Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice to Christine Phillipson, Principal Democratic Services Officer (contact details below) no later than midday on Tuesday 5th March 2024. Each speaker should limit himself/herself 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.
Minutes:
There were two public questions received as follows;
Question 1 from Mr Russell Davidson – as the item this question relates to is not on today’s agenda this question will be taken now. Mr Davidson did not attend the meeting and requested a written response be provided.
Why is there no centralised, publicly accessible, council-maintained list of the nearly 1700 North Yorkshire Care Providers? In seeking a suitable care setting for a service user, both parents and social workers are hampered significantly by the absence of such a list.
No business or public authority can function efficiently if it does not have a comprehensive overview of the facilities and resources available to it.
Right now, everything is being left to brokerage to recommend a placement (and they are driven solely by looking at the budget) and CQC ratings (which are often out of date).
I was told by a senior social worker that there used to be a centralised list that social workers could consult, but then some ’Wise Alec’ got rid of that, preferring to leave placement suggestions to social workers.. The consequences are that the social workers don’t know where to place people (they usually have not visited more than a few settings in the county) and just leave it to brokerage to make suggestions - the latter are interested solely in whether the charges for the setting are above a certain scale, not in whether the placement is fit for purpose or for the service user’s needs.
My own, 28 year old autistic lad, has had two awful placements in the last 10 years: each had its provider status stripped from it. His mental health and behaviour went backwards in both.
So we end up with people being placed in settings which sometimes rip off the public purse and do not meet the individual’s need. The consequence, of course, is the parents end up having to do all the work and desperately trying to find out the requisite information. In turn, social workers, who are already overstretched, have their job made more difficult.
The situation is even more idiotic when one considers the Council’s preference for in-county placement, and the frequent turnover of social workers, many of whom have no contact with their service users for months – or even years – on end.
A written response was provided as follows;
The Council follows a robust procurement policy. We only commission packages of care for people from care providers who have been through a rigorous application process and passed the requirements to be on our Approved Provider List (which can be accessed by staff and the public on the Council’s website – https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/adult-care/contracting-adult-social-care-and-health-services/approved-lists-adult-social-care-services-providers ).
As part of the application process all Providers are required to submit detailed information about the services they offer and how their services will provide high quality support to people to reach their outcomes. In addition to this the Council reviews each provider’s financial information and a breakdown of the costs of their services. This information is kept under review. In terms of an individual’s support arrangements, we endeavour to ensure that the provider can meet the person’s needs. A person’s social worker will do their best to work with the individual/family and then with brokerage and the provider to best-match care to the person’s assessed needs. Sometimes, either through choice or a person’s specific needs, the care provider will not be local: this may mean that the social worker has to draw on support from other teams outside of their locality – some care providers offer services to residents from across North Yorkshire and the UK – an individual social worker will not know all 500+ care providers that offer care services to our population.
In terms of wider quality issues, the Council is one of the few Local Authorities to have an Integrated Quality Team (provided jointly with the NHS). Their role is to carry out active quality checks to monitor providers, and support care providers with practical support where there are risks to the quality of care provided. The Quality Team lead a weekly multi-agency team meeting where any concerns about providers is shared and appropriate support provided, this includes the Care Quality Commission. They also lead a regular online training/communications meeting open to all care providers. They also work with the Care Quality Commission and other agencies to support regulatory action where needed.
Question 2 from Roger Tuckett – this relates to the Autism Strategy. This item is on the agenda, at agenda point 8, so will be taken then.