BOROUGH OF POOLE
SUPPORTING PEOPLE COMMISSIONING BODY
WEDNESDAY 7 DECEMBER 2005, COUNCIL CHAMBER, CIVIC CENTRE
MINUTES
Present:
Jan Thurgood, Chair / Policy Director, Borough of PooleTim Denne / Provider, Carr-Gomm, Chair of the Provider’s Forum
Simon Hendey / Service Unit Head, Housing & Community Services
Andy Hutchinson / Operations Manager, Probation
Ewa Johnson / Senior Review Officer, Supporting People
Ann Maguire / Drug Action Team
Simon Matthews / Provider, Stepping Homes; Rep of Provider’s Forum
Nick Molland / Principal Officer, Adult Social Services Commissioning
Peter Moore / Principal Officer, Adult Social Services Provider
Clive Newman / Finance & Development Officer, Supporting People
Charlie Sheldrick / Head Adult Social Services Provider
Hayley Seymour /
Supporting People Manager
Neil Smurthwaite / Principal Officer, Adult Social Services CommissioningZoe McNeil, Minutes / Supporting People Admin Assistant
Apologies received from:
Richard Benson / Director of Planning & Service Improvement, Poole PCTJohn Dermody / Head Adult Social Services Commissioning
Brett Jones / Benefits Administration Manager, Revenues & Benefits
Joanne Labrow / Development Manager, MH & Substance Misuse
Fran Phillips / Provider – PAS Ltd
Polly Randall / Provider -Langdon House, Langley House Trust
Kris Rowlands / Provider - Support Acadamy, Rep of Provider Forum
Nigel Stannard / Management Accountant Social Care, Borough of Poole
Peter Stratford / Corporate Research Manager, Borough of Poole
Nick Wharam / Commissioning Manager, Children and Young People
Copies to:
Councillors / Elaine Atkinson, Chris Bulteel, Judy Butt, Mary Hillman, Jane James, Mike White1.Introductions
These were made.
Charlie Sheldrick is to attend future meetings in place of Peter Moore as Lead Officer for Learning Disability services.
Apologies for Absence
These were given.
Attendee’s were asked to remove and destroy Item 16 – Performance Indicator Report – from the agenda pack as this item to be discussed in the Closed Session.
2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting
These were confirmed as a true record of the meeting.
Matters Arising
Re Item 5: 5 Year Strategy Milestones Monitoring Report– Joint Planning:
John Rynne has not yet met with the Provider Forum due to annual leave but will arrange to meet with the Forum at a future date.
3.Audit Commission Report & Action Plan
Note item 4.3i) of the paper should read 31.12.2005 (not 2006).
Jan Thurgood attended the Provider Forum on 30 November to give a briefing on the Audit Commission report. The positive aspects were discussed including the quality of Supporting People schemes and the positive outcomes for people requiring housing related support services. A main area for improvement was to revise the 5 Year Strategy to include full needs analysis of each need group, with clear outcomes and actions that meet the priorities of the Programme. This revised Strategy would then guide the priorities of the Supporting People Programme.
The needs analysis has to be completed by the end of October 2006, and will have included service user consultation. The Lead Commissionerfor each need group is to undertake and ‘hold’ the needs analysis with Supporting People extracting the housing related information and incorporating this into the revised 5 Year Strategy. The Lead Officers are to report back to the Commissioning Body at the deadlines given in the draft Strategic Planning document Action Plan (included in the Agenda pack). Work undertaken has to be aligned with the Housing Register, whose form has been updated to include the required information.
ACTION: The draft Strategic Planning chart to be completed with the needs analysis presented to the Commissioning Body.
The Audit Commission Report comments have been considered in respect of the 5 Year Strategy with information being sent to Lead Commissioners w/c 5 December to establish what work has been done and what needs to be undertaken. Lead Commissioners are to become involved re needs analysis, which group of people to work towards with which outcomes – whole needs to be looked at. Once the revised Strategy is complete, clarifying the key players for each vulnerable group, the Commissioning Body voting members will need to sign it off.
There is the financial capacity to commission new services that deliver the priorityoutcomes.
In order to ensure that the points raised by the Audit Commission Report are addressed the Community Support Overview Group has agreed that an elected member working group will be established. In addition, each Commissioning Body meeting will look at needs analysis, the implementation of the 5 Year Strategy and check the Action Plan. Providers offered their support where applicable.
AGREED: The proposed Action Plan to address the key recommendations in the report.
Jan Thurgood formally thanked those who participated in the inspection process and those involved with the work being carried out, as this will put us in a stronger position in future.
4.Impact of Proposal to Cease 24 Hour Support
The Audit Commission queried why Supporting People funded 24 hour support, as support should be ‘housing related’. It had been noted that it was in Learning Disability services where the largest amount of 24 hour support seem to be provided. Hayley Seymour had spoken to the Lead Commissioners for each client group and advised that Charlie Sheldrick and Peter Moore were working in conjunction with Supporting People to unravel the various funding streams for Learning Disability clients. Although it had been established that Supporting People are not funding the 24 hour services, arrangements around funding and inspection, along with one contract per provider, need to be examined.
With regards to Probation, their budget for ex-offenders was added to the Supporting People pool of money at the outset of Supporting People, and Probation no longer have any other funding available. It was recommended that 24 hour funding continues for this client group due to the ‘exceptional circumstances’ within the group, namely the instability of their lives could lead to inappropriate behaviour at night which could adversely affect their tenancies. Clarification of the principles of ‘exceptional circumstances’ was requested.
ACTION: Hayley Seymour to capture the principle of ‘exceptional circumstances’ for the March 2006 meeting.
AGREED: The Supporting People Programme Grant should continue to fund the 24 hour provision to it’s Ex-offender and Young People at Risk Schemes (to be reviewed as part of the normal review process), subject toclarification as to what is classed as exceptional at the next Commissioning Body meeting.
5.Service User Involvement Plan
Although the Audit Commission report praised service user involvement additional work is required. The Action Plan collates previous work undertaken, such as surveys, and will be used as a tool to aid future work. The link to the Housing Strategy and the return rate of the recent Service User questionnaire were both praised with Jan Thurgood thanking both the Supporting People team and Providers for their involvement. Tim Denne advised he can provide contact details for organisations who can help service users become involved.
AGREED: The Commissioning Body make comment to Hayley Seymour by the end of December 2005 regarding the draft Service User Involvement Plan.
6.Financial Strategy
Following the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) main grant allocation announcement made on 6 December a revised paper was handed out.
An additional £130K is available as the reduction in funding was 2.4% rather than the 5% expected. A 5% reduction is assumed for 06/07. The cumulative surplus
for 06/07 is therefore £1,973K In 08/09 it is anticipated that both Bournemouth and Poole are looking at approximately a 50% reduction. We are making representations, along with the rest of the South West (not Cornwall), that we disagree with this reduction.
Poole are asking, through the Local Area Agreement, for freedom to roll forward the accumulated under-spend of £1.26 million as at 31/3/2006 over the three years of the LAA to meet agreed priority outcomes. The ODPM are considering such requestson a case-by-case basis and the Government Office of the South West are championing on our behalf.
Supporting People therefore have the ability to commission new services over the next 2-3 years, probably on 2 year contracts, in line with the priorities in the revised 5 Year Strategy. Provider bids have already been submitted and providers commented that they can be flexible. The Lead Commissioners of services to distinguish whether their needs are long or short term. Where feasible the Poole Supporting People programme will consider jointly commissioning SP services with Bournemouth.
With respect to the Admin Grant it is proposed to look at ways in which Supporting People and Adult Social Care contracting teams can work more closely together.
AGREED: To approve the Borough of Poole plans to integrate where possible the Supporting People programme function with the commissioning and contracting function within the Adult Social Services Commissioning service.
Other points within item 2 were noted.
ACTION: Jan Thurgood to email our Local Area Agreement submission to Commissioning Body members.
7.Local Area Agreement
As discussed above.
The Local Area Agreement has four themed blocks of which three have relevance to Supporting People Programme: Healthier Communities and Older People; Children and Young People and Safer and Stronger Communities.
8.Scope of Review Programme Post April ‘06
Ewa Johnson outlined the paper and highlighted the possible 2 year programme of reviews post April ’06, based on the team remaining as is. However, if there is a reduction in Reviewing staff the programme could be extended to 3 years. The Audit Commission praised the reviews undertaken and the use of the Quality Assessment Framework (QAF) and the Supporting People Team would like to continue with validation visits and the use of the QAF. There will be approximately 64 services to be reviewed. It is hoped to work more closelywith Bournemouth by sharing information and timing provider reviews to coincide where possible. Comments, especially from Providers, welcomed by the end of December.
ACTION: Commissioning Body members to comment to Ewa Johnson on the proposed programme by the end of December.
Point raised during the meeting included:
-Providers particularly valued the QAF and review process and were committed to improving the quality of their service, where the help of the team is appreciated
-Supporting People can be used as a consultation service in addition to monitoring
-Efficiencies and synergies with other teams to be explored in the light of limited funding, such as inspection by other areas
-Once first reviews are complete, the Team to withdraw a little from the review process, especially if the service is reviewed by others
-Providers can help one another via the Provider Forum
-As it is not possible to transmute the Main Grant into the Admin Grant, what can be achieved with the funding available needs to be explored
-It is important to have the best information available when commissioning new services
9.Proposals re Commissioning Body Performance Management
Jan Thurgood summarised the ways the Commissioning Body can measure its own performance (see 3.3 of the paper). Comments made:
-it is proposed that a review of performance is made annually in December,
-the framework was considered a good monitoring tool as it incorporates names and action points.
-There was a suggestion of inviting Bournemouth (and possibly Dorset) to the annual review due to their mutual involvement and to provide an element of independence
-Possibly sharing the framework with other areas as an example of good practice.
AGREED: The framework was agreed.
10.ODPM Consultation – Creating Sustainable Communities: Supporting Independence
Neil Smurthwaite outlined the summary paper provider by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). The proposal is a reduction of 52% in the main grant, with responses to the consultation due by 28 February 2006.
The paper recommends that a small working party of the Commissioning Body be elected to consult with key stakeholders and to produce a response on behalf of the Commissioning Body by 28 February 2006. The Chair of which to be elected by the Commissioning Body. This working party to consider some fundamental thinking around the Supporting People programme along side the monetary considerations.
ACTION: Tim Denne to email the Provider Forum for a maximum of 2 providers to be on the working party.
Members agreed as: Jan Thurgood, Charlie Sheldrick, Nick Molland, Hayley Seymour with Andy Hutchinson to provide email comments to the group.
ACTION: Richard Benson to be asked to send a representative.
ACTION: Nick Molland to convene the meeting.
11.5 Year Strategy Milestones Monitoring Report
This item is for information only. Bringing the Supporting People team under the same line management as Social Services Contracts, early in 2006, is being planned.
12.Review Report
The review timetable is currently on target but is under pressure due to the sheltered housing review proving more difficult and taking longer than expected. The strategic relevance of older people services is being looked at as part of the sector review. All small providers have passed at level C.
Thanks were given by Jan Thurgood to the Review Officers for all their activities, which Jan considered most impressive.
13.Accountable Officer Report
The administration structure to be discussed in the closed meeting.
It is intended to have improved communication with care managers, provider services and Supporting People with 3-way meetings to be arranged. This is currently underway with Mental Health services.
As Neil Smurthwaite will be handing over shortly to Nick Molland he took the opportunity to formally thank the Supporting People Team for the excellent work they have undertaken, saying it had been a genuine privilege to work with them all. He also went on to thank the Providers.
Jan Thurgood responded with formal thanks to Neil for all his work and wished him success with his other teams.
14.Quarterly Financial Update Report
The meeting was asked to note that the figures had been affected by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s (ODPM) announcement on Monday. However, the increases and decreases element of the paper remained correct.
15.Update on New Reports – ODPM and Others
A condensed version of the full ODPM reports was included in the Agenda pack.
16.Performance Indicator Report
This item had been withdrawn.
17.Any Other Business
Regarding Item 9 – Tim Denne suggested the Commissioning Body drafts a policy regarding the commissioning and de-commissioning of services.
ACTION: Tim Denne and Hayley Seymour to work on this together.
18.Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday 27 March, Committee Suite, Civic Centre at 11.00 am.
CB Mins 7.12.051