To receive any updates from the relevant Portfolio Holders on key issues or actions that have been taken since the last meeting, as appropriate.
Minutes:
The Portfolio Holder for Adults and the Portfolio Holder for Covid
Resilience, Public Health and Education provided an update on the work
that had taken place since the last meeting of the Health and Adults Social
Care O&S Committee.
The main points of the update from the Portfolio Holder for Adults were as
follows:
• The Portfolio Holder for Adults attended the first ‘Champions’ meeting. Many of the Champions sit under the Health remit and all member Champions appeared very briefed. The Portfolio Holder emphasised that no additional pressure was to be added to officers before the Champion roles were clarified. The Champions with a health remit are as follows: Cllr J Bagwell (Disabilities), Cllr D Butler (Learning Disabilities and Community Projects), Cllr M Howell (Wellbeing), Cllr J Edwards (Dementia), Cllr L Fear (Mental Health) and Cllr D Kelsey (Armed Forces).
• On budgetary matters, the main in year budget pressures relate to the costs of care, which are exceeding additional COVID funding provided by the Government. Half of care homes were on ‘suspension’ due to COVID and no placements can therefore be made in these homes. The Council had received £11.5 million in infection control grants from the Government which has been distributed to care providers to contribute to the costs of PPE and supporting those staff who needed to stay home to isolate. Most of the £4.2 million of mitigating savings were on course to be delivered, however given the requirements of the pandemic, all available staffing resources have been devoted to the pandemic and this has slowed the pace of development of some key developments, such as the Adult Social Care Contact Centre.
• There was an impact from the Scheme 1 hospital discharge scheme which enabled all residents to have fully funded care on hospital discharge from March to August 2020. Staff in Adult Social Care and the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group have been carrying out eligibility and financial assessments for people on scheme 1. The real impact of this on the budget would not be clear until the assessments have been carried out and the level of funding received by the Council from the national Scheme 1 pot which is being managed through the NHS has been fully verified.
• The Council were having to buy in interim beds for care patients for people being discharged at the earliest possible date from hospital. Again, this would be financially significant in 2021/2 as there will be additional costs from the high cost placements made. At this point, the cost has been estimated at £1.3 million additional funding in the Medium-Term Financial Plan for 2021/22. The Portfolio Holder expected the real cost to be much higher. It is not yet clear that the additional COVID related grants for the social care sector will continue into 2021/22.
• The Portfolio Holder thanked all officers and the whole adult social care sector for their continued hard work.
The main points of the update from the Portfolio Holder for COVID
Resilience, Public Health and Education were as follows:
• During the current lockdown, many were working from home and there are a large number of staff across the Council who are working extremely hard to continue delivering public services.
• The bereavement service, registrar service and schooling services were all continuing to work extremely hard and day to day public services were continuing, such as refuse collection. The corporate workload was extremely high and had been met with an overall huge, collective effort.
• The Portfolio Holder informed the Committee that there were numerous pieces of public health work going on in the background and that a briefing summary could be provided at the next meeting.
A Committee member asked the Portfolio Holder for COVID Resilience, Public Health and Education a question on food support for vulnerable residents. The Portfolio Holder informed the Committee of the support that had been available for school children eligible for free school meals. Furthermore, the Committee heard of the wider offer for vulnerable people in the community, including the Winter warmth grants and the Citizen Advice Bureau’s funding to help with potential fuel poverty issues. The Together We Can partnership group continued to offer voluntary support throughout the pandemic and direct vulnerable people to the relevant service area.
There were no further questions and the Chair thanked the Portfolio Holder’s for their update.