Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed all to the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillors Jackie Slater and Parwaiz Akhtar.

A minutes silence was held for Chris Bradley, who had passed away suddenly, the day before the meeting. The Committee placed on record its thanks for the work Chris did for the Committee and passed on sincere condolences to his family.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 5^th February 2024 were agreed as a correct record.

Councillor Tony Humphrys raised an issue relating to one of the Care Homes referred to in Minute No. 20, advising that he had been approached by staff members who had raised concerns that extra staff had been brought ahead of the inspection by the Task and Finish Group, and Councillor Humphrys also raised an issue about one of the Care Home owners being unable to source funds from family members to assist with fee payments.

Mark Warren advised the Committee that the matter relating to the extra staff had been investigated, and discussed with the home in question, and the former Chair, Councillor Jacquie Slater had been sent the information. Mark Warren gave further details of issues in relating to wages in the sector, and the work the Council was undertaking with home owners to move towards paying the National Living Wage. There was competition from the retail and leisure sectors, and the Council was uplifting payments to try and help raise wages. Mark Warren also gave details of way residents of care homes were paid for, which involved the Council making a net payment (most Councils paid gross) and the care homes then looked to recover the remaining money from families. The Council was currently investigating moving to gross payments.

No Declarations of Interest were submitted.

The Committee received update reports from the NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board for information.

RESOLVED – That the update reports be noted.

The Committee will receive information from the Executive Members for Adult Social Care & Health and Public Health, Prevention & Wellbeing on their priorities and objectives for 2024/25, which will assist the Committee in agreeing its Work Programme for 2024/25.

It is recommended that the Committee choose one main area of focus for each subsequent meeting, in order that effective scrutiny can take place and the Work Programme agreed.

The Committee received a presentation which outlined the key priorities across Adults Social Care (ASC) & Health.

The six priorities for ASC & Health were:

·       Keep the Borough safe and protect the most vulnerable

·       Support people to stay healthy and independent at home for as long as possible

·       Transformation and legislative reform

·       To ensure the services we provide are of a good quality, responsive to individual needs, good value for money and reflect identified needs

·       To support citizens to be part of and connected to our communities through work, education, leisure and housing models that are fit for purpose

·       Tackling inequality, oppression and enabling people to maximise their potential

The Public Health linked priorities were also outlined, which were:

·       Housing Needs

·       Develop an All-Age commissioning programme of work, Health & Wellbeing – Tackling inequality within the Borough. Capitalise on delivery of NHS Health checks and Enhanced Health

·       Continue to ensure Life-course updates to the HWBB on a quarterly basis

·       Adults & Health strategy development & implementation

·       Adult Learning and Employment Support – Economic Inactivity and Health

Claire Richardson also reported on the areas of involvement of the ICB in these priorities.

Members referenced the importance of receiving good inspection results from the CQC inspection and discussed comparator local authorities locally in terms of costs and numbers of service users, and also raised concerns about issues relating to Housing, particularly in respect of Homelessness and HMO’s.

The Executive Members and Directors were thanked for the information presented and then left the meeting.

Members then discussed three main work programme themes for the remaining meetings in 2024/25 and the order they should be scrutinised.

RESOLVED –

·       Housing – Homelessness/HMO’s including unregistered, housing waiting list, Landlord Control/Selective Landlord Licensing (5^th August)

·       CQC readiness for inspection (7^th Oct)

·       Connectivity – Digital exclusion, connectivity of services, access to services for residents (3^rd Feb).