NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL
19 JULY 2023
STATEMENT OF THE CHAIR OF CARE AND INDEPENDENCE AND HOUSING OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
The Care and Independence and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee scrutinises the needs of vulnerable adults, older people and people whose independence needs to be supported by intervention from the public or voluntary sector and housing.
Committee Meeting on 22 June 2023
The Committee last met on 22 June 2023, in person in The Brierley Room at County Hall. At that meeting, Members received detailed presentations on: Next Generation Extra Care; Digital Lives; Support for Unpaid Carers; Direct Payments and Living Well, as well as an Overview of Housing from Andrew Rowe. There were no public questions or statements at the committee meeting.
Outlined below are further details in relation to some of the areas that the committee has been looking at:
Next Generation Extra Care
This covered celebrating 20 successful years of extra care housing in North Yorkshire, what extra care is and how it is delivered across the County, how the programme works and how it varies depending on location, the team and their success, demand and financial implications, extra care providers and the commissioning model. It also explained various community schemes to add value in extra care and the next steps and priorities for the way forward. The Committee were keen to congratulate the team on their success and look forward to supporting them ongoing.
Digital Lives
The Committee were updated on the different aspects of digital enhancements in the Health and Adult Social Care Directorate and looked in detail at the digital network and the vast areas this covers including, funding and strategy, looking at success in differing forms and not simply just computer literacy, getting the basics right at ground level, proactive and preventative services and some really interesting examples of the services in use, for example brain in hand, GPS tracking, GEO fence and Oysta.
Support for Unpaid Carers
The Committee received a presentation around the work that North Yorkshire Council does to support unpaid carers. This focused on the Carers assessment and Support Plan, information and guidance and the different types of support available. Likely lines of enquiry by the Care Quality Commission were discussed and the priorities identified in an improvement plan, those being:
· Leadership, Practice and Performance
· Co – Production, engagement and strategy
· Commissioned services for carers.
Direct Payments
The Committee were reminded of the benefits of direct payments and discussions around what a direct payment is, who can access these payments, how direct payments can be used took place. The Committee also looked at comparative data with regional neighbours and England as whole, and the statistics in relation to North Yorkshire Councils position. The improvement plan to increase the uptake of direct payments was also shared with the Committee.
Living Well
This reminded the Committee of the background to living well and the teams overall aim of preventing, reducing or delaying the need for social care. Performance outcomes and key developments were discussed and the priorities for the following 12 months:
· Domestic abuse
· Falls
· Community collaboration
· Autism accreditation
Housing
As this element is completely new to the Council and to Scrutiny, the Committee had a verbal introduction from Andrew Rowe to the many aspects of housing including
· Homelessness
· Prevention and accommodation
· Regulation of landlords
· Houses of multiple occupation
· Disabled facility grants
· Retro fitting and energy efficiency
· Enforcing standards
The Committee were updated on the Council’s acquisition of 8.5k council homes following the cessation of the 7 District and Borough Councils. A group discussion then looked at:
· what exactly is the Committee’s remit?
· how does the Committee help the Directorate?
· and what are the requirements of the Committee in supporting ?
· does the subject matter fit over other Scrutiny Committees?
· what are the views of the Constitution Working Group?
The way forward will be discussed, and clarification sought.
Committee Workplan
Having discussed challenges facing adult healthcare across the County generally, and in particular the areas the Committee felt would be a priority in terms of Scrutiny over the next 18-24 months, the workplan has been updated to reflect this. The Committee is keen to work collaboratively and will therefore continue to link in with the Council’s Area Constituency Committees (ACC’s) to ensure focus is maintained at a local level. The committee will also continue to work closely with the Scrutiny of Health Committee allowing continued joint working around adult social care.
The next meeting of the committee will be at 10am on 28 September 2023.
COUNCILLOR KARIN SEDGWICK