MINUTES

/ Assynt House
BeechwoodPark
Inverness IV2 3BW
Tel: 01463 717123
Fax: 01463 235189
/
Adult Social Care Practice Forum /

5th August 2015 at 1pm. Board Room, John Dewar Building, Inverness

Present:
Janet Spence – Head of Care Services Improvement – CHAIR (JS)
Lyn Johnson – Manager of the Montrose Centre (LJ)
Ian Clayton – Resource Manager - Learning Disabilities (IC)
Fabien Camus – Practice Support Officer (FC)
Pamela McAllister – Care at Home Officer (PM)
Eilidh MacMillan – Lead Social Work Officer for South & Mid (EM)
Laura Maclean – Admin Assistant (LM) / In Attendance:
Paul Simmons – agenda item 4 only (PS)
SUBJECT / REPORT / ACTION
1. / APOLOGIES:
Sheilis Mackay – Manager of Advocacy Highland
Meg Shaw – Care at Home Officer
Shona Knight – Team Manager
James Bain – Resources & Performance Team Leader
Kara McNaught – Social Worker
Angela Longmate – Social Care Worker
Christina Mudditt – Senior Social Care Worker
Ian Thomson – Project Manager-Quality Assurance
Arlene Johnstone – Complex Case Planning Manager
Adam Palmer – Employee Director
DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS
None of the attendees has any interests to declare.
2. / WELCOME
JS welcomed all to the meeting and explained that there had been a number of apologies received very late on.
3. / MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING HELD ON 1ST APRIL 2015
3.1 / Approval
All agreed that the previous minutes provided an accurate record and were therefore approved.
3.23.2.1
3.2.2
3.2.3
3.2.4 / Matters arising
Website
JS advised that the Adult Social Care part of the NHS Highland website is now fully operational.
Joint Inspection
A draft Inspection Report had been expected by the end of June but it has not yet been received. JS had been in contact with Linda Connelly (Lead Inspector) last week and Linda had advised that the draft report will need to go through the quality assurance process before it can be released. A meeting with the Inspectors and NHS Highland has been scheduled tentatively for 24th August. This will only go ahead if a draft report has been received and NHS Highland senior managers have had a chance to review the contents.
Trainee Social Worker Scheme
The four Trainee Social Worker posts which were recently advertised have attracted 37 applications; the short-leeting process has been completed and interviews will take place w/b 17th August.
IC asked what format the interviews will take. JS explained that candidates will only be interviewed once, irrespective of the number of posts applied for. They will all be required to undertake a written task under exam conditions.
PM spoke of how she was interviewing a candidate yesterday who suffered a panic attack. EM suggested giving the candidates the chance to see the questions 10 minutes before the beginning of the interview as a helpful strategy to be effective in reducing the anxiety experienced by candidates. JS will recommend this to the Interview Panel.
Medication Policy
JS flagged that the Adult Social Care Learning & Development Group will be discussing the medication PDA. She was keen to gather the views of the Forum. LJ and IC agreed that having medication as a unit within an SVQ would suffice and that a separate PDA was not necessary.
ACTION / None.
4. / e-KSF
Janet welcomed Paul Simmons for this item and members of the Forum introduced themselves.
PS explained to the group that the e-KSF will be replaced by OPM which will be hosted within e-ESS. Work is on-going to ensure e-ESS is accessible to all staff on the internet. It was noted that there will still be a paper facility available meantime. The uptake of eKSF for e-ESS has been low to date but it is hoped that this will change.Training for e-ESS and OPM will be rolled out from September. PS sought agreement in principal and he encouraged all to mention this topic to colleagues; all agreed with what was being proposed.
LJsuggested that it would be helpful to see statistics on the use of e-KSF and e-ESS.JS agreed to seek out the relevant statistics. / JS
ACTION / JS will seek statistics relating to the use of e-KSF and e-ESS. / JS
5. / ADULT SOCIAL CARE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT GROUP
The Adult Social Care Learning and Development Group wasset up approximately nine months ago and its scope is to take an overview in the planning and delivery of learning and development for adult social care staff. In June, JS led on an audit of SSSC registration/SVQ for Care Home staff in readiness for the cut-off date on 30 September. The audit found that 94 staff had not yet registered but this has since reduced to 65. The audit also highlighted that 105 staff are still to undertake an SVQ, with 54 in the process of completion. Study time for SVQs needs to be discussed in more detail and work needs to be undertaken to ensure availability of assessment resources. Planning for Care at Home staff’s undertaking of SVQs is also a priority. With regards to SVQ attainment, the organisation needs to make clear to candidates that resources are limited and that they cannot prevaricate.
AWI training has not been run for some time and the Group is in the process of finalising arrangements. Training will be delivered by Karin Campbell and Fiona Malcolm from the Highland Council and targeted at Social Workers, Team Managers, District Manager and Referral and Assessment Officers. This will be followed by a short training programme for Raigmore Hospital nursing staff on issues of capacity.
ACTION / None
6. / SSSC REGISTRATION
Item discussed under (%) above. JSstressed the responsibility of individuals to achieve and maintain SSSC registration. It was noted that there is a proposal to raise the level of qualification for Children’s Services staff to Honours level degree by 2018.
ACTION / None
7. / HEALTH (TOBACCO, NICOTINE, ETC AND CARE) (SCOTLAND) BILL
JS highlighted that the duty of candour and wilful neglect are the most applicable elements.There was a brief discussion and all confirmed that they were satisfied with what was being proposed by the Bill and with a draft response that JS had prepared.
ACTION / JS will forward response to Kenny Oliver, who is collating these. / JS
8. / DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS
Date, time and venue of remainder of 2015 meetings
Wednesday 7th October at 1pm. Board Room, John Dewar Building, Inverness
Wednesday 2nd December at 1pm. Board Room, John Dewar Building, Inverness

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