To submit
the report of the Statutory Director of Social Services (attached).
Minutes:
The Statutory
Director for Social Services presented a report outlining the main messages
regarding the performance of Social Services, to which attention will be drawn
in the annual report in due course, and she outlined the main challenges and
transformation programmes for 2019/20.
The Director explained that:-
·
the annual report would be available in its final form
in July, and would be circulated to all Council members.
·
Due to personal commitments,
she would be unable to attend the Full Council meeting in July to present the
report. This year, therefore, an early high level report was submitted to the
meeting of this Council.
The
Director took the opportunity to thank all staff, internal and external, for
their tireless and committed work once again this year. She particularly thanked Marian Parry Hughes
(Head of Children and Families Department) and Aled Davies (Head of Adults,
Health and Well-being Department) for their committed and valuable work
throughout the year. She also thanked
the scrutiny members for their input and Cabinet Members in the care field,
Councillors W.Gareth Roberts and Dilwyn Morgan, for their support over the
year. She also noted that she looked
forward to working with Councillor Dafydd Meurig, who had taken over as
portfolio holder for adults, health and well-being.
Individual members noted the following observations:-
·
The report was welcomed and it was noted that the
series of video clips about Hafan y Sêr, Hafod y Gest, Plas Hafan and Dementia
Go, shown as part of the presentation, had brought the work of the service
alive to members.
·
It was noted that the provision had been transformed
in recent years and many new and pioneering plans had been welcomed, such as
the extra care housing at Hafod y Gest, the pilot scheme in Bethesda to
transform domiciliary care and More than Just Words. Hafan y Sêr was specifically referred to, and
it was noted that we should take pride in it as the only Welsh medium and bilingual
provision for disabled children and young people, and share the message across
Wales to show what is possible.
·
It was suggested that every
staff member should visit older people homes in their areas in order to see the
excellent work carried out by staff.
·
A request was made that a
section be included in the full annual report about developments in services
for people with autism.
In response to questions from individual members:-
·
That the increase in the numbers of looked after children
reflected our society and the challenges many of the children and their
families were facing. This was why
preventative work and early intervention were so crucial: to make it possible
to offer this support to families and children, by working with the schools,
etc, in the most appropriate way to prevent problems from escalating. Expectations had increased because of work
done to raise people's awareness of safeguarding issues and the fact that
looked after children now continued to live at home with their parents also
contributed to the numbers.
·
That it was commonplace to
hear about independent private companies getting into financial difficulties;
therefore, it was important to weigh up the most suitable care market for
Gwynedd. As we had an internal provision
and, as many provisions in Gwynedd had expanded, whether independent, third
sector or private, this Council was not as dependent on large companies as some
other counties. Nevertheless, clarity
was necessary regarding the demands from the care sector; demand had to be
mapped in conjunction with the sector; and, assurance that the provision, be it
internal or external, was funded in order that it worked as it should. It was possible that there had not been
enough clarity over the years, but the Council had to have a sustainable
provision of a high standard in moving forward.
Work was under way regionally and locally in this regard, to ensure that
the right balance was struck. However, the Council had difficult decisions to
make in a challenging financial climate.
·
One of the greatest
difficulties in the 'More than Just Words' field, was how to persuade
independent, outside provision to fully comply with the requirements. Despite the expectation placed on them, and
although constructive discussions had taken place over the years, they had not
been given sufficient support to set about improving the linguistic
provision. The Council was now
supporting them far more proactively in drawing up policies, recruiting
differently, and creating an environment within their homes that had greater
emphasis on the Welsh language.
·
Although it was community staff that maintained the
care at the new Hafod y Gest, there was no intention to take away from the
community. As tenants, the most
appropriate care model for the residents of Hafod y Gest was domiciliary care.
Therefore, rather than having one team in the building and another in the
community, it was decided to set up one team that was able to discuss and
prioritise the work among its members.
It was believed that this arrangement would strengthen the community and
the extra care housing. The Director, however, agreed to take this comment back
to the teams so that information could be provided to satisfy the member that
there was no risk and that this was something the service would monitor as time
went on.
·
Much had happened in the field of dementia in terms of
investing in homes and collaborating with the Health Board to ensure a seamless
and improved provision. Information
about the developments in Dolgellau and Barmouth specifically could be sent to
the member; however, the process involved making the buildings provision more
suitable for people with dementia; then it would look at the way suitably
skilled staff could be recruited to correspond to that investment.
·
In response to a suggestion
that there was room to improve the new arrangements for contacting Social
Service out of hours, the Director proposed to talk to the member in order to
find out about his experience of phoning in.
Supporting documents: