NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL

NOVEMBER 2024

STATEMENT OF THE CHAIR OF CARE AND INDEPENDENCE OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

The Care and Independence Overview & 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.

Since the Chair’s last statement to Council in July 2024, the Committee has met once on 26 September 2024, when the Committee considered the following items of business:

· Update on Preparing for Adult Social Care Assurance

· A presentation on Adult Social Care Improvement Priorities

· A presentation on Hospital Discharges

The committee was also scheduled to receive an update on Substance Use, but the item was deferred to the Committee’s following meeting in December 2024.

The update on preparing for Adult Social Care Assurance provided an overview of the recently completed peer challenge and its arising recommendations, ahead of an expected CQC inspection.  The Committee agreed the detailed action plans to address the peer challenge recommendations should be brought to future scrutiny meetings for their consideration.  They were also pleased to note:

· the current seven ASC improvement priorities were to be reviewed and refreshed.

· In response to the customer feedback, work would be undertaken to test how services were accessed and to improve communications.

· The planned move to having a more specialist team structure.

The presentation on Adult Social Care Improvement Priorities highlighted all the work behind the identified improvement areas that would support the issues identified by the Assurance peer challenge.  The Committee discussed the importance of:

· co-production, as it underpinned all seven improvement areas.

· achieving a consistent approach across the whole county.

· holding regular resilience meetings to report on performance in progressing new referrals to assessment and improving timelines for completing new assessments.

· minimising vacancies in reablement in order to maintain/improve delivery levels.

· promoting direct payments to increase take up of the offer.

· providing consistent and meaningful support to unpaid carers.

Regarding hospital discharges, the Committee were pleased to note the planned development of a new intermediate care model and the high-level principles behind it.  The Committee agreed to keep a watching brief on the associated high costs to the council.  It was also pleased to note the £4m government grant and that the core components to preventing hospitalisation were known. However, given that patients were now coming out of hospital much sooner than they used to, requiring more health care support post discharge, the Committee recognised that additional long-term funding would be needed.  The Committee also agreed more needed to be done nationally to decrease the number of people going into hospital in the first place.

The next meeting of the committee is on 5 December 2024.

COUNCILLOR KARIN SEDGWICK