Agenda and minutes

An updated set of Minutes were circulated to Members.

Agreed as an accurate record.

It was confirmed that all items on the agenda would be considered in public.

Members were informed that the Hillingdon Safeguarding Adults Partnerships Board had a statutory duty to publish an Annual Report on the effectiveness of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults in the Borough.

The Committee was asked to provide comments and ask any questions outside the meeting.

RESOLVED –

1. That the report be noted and any comments on the report be submitted to Democratic Services for officer response.

To be provided with an oral report for the Committee's first major review of the Municipal Year.

At the last meeting of the Committee held on 21 June 2016 it was agreed that the Committee's first major review for the municipal year would be on Hospital Discharges.

The Head of Social Work attended the meeting and provided background information to the topic chosen. Reference was made to Healthwatch who were undertaking a review on Hospital Discharges and it was agreed that the Committee be provided with this report when it had been published.

A discussion took place on areas which the review should cover and these included:

·      Information to be provided to enable Members to gain an understanding and a perspective of the issue.

·      What is a good discharge from hospital to enable a failed discharge to be identified

·      Reasons for failed discharges.

·      Discharge arrangements for those with care plans and those without

·      Examples of patient experiences.

·      The Community Mental Health perspective in relation to patients suffering mental health problems.

·      What was happening in relation to hospital avoidance?

·      Communication with families of patients.

·      In respect of the elderly who were also carers, what support was given to the people they cared for whilst they were in hospital and requiring health support.

·      Regional variations within the Borough in terms of increased hospital dependence.

For the next meeting a scoping report would be presented providing Members with information to enable the context of the issues to be understood.

RESOLVED –

1. That the information provided be noted and officers be asked to     prepare a draft scoping report for the next meeting, together with more background information, to enable Members to undertake a review into Hospital Discharges.

Consideration was given to a report which provided information and analysis of complaints and Members Enquiries received between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016 for Housing and Adult Services.

The Committee was informed that changes to the Council's Corporate Complaints procedure had resulted in increased intervention from officers to avert complaints and that complaints could now be sent straight to the Local Government Ombudsman after Stage 1 or Stage 2, if the complainant was dissatisfied with the Council's response.

Reference was made to the Council's Housing Allocation policy which was out to consultation which when adopted would result in a greater number of complaints. 

Members were provided with the following information:

In relation to the Housing Service:

Informal complaints

·         32% more complaints had been dealt with informally when compared to the 2014/15 figure of 497 to the 2015/16 figure of 656.

Stage 1 complaints

·         18% fewer Stage 1 complaints had been registered when compared to the figure for 2014/15 of 144, with the figure for 2015/16 of 118. Members were informed that the average time taken to conclude a Stage 1 complaint was 9.48 working days against a target of 10 working days. 74% (87 out of 118) complaints were responded to within the 10 working days target.

Stage 2 complaints

·         There had been 39% more Stage 2 complaints from 18 in 2014/15 to 25 in 2015/16. The average time taken to conclude a Stage 2 complaint was 7.86 working days against a target of 10 working days. 88% (22 out of 25) complaints were responded to within 10 working days.

Stage 3 complaints

·         There had been 43% fewer Stage 3 complaints from 23 in 2014/15 to 13 in 2015/16. The average time to conclude a Stage 3 complaint was 10.57 working days against a target of 15 working days. 12 out of 13 Stage 3 complaints were responded to within 15 working days.

Investigation by the Housing or Local Government Ombudsman (LGO)

·         18 referrals had been concluded by the Ombudsman during this period. Of the 18 referrals, 1 had been upheld, 2 partially upheld, 11 not upheld and 4 referrals were not investigated by the Ombudsman

Compliments

·         The number of compliments recorded was down from 40 for 2014/15 to 23 for 2015/16.

In relation to complaints regarding Adult Services, reference was made to the impact which the Care Act would have on the number of complaints. Regular liaison took place with Healthwatch Hillingdon which helped with dealing with complaints and often provided opportunities for intervention.

The Committee was also informed that a Team had been set up to deal with complaints regarding hospital discharges.

In relation to Adult Social Care:

Informal complaints

• 26% more complaints had been dealt with informally when compared to the 2014/15 figure of 104 with the figure for 2015/16 of 131.

Stage 1 complaints

• There had been 26% more Stage 1 complaints registered when compared to the 2014/15 figure of 31 against the 2015/16 figure of 39.

• The average time taken to conclude  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

Noted.

The Committee asked that consideration be given to scheduling a meeting of the Committee in December, if required.

Members asked for an update on the Stroke Prevention review for the next meeting.

Noted.