Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Nigel Knapton and Heather Moorhouse, with Councillor George Jabbour attending as a substitute in her place.

Resolved – That the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 December 2024 to taken as read and signed 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 Services and supplied the text (contact details below) by midday on Monday 24 March 2025, 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.

Report on unpaid carers and ongoing work to improve support.  Presented by Sally Anderson (HAS) and Elizabeth McPherson (Carers Plus, Yorkshire).

Considered – A presentation of the Corporate Director for Health & Adult Services providing an update on the ongoing work to improve support for unpaid carers.

Richard Webb, Corporate Director for Health & Adult Services introduced Elizabeth McPherson, CEO of Carers Plus Yorkshire who had been commissioned by the Authority to provide support to unpaid carers across the county for the last 30years. She provided an overview of the services her organisation provided and outlined the intelligence they shared and their signposting to other services.

Kate Allanson, Head of Prevention & Service Development, drew attention to the statutory duty on Local Authorities to undertake assessments of carers’ needs, and confirmed that an online self-assessment tool was being developed on the back of a series of co-design workshops.  It was noted that assessment was not about deciding if a carer was capable but deciding what type of support they might benefit from.

Sally Anderson, Strategic Service Development Manager provided an overview of the commissioned services available.  Her presentation outlined the practical, emotional and social support and training the Local Authority offered to carers.  It also confirmed:

·          There were upwards of 60,000 providing informal support to friends and family across the county, many of whom did not recognise themselves as carers and did not access carer support;

·          The spread of carers across the county and the number of hours of unpaid care being provided by them weekly;

·          The types of support being provided including Carers Break services, respite services, contingency planning, healthy lifestyle support, and advice and guidance;

·          The role of the carers support service, providing carers with access to opportunities for work, training, education, leisure and social interaction;

·          The ongoing development of a new Carers Strategy and planned introduction of a Carers Board or Alliance;

Members went on to watch a short video providing feedback from unpaid carers on the impact that caring has had on their lives, and how talking helped – see: https://youtu.be/gHQ6hQ3SQUM?list=TLGG63k898IION4xMzAzMjAyNQ

Members also considered the improvement plan and the key actions for the coming year, and noted:

·          The role of the Living Well Team;

·          The specific support provided to young carers as they transitioned to becoming an adult carer.

·          The annual funding (£320K) for providing respite care to unpaid carers, and the additional cost of providing that care on top of the annual funding (£1.2m in 2023-24) driven by demand, growth of population and cost.

·          The co-ordinated approach working with partners, based in GP practices to identify carers and provide early intervention.

·          The home from hospital scheme delivered by both VCSE providers, and the short intervention service aimed at reducing the number of discharged patients from returning to hospital.

The Chair thanked the officers for the update and the representative for her contribution, and it was

Resolved – That the report be noted.

To consider the Older People’s Champion Annual Report 2024-2025, as presented by Councillor Caroline Dickinson.

Councillor Caroline Dickinson, North Yorkshire Council’s Older People’s Champion introduced her annual report for 2024-25 which detailed her involvement in the many activities, events, and services available across the county, for the benefit of older people.

Members noted the volume of work undertaken by the Older People’s Champion.  They also noted:

·          The success of the Age Friendly Photography competition which would hopefully become an annual event;

·          The Dancing for Wellbeing sessions held across the county and the recent National Day of Dance event held in Harrogate that would hopefully become an annual event;

·          The challenging issue for older people of accessing public transport to health services;

·          The need to encourage more young people in to the HAS workforce;

·          The ongoing work to support the needs of older workers, with 41% of the workforce being 51+;

·          The effect of the loss of winter fuel payments on the elderly, with lots of concern from communities – Members noted the work to promote / signpost other available benefits;

Members also discussed how the Council could be encouraged  to be more structured and intentional around pre-retirement healthy lifestyle welfare checks.

The Chair thanked the Older People’s Champion for her work throughout the year and it was

Resolved – That the Annual Update for 2024-25 be noted.

Report on Working Age Adults Complex Care, Supportive Housing and the Newton Report 2024.  Presented by Elaine Hewitt, Michael Rudd and Natalie Smith (HAS).

Considered – A presentation on the provision of complex care and supportive housing to working age adults.

Richard Webb, Corporate Director for Health & Adult Services introduced the presentation and drew attention to the recently published Newton Report which addressed the case for improving outcomes for working age adults and lifelong disabled adults.

Members noted the purpose of the research programme, as outlined in the presentation and the three identified cohorts of adults with care needs.  They paid particular attention to the recommendations within the Report and the potential hurdles e.g. data collection and transition planning.

Elaine Hewitt, Head of Mental Health confirmed there was lots to be learned from the council’s successes in transitioning the Health & Care Plans for some groups of young people to adult care.

Members went on to note:

·          40% of adult social care users were working age adults (18-64) or lifelong disabled individuals (65+), accounting for 63% of the total adult social care spend;

·          Future demand was set to surge;

·          The shortage of suitable housing which they agreed needed addressing through the Local Plan;

·          The council’s definition of complex care needs

·          The increase nationally of young people presenting with complex care needs;

·          The practice challenges for HAS

·          The associated recommendations arising from the CQC Peer Review;

Attention was drawn to the intensive ‘Team around the person’ partnership model recommended by the CQC Peer Review which had recently been introduced, which would enable a unique care plan to be developed for each individual to address their specific needs. Elaine Hewitt confirmed the approach was in its infancy but would provide a good preventative way of ensuring access to the right support.  She also confirmed the aim was to bring more partners in to reduce the risk of serious incidences.  Members requested a further update on the delivery of the model for a future meeting.

Members discussed the MEAM approach and the hotspots across  the county e.g. Harrogate and Scarborough, and the planned  work to develop a policy around complex decision judgement and decisions.  It was noted it would build on established models providing structure for practitioners in decision making.

Michael Rudd, Head of Supported Housing, provided an overview of the supported Accommodation currently available across the county and the different types i.e. extra care, supported living (long term) and supported housing (short term).  It was noted that the available supported housing would require a lot of extra focus to improve its position in line with extra care.

Attention was drawn to the locality and demand for both supported housing and supported living units, and it was noted that some of the current provision was no longer fit for purpose and needed either replacing or refurbishing.

Members agreed that many older people did not want to live in care homes or shared housing and wanted to remain as close to independent as possible.  They therefore recognised the need for an interlocking model that would provide different types of accommodation for different stages in life, built in nice places  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

Considered – The draft work programme for the coming municipal year presented by the Senior Scrutiny Officer.

Members were informed of the intention to introduce bi-annual performance updates to the Overview and Scrutiny Committees future meetings.  For this committee the plan was to incorporate some initial performance data in to the annual ‘State of the Nation’ report scheduled to come the committee’s July 2025 meeting, and then a further update for the January 2026 meeting.

It was also confirmed that the CQC Inspection was likely to take place around May/June 2025 time.

Members took account of the discussions on previous agenda items and other developments taking place across the county and agreed a number of amendments to their draft work programme as follows:

i.     That the update on the outcomes and future plans arising from the Living Well Review be slipped to the Committee’s October meeting

ii.     That an update on the delivery of the ‘Team around the person’ model be added to the work programme for a future meeting – either October 2024 or January 2026

Resolved – That the work programme document be updated as above.