreement to implement Stage One of the Ethical Care Charter. In addition, officers were currently examining proposals for outcome based commissioning and further information would be forthcoming in due course.

The Chair thanked Members of the Working Group for their work towards the final report.

RESOLVED:

That the following recommendations be supported and Recommendation 1 be commended to the Cabinet for approval:-

(1)       That Commissioners of the Domiciliary Service in Sefton be requested to:-

(a)       liaise with Care Providers to consider how increased continuity of care by care workers can be achieved;

(b)       encourage Care Providers to consider providing care workers with a concise data log book of service users’ basic care needs and daily routine, to facilitate increased continuity of care where different care workers are used;

(c)        consider how increased partnership working with Care Providers can be achieved, in order to share common concerns, good practice, etc.;

(d)       consider producing an Information Pack, containing general information on options available, such as direct payments, and a simple chart illustrating which organisations individuals can approach to raise issues, make complaints, etc.; the Information Pack to be provided to individuals entering the domiciliary care system, and to be made available at the Sefton Carers’ Centre and Sefton Pensioners’ Advocacy Centre;

(e)       submit the annual questionnaire and survey results produced by Care Providers, together with any Annual Report produced by Commissioners, to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Adult Social Care), on an annual basis;

(f)        encourage Care Providers to provide service users and relatives who are in direct contact with the Provider on a regular basis, with a named contact from the Provider;

(g)       encourage Care Providers to provide more consistent training and induction for care workers;

(h)       consider how communication can be increased between Care Providers, service users and their families, and Sefton Carers’ Centre, particularly in the event of service users raising any concerns or issues;

(2)       That the Head of Adult Social Care be requested to submit a report / presentation to a future meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Adult Social Care), explaining:-

(a)       the costs associated with provision of the different aspects of the Domiciliary Service;

(b)       the impact of the Care Act 2014 on the provision of domiciliary care;

(c)        the proposal to move towards outcome based commissioning with regard to the Service;

(3)       That the Chief Officer for NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Southport and Formby Clinical Commissioning Group, be requested to investigate how concerns raised during the course of this review, regarding errors in medicine management by pharmacies, can be addressed and report back to a future meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Adult Social Care), explaining the outcome of those investigations;

(4)       That the recent decision made by the Cabinet to implement Stage One of the Ethical Care Charter and to consider Stages Two and Three of the Charter, be welcomed; and

(5)       That the Overview and Scrutiny (Adult Social Care) should receive a six-monthly monitoring report, setting out progress made against each of the recommendations outlined above.