Agenda and minutes

The Chair, Councillor Massey opened the meeting and welcomed all those present.

Apologies received from Cllr Anna Keen, Co-optee’s John Swainston and Roger White.

To note any declarations of interests from councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Any declaration of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

None

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record, and to note/review the action sheet.

That the minutes of the meeting held on the 26^th September 2016 be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To note any announcements from the Chair

None

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

Any member of the public or councillor may participate in public forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the public information sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public forum items should be emailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5.00 pm on Friday 14 October 2016.

Petitions and statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on Wednesday 19 October 2016.

The Commission received the following public forum:

1.     Judith Brown Statement on agenda item 7 Draft Corporate Strategy

2.     Julie Boston Statement on agenda item 7 Draft Corporate Strategy

3.     Councillor Mark Brain – Social Value Toolkit

To consider and comment on the draft Business Plan 2017-18 sections for People and Our Future – Education and Skills, including the draft financial and saving proposals contained therein.

The Cabinet Member for People and Cabinet Member for Education & Skills, led introductions of the draft Corporate Strategy 2017 – 2022.

a.     Cabinet Member for People shared that the finalisation of the Corporate Strategy was a lengthy process with the conversation with the public continuing to the 5^th January 2017.  The strategy covered the financial plan addressing the predicted budget gap of £38 million and the financial situation going forward.

b.     Children and Adult Social Care services equate to the largest council budget with huge pressures resulting from a changing population, increase in the number of children and those aged 85 years old plus.  Additional pressures come from the ambitious challenges from government legislation that are to be met without additional funding.  The service continues to strive to challenge deprivation in communities.  Safeguarding obligations continues to add to the emerging pressures.  The City also has its own ambitions including cementing its position as a City of Sanctuary.  The service must react to the need arising from the current political instability of many countries, and the needs of those displaced.

c.      The service is unable to continue to operate in the same way this is an opportunity to formulate a good strategy, to do it well and adopt a new working model.

d.     The strategy going forward keeps in focus the Mayor’s priorities for the City balancing the budget in light of all that the Council must do.

e.     Cabinet Member for Education & Skills, shared that despite the challenges the vision for the City’s education outcome would not be diminished.  Work continued to support young people in education.  The operation of dedicated school grants supported key needs of students.  Work continues to grow the benefits from trading with schools contracts that contribute to core funding to education services.  The service would continue to look for ways to widen opportunities outside the local authority.  Work continues to source alternative opportunities for funding from such areas as, available EU grants, resources from national government and possible links with businesses that bring young people in education to their attention.  The service continues to cement education development and good partnership working to support outcomes.

f.       Strategic Director, People, shared that the aim was to manage spend as safely as possible during the coming year in anticipation of future budget pressure.  The commissioning approach for the service would be discussed at a future scrutiny meeting.  The budget conversation would be updated to include the impact from the 21^st November Budget. 

The Chair acknowledged that questions had been received on the agenda item but an opportunity was given for additional comment from Scrutiny Members.

g.      Members were concerned that an online consultation process excluded those without the necessary skills to engage and would impact large portion of the elderly and those in care homes. 

Action:  The telephone number to be sourced for a request for paper copy to be requested. (0117 9222842) The information card on how to contribution to the process to be shared  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Update report enclosed.

The Scrutiny Members received a report and presentation from Rachel Beatty, Commissioning Manager.

The current contract arrangements remain in place until 2018 and important to note that work carries on with children and young people across the city under the existing BYL contract.  The intention of coming to Scrutiny was to ensure that conversations were had in advance to enable as many stakeholders to feed into the future development of the service which will need to support vulnerable young people whilst balancing the need to reduce resources absorbing a possible reduction of £900k to £1.7 million in funding.

The statutory requirements the contract fulfils are around ensuring young people are in education, employment and training, and that they have access to positive activities which are advertised online via Rife and Go places to Play.

Actions of the Officers to date - an analysis of need; developing an equalities impact assessment; mapping provision across the city; engaging with providers and the youth sector to start to develop a commissioning strategy which will be formally consulted upon in January to March 2017;  Development of a young commissioner's project which will be delivered in partnership with the children and young people’s voice network .

Emerging model, some principles:

·        Adopt principles of 3 tier model – help to help yourselves, help when you need it

·        Work in a whole family way, and link work more closely with Early help and other work of VCS

·        Model currently considering is 3 areas to match Early help, and continue with specialist and online services.

·        Encourage a broader range of organisations in the city, and especially those organisations who can show they can engage well with their local community.  Considering a model in which consortiums are compulsory, with partnerships needing to be meaningful and working together to meet the needs of their local population of CYP.

·        Retain resource within the council to help support youth sector organisations to sustain, work together and work collaboratively on emerging needs.

During consultation expectations will be managed to ensure that those contributing are aware of how funding restrictions would in future impact on the service. The process would remain open and transparent.  Learning from the former commissioning process, any communication plan would be outward facing, ensuring service users were aware of the final strategy and service model.  With careful consideration given to balancing the needs of staff to be made aware of changes in their roles and TUPE obligations.

Timeline shared:

Members made a number of early comments to feed into the process, as follows.

a.      Members supported the need to include key performance indicators and measureable outcomes as part of the service level agreement, in the final contract awarded.  That those KPI’s cover areas such as service impact on the Mental & Physical Health of young people.  Members noted a discernible lack  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

Mike Hennessey, Service Director, Care & Support Adults, accompanied by Tim Wye, Principal Commissioning Manager, Sonia Moore, Care Act Implementation Lead, and Margaret Kemp, Acting Head of Better Care, provided a briefing on Better Care Bristol and the Three Tier conversation.

Better Care is a national requirement directed by government to deliver the integration of health and social care.  The Vision:

Better Care Bristol will:

•        drive the transformation of care and reduction of inequalities by establishing integrated local services where health and social care resources are brought together in a coherent, locality model, targeting resources where the need is greatest

•        driveprevention and self-care. Working on key priority areas, we will help people to manage their lives well, stay healthy and avoid deterioration. We will promote independence and help people and their carers to manage conditions once they are established

•        design and put in place integrated pathways that support people in managing conditions from the earliest indications through to severe and complex needs. Through these we will deploy resources, at whatever point they are most relevant

Better Care Bristol Governance arrangements, done through 3 Boards

·        Health & Wellbeing Board

·        Better Care Commissioning Board (Adults)

·        Better Care Transformation Programme Board

The resources available are pooled from that of Bristol City with a contribution of £13million and the Clinical Commissioning Group providing £29million total pool £42million.  The money is not new money but pooled from existing resource.

Better Care Bristol Ideas, that acknowledges that different communities have different needs.

•        Community webs and social prescribing

•        Integrated nursing pilot

•        Multi Disciplinary Team approach

•        Single Point of Access (Integrated Professional Line) and front door streaming at UHB

•        Investments in Social Care to support system flow including front door and discharge

•        Discharge to Assess  - significant whole system approach working to reduce DToC

•        Integrated approach to reablement

•        Information Advice and Guidance – whole system approach

The formal agreement for funding, known as Section 75 Agreement 2016/17 had been signed off in June with the Health & Wellbeing Board, the full reports can be accessed via (https://bristolintranet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=213&MId=270&Ver=4).

The following was noted when questions were invited.

a.      Members welcomed the presentation and explanation provided noting that it would aid understanding when performing their role.  Acknowledging that integrated working brought with it better outcomes for service users.

b.      Members were concerned about the additional pressure that GP’s would face particularly in areas such as the South of the City that are under pressure because of the lack of  GP’s.  Officers explained that GP’s practices could benefit from BCB as it would divert a percentage of service users to alternative areas for care that would support better health.

The Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) – across the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) region.

The Scrutiny Commission would receive a briefing on STP on the 1^st December 2016, at City Hall, jointly with Members from regional authorities.

The STP must be signed off by the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

Presentation from Mike Hennessey, Service Director – Care, Support and Provision - Adults

Notes above with agenda item 9

Presentation from Mike Hennessey, Service Director – Care, Support and Provision - Adults

Notes above with agenda item 9

Latest update enclosed (information item).

For Information.