Progress Update Home Care Appendix 1
Progress Update – Home Care Appendix 1
No. / Recommendation / Link Officer / Anticipated Completion Date/ Completion Date / Quarter 1/2 evidence of progressPresented to Committee on 10 November
(Please state current position on recommendation or alternative action taken) / Assessment of progress (Categories 1-4)
1 / The Council review the NICE Quality Standards for Home Care and check against local practice when published (expected mid-2015), ensure consideration be given to including them in the next specification, and report back on this work to Adult Services and Health Select Committee as part of the monitoring process. / Liz Hanley / November 2015 / National /institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guidance was formally published on 23 September 2015 and a briefing paper of the key themes was presented to Adult Care Management Team (ACMT) on 29th September. The guidance included as Appendix 1a.
In partnership with colleagues in health, commissioners are undertaking a review of the standards to identify elements to propose an immediate variation to the current contract and elements, which will need further work alongside providers.
These proposals will be formally discussed with homecare providers at the QSF Review meeting on 16th October 2015. / 1- Achieved
2 / Council consider the fee level ahead of the 2015 commissioning process to ensure it supports a sustainable high quality service, within the available resources. / Liz Hanley / June 2015
April 2016 / Adult Board agreed a revised fee in August 2015, reflecting work undertaken by finance in partnership with a number of our commissioned providers and in recognition of the impact on the national minimum wage from 01 October 2015. This has been accepted by all commissioned providers.
Further work will be undertaken to assess how we work with commissioned providers to ensure the delivery of the national living wage from 01 April 2016. / 2 – On Track
3 / a) The Council work with commissioned providers to ensure that wherever possible zero hour contracts are not used, taking into account best HR practice, to ensure due consideration is being given to the use of minimum guaranteed hours contracts for staff; / Liz Hanley / October 2015 / Commissioners are undertaking a survey of all commissioned home care providers to establish the extent to which zero hour contracts are used, where they are optional and the average hours staff are working (as opposed to be rostered).
This will inform further work with providers to establish contractual arrangement where we can begin to ensure a greater level of security for some care staff. / 2 – On Track
3 / b) The Council consider providing a guaranteed minimum level of home care hours to providers, taking into account expected demand and activity levels, whilst ensuring service users are able to exercise their choice of provider. / Liz Hanley / October 2016 / The current demand on homecare services, combined with the structure of home care providers in contract, ensures the volume of care per provider is economically viable.
Stockton has 5 core home care providers; 2 with significant volumes (standard homecare) and 3 for enhanced care where the volumes are lower, but there are a higher proportion of long calls.
The remaining 2 providers support our extra care schemes, where they have the guarantee of a core number of hours of care and support to meet a range of tenant needs.In addition to this, they deliver outreach home care services, for which there are no guaranteed hours, but this is provided on the through the infrastructure in place to support the extra care scheme.
As a guide, Stockton Council delivers over 8750 hours of care per week to just over 1050 people (as at August 2015).
The principle of guaranteed hours will be one of the areas to be considered as we work towards a revised framework in October 2016. / 2 – On Track
4 / Participation in the Home Care Quality Standards Framework (QSF) process to be made a contractual requirement for home care providers in the next contract. / Liz Hanley / November 2015 / All home care providers have agreed to participate in the 2015 QSF process and will attend the final standards review briefing on 16th October 2015.
The Council is looking at possible variations to the contract to accommodate the Homecare NICE Guidance, so this process will also include expanding the quality monitoring clause explicitly to reflect QSF. / 1 - Achieved
5 / The outcomes from the Home Care Quality Standards Framework be reported to Adult Services and Health Select Committee on an annual basis, as part of the framework for monitoring the quality and safety of local care services / Liz Hanley / November 2015 / This will now be programmed in s part of the annual cycle of reviews undertaken by AST. / 1-Achieved
6 / The Council take forward discussions with the Regional Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and regional Care Quality Commission (CQC), in order to ensure that Local Authorities receive early notification of any issues of concern identified during CQC inspections of Adult Social Care providers, and ensure that consistent procedures are in place across the region. / Liz Hanley / August 2015 / A meeting of regional directors of adult social care and senior Care Quality Commission (CQC) representatives was held in July 2015 and a commitment to improve communication between the Regulator and local authorities was agreed. The related correspondence from Stockton’s commissioning team and CQC’s response is attached as appendix 1 b and c. / 1-Achieved
7 / The Council examine procurement options so that not all of the commissioned home care service is procured at the same time. This would mitigate risks by increasing: stability in local service provision, the scope to support other models / pilot approaches, and the opportunity to develop a greater range of providers in the Borough. / Liz Hanley / August 2015
October 2016 / A paper was discussed at ACMT on 29th September which set out the proposal to pilot 3 approaches to home care which will potentially form the basis of a new framework in 2016. This proposal has also been considered by Adult Board (28thOctober).
Commissioners will work in partnership with procurement, legal, finance and socialwork colleagues to consider how outcomes for service users could be improved through these alternative models of delivery. Part of this process will be to consider the timing and deployment of any new framework, to ensure a seamless transition for service users and the Council. / 2 – On Track
8 / a) The Council should continue to work with and engage the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to further develop its services in this area of provision, including non-personal care support where appropriate, and this should include facilitating the development of mutual service providers in the Borough; / Liz Hanley / October 2016 / The paper to ACMT (cited above in 7) sets out an option for further partnership with partners in the VCSE.
Further, informal discussions with Catalyst on the development of a Mutual Organisation in the borough have set out a number of options, which now require more formal design and discussion. / 2 – On Track
b) emerging good practice examples of VCSE sector provision be reported to the Committee as part of the six-monthly monitoring process / Liz Hanley / October 2016 / As part of this report, a summary of the Preventative Homecare project is included (see Appendix 1d). Agreed by Adult Board in March 2015, it is led by Synergy and aims to provide preventative support to people who have been through the Multi-Disciplinary Service (MDS) but are not eligible for funded home care support.
The project is running to October 2016 so is in its early stages but will be reporting back on progress to Health Select Committee as part of its monitoring. / 2 – On Track
9 / As part of the monitoring process, an update on all the issues identified in the report and recommendations be reported to Adult Services and Health Select Committee in six months. / Liz Hanley / November 2015 / 1-Achieved