Agenda and draft minutes

Ahead of the meeting, apologies were received from the following:

Councillor Nigel Knapton – substituted by Councillor Allyson Baker

Councillor Robert Windass – substituted by Councillor Yvonne Peacock

Councillor Jack Proud

Co-optees Jillian Quinn and Mike Padgham

Before the start of the meeting Councillor Tony Randerson gave apologies as he was unable to hear due to the hearing loop being out of action.

Resolved – That the draft Minutes of the meeting held on 19 June 2024 be taken as read and confirmed by the Chair as a correct record.

All Members are invited to declare at this point any interests they have in items appearing on this agenda, including the nature of those interests.

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice to Melanie Carr of Democratic and Scrutiny Services and supplied the text (see contact details below) by midday on Friday 21 September 2024, three working days before the day of the meeting.  Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item.  Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak:

·            at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes);

·            when the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.

If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not wish to be recorded, please inform the Chairman who will instruct anyone who may be taking a recording to cease while you speak.

No public questions or statements were received.

Considered – A presentation on preparing for Adult Social Case Assurance delivered by the Corporate Director for Health and Adult Services.

Richard Webb, Corporate Director for Health and Adult Services, provided an overview of the ongoing work to prepare for the expected CQC inspection of North Yorkshire Council’s delivery of its Care Act 2024 Part 1 duties.  The presentation included:

·          An overview of the four domains and 9 quality statements associated with CQC Assurance;

·          CQC’s activity/ratings to date;

·          The Council’s three phases of preparation for CQC inspection;

·          An overview of the specific actions around the four domains arising from the peer challenge;

·          The next steps;

Members were pleased to note the following:

·          The detailed action plans to address the peer challenge recommendations would be brought to future scrutiny meetings for their consideration;

·          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;

Resolved – That the update be noted

Considered – A presentation on the seven key adult social care improvement areas delivered by the Corporate Director for Health and Adult Services.

Richard Webb, Corporate Director for Health and Adult Services, introduced the presentation and officers provided:

·          An overview of the seven improvement areas, as detailed in the presentation, which included achievements to date and next steps;

·          An overview of the approach to performance reporting; 

·          The planned next steps in regard to improving caseload levels;

Members recognised there was lots of work behind the identified improvement areas that would support the issues identified by the Assurance peer challenge.  They also noted 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;

·          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;

Resolved – That the update on ASC improvement priorities be noted.

Councillor Andy Paraskos left the meeting at 12:26am.

Considered – A presentation on Hospital Discharges delivered by the Assistant Director for Prevention & Service Development

Abigail Barron, Assistant Director for Prevention & Service Development, provided an overview of the detailed slide presentation, drawing specific attention to:

·          The pressures from hospital discharges on reablement, discharge hubs and brokerage;

·          The different discharge pathways and the aim to have more pathway 1 than pathway 2;

·          The five discharge hubs and their levels of activity in quarter 1;

·          The specific actions being taken to support hospital discharges and reablement;

Members noted the planned development of a new intermediate care model and the high level principles behind it.  They acknowledged the high cost to the council associated with hospital discharges and agreed they needed to keep a watching brief on it.  They were also pleased to note the £4m government grant but agreed additional long term funding would be required given the level of care being required post discharge.

Members recognised that patients were now coming out of hospital much sooner than they used to, meaning they were more often still in need of health care support post discharge.  They agreed more needed to be done nationally to decrease the number of people going in to hospital in the first place.

In response officers confirmed the core components to preventing hospitalisation were known.

Resolved – That the update on hospital discharges be noted.

Resolved – That the presentation on Substance Use be deferred to the next formal meeting of the Committee, in November 2024.

Members considered the planned work programme for the remainder of meetings in the 2024/25 municipal year.

Resolved – That the work programme be noted and updated to reflect the discussions at the meeting, including adding the deferred substance use presentation to the agenda for the next formal meeting in November 2024.