______
MINUTES of the meeting CARERS’ TOPIC GROUP held on 2 March 2005.
______
ATTENDANCE
County Councillors: / Ken Coleman (Chair),Peter Channell
David Lloyd
Moyra O’Neill
Lorna Kercher
Carers Representatives: / Sue Reeve (Carers in Hertfordshire)
Sandra Cannon
Jenny Young
Martyn Macphee
Mary Christiansen
Officers: / Sarah Pickup, Director of ACS (first part of the meeting)
Tim Anfilogoff, ACS Policy Manager (Users and Carers)
Angela Cannon, ACS - Carers Development Manager,
Sue Jaye, Client Development Manager, CSF
Becky Dunning, Project Officer (Children with Disabilities and Young Carers, CSF
Janice Mottram, Topic Group Administrator, ACS
Apologies: / CC Mary Bayes,
CC Barbara Lamb,
CC Roma Mills,
CC David Royall,
CC Eleanor Clarke
Veronica Petrie,
Mary Newton
Gwendoline Andrew.
Minutes of the meeting held on 23 September 2004
The minutes were agreed.
Matters arising
David Moses, Head of Scrutiny attended and briefly addressed the about the future agenda for the Group for the period after the local government elections in May. Members agreed to identify some areas of work that it would be useful to receive reports about. /
ACTION
1 / Update on Carers Strategy(a) Adult Care Services
Tim Anfilogoff presented a report that outlined recent positive developments in the Carers Strategy and areas that still needed attention. The Group welcomed the update and the following was noted:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v) / HCC and its partner agencies were successful as part of an Actions for Carers in Employment bid led by Carers UK for monies to improve support to working carers.
HCC had been shortlisted for Beacon Status for Supporting Carers in September 2004; one of 9 authorities in this position and results would be published on the 10 March 2005.
There was a projected absolute increase in the numbers of carer’s assessment recorded this year of at least 40%.
The improvements in access to information
The role of Carers’ Health Visitor would be piloted from April 2005 and new Carers in employment project would be commencing in May 2005.
(vi) / Concern was expressed about the fact that to date, no PCT monies had been directed towards mental health carers support workers even though the NHS Plan made this a health obligation. It was agreed that questions could be put from the Group to PCT Executive Groups about this issue. Tim Anfilogoff would be asked to draft the questions and David Moses to co-ordinate the questions being posed to the PCT Executive Groups / Tim Anfilogoff
David Moses
(vii)
(viii) / The new “Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004” would enable HCC to request the support of PCT’s (a protocol about this was being drawn up).
Following a Joint CSF /ACS Board meeting, work had commenced on a Transition Audit which would include Young Carers. / Tim Anfilogoff
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv) / (b) Children Schools and Families
Sue Jaye presented a report which explained the connection between the Carer’s Strategy and priorities undertaken in Children, Schools and Families. The report was discussed with interest and the following was noted:
The links between the pan Hertfordshire Carers Strategy and the work in CSF was clear in the case of young carers but less clear for the parents of disabled children
The key developments for Young Carers in 2004/5 and plans for 05/06 as outlined in the report.
The proposals for the CSF Carers grant 2005/06
The key developments for parents of disabled children in 2004/05 and plans for 2005/06 were noted including:
a)
(b)
(c)
(d) / The Hertfordshire Additional Needs Database had been launched and this would provide an opportunity for parents to inform CSF about the needs of their child, the services and the professionals they have contact with and the services they would like to be supported by.
The Parent’s Guide to Transition protocol was now being published
Recognition of the entitlement of parents of children to assessment and services as carers had been highlighted in CSF Disability Teams in 2004 and in the current work to develop eligibility criteria for assessment The importance of monitoring satisfaction levels in the areas was also recognised
The valuable work being carried out within the Money Advice Unit to support anti-poverty measures for the parents of disabled children
(e) / .
The decision by the Hertfordshire Children and Young Peoples Strategic partnership to expand the members ship of the Joint Disability Strategy Group to include Voluntary Organisations, District Councils and a representative for Adult Care Services.
2. / Carers Grant – Actual Spend of 2004/05 and Planned Spend for 2005/06
Angela Cannon presented a report updated the Group about the spend in relation to the Carers Grant. Members noted:
(i)
(ii) / That in the light of ACS’ overall budget situation, it had not been possible to allocate the approx. 4% slippage. However, this had not affected projects reported to the Topic Group in September 2004, as the slippage was due to delayed starts and recruitment difficulties etc.
In relation to the planned spend for 2005/06 that :
(a)
(b) / Although the Carers Grant funding allocated by the government no longer needed to be ring fenced (as HCC is an excellent authority) all the funding was being put into carers’ projects.
Page 9 - support for PCTs in delivering
Carer targets for identification and referral to ACS/CSF and Carers in Herts. This allocation may need to be reduced as, although match funding, PCTs were finding it difficult to fund.
3 / Scrutiny of Health Involvement in the Carers Strategy
Members agreed to postpone this item until the new group had been established after the local government elections in May 2005.
4 / Beacon Update
Tim Anfilogoff described the process that HCC had been through as part of being considered for Beacon Status in Supporting Carers. Also that there would be potential benefits for Hertfordshire Carers, if we achieved this.
5 / Implications for HCC of the Carers’ (Equal Opportunities) Act
Tim Anfilogoff presented a report which updated the Group about the implications and provisions of the act. In relation to the:
· Duty to inform
· Assessments to include work, education and leisure
· Power to seek co-operation of other bodies
6 / Future Work Programme
Members of the Group identified the following as areas of work that could be considered in future.
· Work with PCTs
· Transition
All members agreed that they had found the Group to be both informative and productive in promoting carer’s issues.
7 / Next Meeting
The proposed date of the next meeting was Monday 26 September 2005 at 10 30 am /
Janice Mottram
POST MEETING NOTE
Hertfordshire was one of the councils to be were successful in achieving Beacon Status for Supporting Carers along with Rochdale, Sefton and Sunderland:
“They all demonstrated excellent practice in supporting carers across the board and faced stiff competition from the five other short listed councils (Somerset, Surrey, Tameside, Bury and Gloucester) all of whom had examples of truly innovative and excellent practice in supporting carers. The nine short listed candidates were selected from 22 applications in total and overall the standard was very high.
As well as working with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) to look at how their experience and best practice can be disseminated, the successful beacon councils for supporting carers will play a key role in feeding in to the development of the practice guidance for carers being developed by SCIE”.
Janice Mottram
Group Administrator
Adult Care Services
01992 588523
E mail :
CTG Mins 020305 Page 1 of 5