Agenda and minutes

Apologies: Cllr Peter Kemp

None.

Notes of the meetings held on 16^th June 2009 were agreed as an accurate record.

It was agreed that all items of business were considered in public.

Disabled People’s Plan

The Joint Commissioning Service Manager introduced the Disabled People’s Plan and Action Plan.

The following points were noted:

·        The consultation to develop the Disabled People’s Plan has been the most extensive the Council has undertaken with Disabled People.

·        A series of meetings, including a meeting of the Disabled People’s Assembly, questionnaires and workshops were used during the consultation process.

·        Key themes to emerge from the consultation included reducing the fear of crime, enabling disabled people to make a valid contribution to their communities and improving pathways to economic and social well-being.

·        A much more detailed action plan (than the one considered by Committee) is being developed which will be uploaded into the Council’s performance, management database, Excelsis.

·        The Disabled People’s Plan will be a living document which will be reviewed annually.

In response to Members questions the following points were noted:

• The mental health well-being centre is a partnership between the statutory (CNWL), voluntary (MIND and CAB) and private (Boots Chemist) sectors. 
• This will open in Boots Chemist on the High Street in January 2010 and be funded by CNWL.

The Committee thanked officers for producing a clear and concise report.

Resolved

1. That the report be commended to Cabinet

2. That officers be requested to provide brief updates on the Disabled People’s Plan / Action Plan and Carers Assessments in January 2010.

Performance and Budget Report

Head of Improvement and Head of Finance said the report covered

1. Customer Care Standards
2. Achieving Value for Money
3. Strengthening Planning and Performance
4. Building a Culture for Success.

The report provided an overview of the performance and budget position of the Adult Social Care, Health and Housing Group for 2008/09.There had continued to be good progress on customer care, but the report focussed more on where there were further opportunities to improve:

• Of the 499 complaints received during 2008/9, 389 were about housing, of which 210 were for Hillingdon Homes.
• 87% of Stage 1 complaints received a response within ten days compared to a Council target of 80%.
• The 3 most common themes of complaints were:
  1. Perception of staff conduct
  2. Policy
  3. Quality of care
• ASCH&H are working with Hillingdon Homes to improve responses in dealing with the underlying service issues.

It was difficult to say how the Credit Crunch would impact on ASCH&H budgets in the medium to long term e.g. as a result of any increase in homelessness.

In response to Members’ questions the following comments were made:

• Officers confirmed that complaints statistics do not include Members enquiries which are investigated separately.
• Members noted that boiler and gas safety checks are conducted by the same contractor. Officers are looking at ways to use both the Environment Act and Nuisance Act to gain access to properties to test appliances.  
• The legal costs relating to an Anti Social Behaviour Order for the Caravan site will put a cost pressure on the budget for next year.
• Officers confirmed that the gross budget of £28.4 m for Learning Disability did include the contribution from the Primary Care Trust.
• Officers were also asked to confirm which ASC Homes were affected by the £5m slippage relating to the 'MH &LD Modernisation' as shown in the Capital table on page 10 and the 2nd paragraph following this table on page 11.  Officers have confirmed that this relates to Charles Curran and Hatton Grove, the outcome of the external grant bid should be known in Q3 following which a revised timetable can be drafted.
• The new liquid logic system has improved the time taken to conduct care assessments but feedback on assessments has taken longer than expected in some cases.
• The single point of access for Adult Social Care improvement programme is investigating the possibility of adopting the customers’ NHS number as a single point of reference. The Deputy Director confirmed that

barcodes are currently being used on document imaging to improve performance.

• Key performance targets include:

1.      Target 40 – Extending the first time buyers deposit scheme

2.      Target 41 – Promote increased capacity for sheltered housing

3.      Target 45 – Maintaining excellent housing/council tax benefits service

4.      NI 132 – Timeliness of social care assessments

• Other areas of work include: Information systems modernisation, single point of access for Adult Social Care, Communications, Customer Engagement and Safeguarding Adults

Resolved

1. That the report be noted.

2. That officers be congratulated on the clear  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

2009/10 Work Programme: Background report and Discussions

Members were presented with details of the Committee’s work programme for 2009/10 together with a draft scoping report on ‘The Transformation Agenda and Direct Payments in Hillingdon’.

Discussion took place on the remit of the review and the dangers of trying to cover too many topics.

The Chairman suggested that as the Committee had already received an introductory presentation on the Transformation Agenda at the June meeting, the methodology should be amended to reflect this. The Committee agreed that the methodology of the review should be amended to specifically concentrate on case studies, commissioning / market development and monitoring / safeguarding.

In undertaking the review, Members asked that contact be made with other local authorities such as Surrey County Council and other beacon authorities to learn from their experiences of implementing the Transformation agenda.

Reference was made to the work programme and timetable of meetings. The Committee requested brief updates on the Hillingdon Centre for Independent Living (HCIL) (October 2009), Carers Assessments and the Disabled People’s Plan (January 2010) to be added to the work programme.

Resolved –

1.      That the scoping report be agreed subject to the methodology being amended to reflect the Committee’s views and for this methodology to be circulated to the Committee by e-mail.

2.      That the first witness session of the review in September 2009 focus on case studies

3.      That Democratic Services contact the Opposition Party Lead for details of his contacts at other Local Authorities working on the Transformation agenda.

4.      That the Work Programme be amended to include brief update reports on HCIL in October and Carers Assessments and the Disabled People’s Plan in January 2010.

Cabinet Forward Plan

The Committee considered the Forward Plan from July to October 2009.

Resolved

1. That the report be noted

2. That officers be requested to circulate copies of the standard Item – Supporting People Update Report on a Quarterly Basis for information