Equality Impact Assessment – Decommissioning Meals Services

(meals in the home and meals at the Resource Centre)

  1. Management of the EqIA

Lead – Anna McEwen, Commissioning Manager, Adult Services

Contributions from –

Bola Atanda–Commissioning team administrator

Amanda Hill – Review team manager

Older People’s Reference Group

Disability Reps Forum

Resource Centre Service Users and Staff

David Hodgkins – Head of Strategy

Keith Monery – Senior Partnership Officer

Date: 1 November 2011

Linked Papers:

  • SMT briefing – Meals and Laundry
  • Meals & Laundry business case
  • Meals & Laundry project plan
  1. Identification of policy aims, objectives and purpose

Over the past decade Newham has worked to increase choice, rights and inclusion for people with social care support needs in line with government policy and legislation. This has been achieved through a range of approaches including the introduction of personal budgets and the redesign of services.

Newham currently provides subsidised meals in the home and at the Resource Centre. From October 2011 charges for meals were to be increased and a decrease in demand for meals is anticipated as a result of this.

Newham has a statutory duty to assess individual’s presenting needs for social care services.

However,as Newham has no statutory duty or responsibility to provide meals services there is a proposal to end our current contracts with the providers and decommission these services.

The proposal is not to re-commission or fund this service in the same way in the future but rather to find individual solutions for people in their local community that they can choose to purchase as they wish.

For individuals using the meals service this will include:

  • Providing information about local cafes and meals servicesthat will provide meal delivery services.
  • Providing information about lunch clubs that individuals could access.
  • Providing information about companies that will deliver frozen ready meals.
  • Supporting people to use their personal budgets in different ways to use some of their support to prepare their own meals at home.
  • A full review of individual needs by a social worker.
  1. Scope / focus of the EqIA

This EqIA has been completed to identify the impact of decommissioning the meals service on individuals from the protected characteristics group. The meals service is currently offered to older or disabled people so the change will directly affect people from the protected characteristics groups.

Full regard has been had to the requirements of the Equalities Act 2010 and proper regard has been had to the nature and extent of the duties owed by it.

The EqIA is a way of estimating the likely equality/diversity implications of the possibledecommissioning of the meals services. It will determine whether or not the impact or effect has a negative, neutral or positive impact on some groups or individuals

  1. Could it affect some groups differently?
  2. Could it advance equality?
  3. Could it foster good relations?

Protected Characteristic / Assessment of relevance
High, Medium, Low / If Low you must provide evidence.
Age / High
Disability / High
Transgender / Low / No specific issues relating to transgender group from this decommission, people in this group may be affected.
Pregnancy and maternity / Low / Meals services are not specifically provided to people in this group
Race / Medium
Religion / belief / High / Impacts relate to dietary requirements for people in relation to religion / belief.
Sexual orientation / Low / No specific issues relating to individual’s sexual orientation from this decommission but people in this group may be affected.
Sex / Medium
Class or socio-economic disadvantage / High
  1. Relevant data, research and consultation
  2. Provide sources of data you have used

In order to carry out this EqIA, consultations have been held with the following groups:

  • Older people’s reference group
  • Disability forum
  • Service Users at the Resource Centre, Chargeable Lane
  • Cllr Laguda & Cllr Wilson

All the individuals using the meals in the home service will receive a review with a Social Worker to ascertain current level of need and what is needed if the meals service is no longer provided by LBN.

A detailed review of themeals services was carried out prior to any recommendations being made about the future of the service. This included contract monitoring information, financial information, value for money, investigating similar services in other authorities and service user feedback about the service.

The review indicated that other local authorities provide a variety of meals on wheels type options – some provide traditional commissioned meals on wheels while others have decommissioned these services and provide residents with information about alternative options.

The decommissioning of this contract will affect the 224 individuals using the service (as at 22.11.11). The individuals using the service are all Older, Disabled and Vulnerable People.

Until recently individuals using this service paid£2.50 towards the cost of their meal, however this increased in October 2011 to £5.35 per meal.

A consultation took place during January – June 2011 in relation to charging for meals. As a result, almost 72% of people asked said that the charge for meals should be less than the new rate of £5.35.

Comments made during the consultation process highlighted that disabled people feel that the meals service should continue to be provided by the local authority and that by decommissioning the service the council is penalising the most vulnerable people in society. Disabled and older people were angry that many other services and events are provided in Newham at no cost to residents, many of which they are not able to access, and that it is unfair to be charging people for social care services and withdrawing some of these services.

Service Users at the Resource Centre were generally unhappy with the quality of meals they currently receive and the increased cost of meals. They would like more choices of meals and lighter snacks, smaller portions, and meals served hot.

As at 22.11.11, 27 Caribbean, 3 kosher, 5 halal meal and 22 Asian vegetarian meals are served per week by the meals in the home service; up to 60 Caribbean meals are served each week at the Resource Centre. The action plan identifies the risk in relation to specific cultural needs in decommissioning the service but is mitigated by ensuring alternatives are sourced providing these culturally specific options in the future. For example, local cafes serving halal meat/kosher meals, local providers specialising in Caribbean cuisine, and new micro enterprises setting up to meet some of these specific needs.

The issues raised will be mitigated within the action plan by ensuring that people who need this level of support with their meals are given information about alternative providers who they can contract with directly, or by amending individual’s support plans to reflect this support need which may then allow a Personal Assistant (PA) to support the person with their meal preparation.

Cllr Laguda and Cllr Wilson have been consulted as part of the process and both offered their support to the proposals. Cllr Laguda was reassured regarding plans to ensure that people are safeguarded and fully supported throughout the process.

  1. Set context of findings e.g. figures for LBN demographics, service user statistics

Currently 224 people are using the meals service, compromising:

sex
Female / 121
Male / 103
Age
Under 49 / 3
50-59 / 18
60-69 / 26
70-79 / 42
80+ / 122
Ethnicity /
White British / 119
Pakistani / 3
Carribean / 32
Indian / 22
Asian / 3
African / 4
White Irish / 9
White other / 1
Chinese / 2
Black other / 1
Eastern European / 2
Nigerian / 2
Mixed other / 2
Other / 22
  1. Assessment of Impact and outcomes

Protected characteristics / Issues taken from evidence / Judgement + / - / Recommendations
Age / People in this group will be directly affected by the decommissioning of this service as the majority of people currently using meals services are older people (73% of users are aged over 70 years).
Older people commented in the consultation that they do not want this service to be taken away and that they are unhappy with the proposed changes. / Negative impact
Positive impact – more choices for older people / -Social work review of all current service users and support plans to identify needs and plan future support accordingly.
-Adapt support plans as required to allow individuals to have a Personal Assistant to support them with meal preparation.
-Refer individuals to enablement where appropriate for support to enable them to do own meals preparation and be more independent.
Disability / 124disabled people currently use this service (100 – physical impairment, 11 – Mental Health, 9 – sensory impairment, 4 – Learning Disability). However, disabled people have also reported issues with the meals service – including cold meals, poor quality and portion sizes being too large. / Positive impact – more choice for disabled people / Ensure individuals are given information on choice of providers in formats they can understand.
Religion / belief / 3 kosher, 5 halal meal and 22 Asian vegetarian meals are served per week by the meals in the home service, / Negative impact / Ensure information sourced on potential meal providers offering Kosher, Halal and other culturally specific meals.
Leaflet produced with this information.
Race / 119of people using the mealsin the home service are white British, 32Caribbean, 35 Indian, 4 African, 3 Pakistani, 31 other ethnic groups. 27 Caribbean meals in the home are served per week and up to 60 Caribbean meals are served each week at the Resource Centre. / Negative impact / Ensure good communication strategy to foster good relations between groups.
Ensure dietary requirements of different community groups are catered for.
Develop leaflet with this information.
Sex / 121females and 103males are currently using the meals service. / Neutral impact / More females than males are using this service mainly due to women living longer than men and stay in their own homes as opposed to residential care for longer.
Class or socio-economic disadvantage / Newham is the 6th most deprived area in England and Wales and the 3rd most deprived in London. Residents have the lowest average gross annual income of all London residents, with an average income of £24,958, compared to £37,622 for London. The distribution of income across the borough is skewed heavily towards low incomes. 40% of residents earn less than £20,000 and 50% less than £25,000.
Older and Disabled people are generally even worse off in such deprived areas. / Negative impact / This will be mitigated by identifying individuals who are unable to complete meals preparation tasks themselves and altering support plans to provide support with meals tasks as necessary and also mitigated by sourcing alternative meals options that provide better value for money.
Equality Impact Assessment Action Plan for decommissioning Meals services
Issues identified and groups affected / Actions to be taken / Timescales of actions / Who is responsible for delivery / Intended outcomes / Performance measures / Reference to service or other plans
Lack of information re alternative options / Source information of alternatives for individuals / October 2011 – January 2012 / Anna McEwen / To provide current service users with alternative options (e.g. frozen meals providers, lunch clubs, local cafes/ businesses offering delivery service) / Increase in information based on baseline info in October 2011.
Leaflet produced October 2011.
Communications strategy. / Meals project plan
Lack of communication and information for service users, residents, members and officers / Communications plan to be actioned / November 2011 – June 2012 / Jennifer Kumi, Communications / To ensure that service users, residents, members and officers have clear, accurate and up to date information / Increased knowledge and awareness based on baseline info in October 2011 / Communications plan
Lack of support for individuals / Review support plans and amend to provide support to individuals to prepare their own meals.
Referral to enablement service as appropriate. / October 2011 – March 2012 / Anna McEwen
Review Team
Enablement / Individuals gain confidence and independence in preparing their own meals. / Increased numbers of people preparing own meals in the home and less reliance on alternative services.
Baseline info to be collected in November 2012. / Meals project plan
Lack of information for individuals / Information re alternatives to be added to IAG and produced in leaflet format / January – March 2012 / Anna McEwen
Comms
IAG administrator / To provide current and future service users with information re options to support with meals preparation / Increase in available information based on baseline in October 2011 / Meals project plan
Potential risks / safeguarding issues for individuals when service is decommissioned / All current service users to receive a review with a SW / October 2011–March 2012 / Review team
Anna McEwen
Additional SW resource / To safeguard individuals against risk of withdrawing service / All service users reviews completed / Meals project plan
Potential risks for individuals in relation to nutritional intake in the future / Individuals identified who have particular risks relating to nutritional intake will be reviewed on a more regular basis following any change in service. / June – December 2012 / Review team
Additional SW resource / To safeguard individuals against possible malnutrition resulting from any changes to the service. / All service users reviews completed / Meals project plan
Potential safeguarding risks arising from changes to the service / Ensure that all support workers / PAs working with individuals are aware of safeguarding policy and procedure and are able to alert is necessary. / January – June 2012 / Review team
Anna McEwen / To provide information to support workers / Numbers of safeguarding alerts received. / Meals project plan
Lack of meals provision at the Resource Centre / Proposals fora self sustaining café to operate independently at the Resource Centre. / January – March 2012 / Anna McEwen
Regeneration team / To provide a self sustaining café that provides meals but is not commissioned or paid for by the local authority. / Increased user satisfaction based on baseline information gathered in November 2011. / Meals project plan
Lack of provision for culturally specific meals (e.g. halal. Kosher, Caribbean etc) / Ensure meals providers are sourced offering these options / January – March 2012 / Anna McEwen / To ensure meals information includes culturally specific meals. / Numbers of people using these services compared to numbers choosing these options from the current meals service. / Meals project plan
  1. Formal agreement
  2. Grainne Siggins / David Hodgkins
  3. Publication of results
  4. EqIA published on Council website (full or summary version)
  5. Monitoring and review
  6. To be reviewed on a monthly basis throughout the change process.

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London Borough of Newham