Agenda and minutes

None.

None.

The minutes of 25 July 2011 and 31 August 2011 meeting were agreed as a correct record.

All items were considered in Part 1.

The Chairman introduced the report and thanked the witnesses for attending the meeting. The witnesses in attendance were:

·        Chris Hampson – Look Ahead, Executive Director of Strategy, Performance and Operations

·        Colum Friel – Look Ahead, Head of Operations Mental Health Services

·        Ceri Sheppard – Look Ahead, Transformation Manager

·        Angela Wegener Chief Officer, DASH

Look Ahead

Chris Hampson provided an overview of the Look Ahead organisation. The following points were noted:

·        Look Ahead had provided vulnerable customers with high quality accommodation and the care and support services they required to live independently for over 30 years.

·        Look Ahead worked with people who were amongst society’s most vulnerable and included:

1.      young people, care leavers and teenage parents

2.      people with mental health issues

3.      people with learning disabilities

4.      homeless families, single homeless people and rough sleepers

5.      women and children fleeing domestic violence

6.      people with substance misuse issues

7.      people with offending histories.

·        Look Ahead had worked in partnership with 28 Boroughs in London and the South East and several primary care trusts. Last year Look Ahead supported over 5000 people.

·        The accommodation-based support and floating and outreach services offered support to people around:

1.      preventing repeat homelessness through tenancy sustainment

2.      seeking specialist support for drug and alcohol issues

3.      mental health needs

4.      managing money and accessing benefits

5.      finding meaningful occupation and developing social networks

6.      accessing education, employment and training and activities in the local community.

·        Look Ahead had enabled socially excluded people they supported to transform their lives in positive ways. By doing so[MSOffice1] , clients had been empowered to play an active part in their local community and to live more independent lives.

Look Ahead was customer focused and assisted clients to make choices and take control of their own support which could involve.

·        Selecting the person who supports you

·        Choosing the time and location of your support sessions

·        Having control over the activities budget where you live

·        Having a say in how your service is delivered

A key aspect of helping clients to make these choices was facilitating the move away from block contract commissioning to personal budgets. It was noted that Look Ahead were currently in discussion with a number of Local Authorities about the ways in which they were managing this transition.

·        It was noted that personal budgets only applied to those clients which were FACS (Fair Access to Care) eligible, although most of Look Ahead’s clients would not be eligible for a personal budget.

·        Look Ahead aspired to assist as many users of personal budgets as possible and had conducted a pilot study last year. This had involved 240 service users across all clients groups and delivery models to see how service provision could be personalised for them.

·        Learning points from the pilot study had shown how important choice and flexibility were.

·        Look Ahead had experience of assisting 25 clients with personal budgets which were mostly administered by the respective Councils. These budgets ranged from £5k to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

The Head of Transformation provided a verbal report.

The following points were noted:

·        The Transformation Team were currently undergoing an organised plan of change in a structured rather than rigid way.

·        Officers had been looking at organisational readiness to provide personalisation and were in the process of identifying those areas where further work may be required to ensure satisfactory readiness

·        Officers explained it was quite usual to come across areas which required further work and to reassess whether planned dates were realistic and robust enough.  The area that most often requires further work and testing is the information technology systems

Resolved –

That the report be noted

The Head of Transformation provided a verbal report.

The following points were noted:

• Risk enablement training had been undertaken by officers and had focused on case studies.
• The external instructor which was providing training to the Transformation Team had worked across a number of Local Authorities including Kent, Nottinghamshire and Herefordshire and so officers had gained valuable insights into what had worked well elsewhere.
• Current training had focused on telecare, pre-paid cards and risk management and how these areas would work in practice. Officers reported that strategies are in place to address any concerns raised during training.

Resolved –

1. That the report be noted.

The Head of Performance and Intelligence ASC,HH introduced the report. The department aimed to resolve problems raised by residents at the earliest opportunity and to learn positively from mistakes. The number of complaints had fallen from 314 in 2009/10 to 217 in 2009/10. 92% of complaints were resolved at stage 1 of the complaints procedure and the number of stage 2 complaints dropped significantly from 26 in 2009/10 to 13 in 2010/11.

Other actions to improve services and customer outcomes included: improving customer care and communications issues (including reviewing written communications to customers), as well as specific targeted action and visits to care providers and improved monitoring within Hillingdon Homes of their contracts.

Members’ enquired whether complaints investigations could be costed? Officers explained these were not at present but would be something which could be considered in the future.

Members made the following comments:

1. To congratulate officers on a clear and concise report.
2. To endorse the early intervention strategy employed by officers when dealing with complaints.

Resolved –

1. That the report be noted.
2. That officers be requested to circulate further information on the average waiting times per LOCATA band and property size

The Committee considered the Forward Plan from October 2011 to February 2012 and the following comments were made:

CARERS’ COMMISSIONING PLAN

The Committee expressed concern regarding the funding or protection for Carers’ services and requested that a similar level of service should be provided in the future. The Committee noted that the number of carers had risen and risen in recent years and also commended the work undertaken by Hillingdon Carers.

PERSONALISATION OF ACCOMMODATION-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES (PART II)

The Committee endorsed the move away from block contracts to personalised budgets.

Resolved –

1. That the above comments be submitted to 27 October 2011 Cabinet
2. To note 668 Contract Award for the Direct Payment Support Service had been moved from 24 November to January Cabinet

Resolved –

That the report be noted