Agenda and minutes

Chair welcomes everyone.

Apologies from Cllr Carole Johnson, Cllr Steve Smith, Cllr Keen & Cllr Paul Goggins

To note any declarations of interest from the 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.

Cllr Smith declared that he is a manager in a GP practice in South Gloucestershire; and a non-executive director of OneCare (BNSSG) Ltd, which is owned by and represents GP practices in Bristol who get BCC public health grants. 

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

Minutes to be brought back to next ACE Scrutiny meeting. Exempt items to be made clear and attendee list to be updated.

To note any announcements from the Chair

Follow concerns from the Commission, the Chair will send a letter to the Chair of the Licencing Committee and the Director of Licencing regarding Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEV) licencing to re-iterate the importance of focusing on our Equalities Duty when making licencing decisions.  A 12 week full public consultation will be starting soon. 

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 pm on Tuesday 22^nd January.

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 Friday 25^th January.

No Public Forum Received

Officer presented the report.

Officer confirmed that the market has been able to bear the ‘Bristol Rate’. Research has not been done on the unforeseen consequences of the Bristol Rate for example a similar approach in Kent resulted in prices raising for private people. Officer confirmed research needs to be done into this. Latest figures indicate that supporting providers results in better outcomes for care services users. Support for providers has been twofold, an Inflation uplift (to be granted next year) along with a Living Wage uplift and improved communication and engagement with sector.

Officer confirmed extra money (10.4 million) came from other departmental budget.  It was confirmed by the Officer that that this money will be not needed again in next budget as £4.4 million has been saved and another £1 million is to be saved to hit savings target.  In conjunction with these savings, the budget trajectory curve has begun to move down. The number of people being supported (and amount we were paying) did not reflect what we had in the budget. The Department is expected to make further savings in the coming years.

Bristol Young Adult care costs are currently one of highest in country. Improvements have been made in this area but more work is to be done.  Managing expectations and creating an alternative model of care is to be a focus. With regards to Extra care housing, Officer confirmed that ‘getting the offer right’ is a priority. Alternative models such as the mix of tenancies used in Norfolk, are being investigated.

It was stressed that creative solutions with a long term impact was needed. The Officer acknowledged that there is a need to be proactive however trying to give people more choice is not always easy. To tackle this Bristol are engaging with the market regarding personal assistance , working more closely with housing and conducting a feasibility study regarding  allowing young people to live more independently.

The Chair expressed appreciation for the holistic approach to challenges in this department.

Officer presented item.

It was explained that this Historical Budget and the funding needs to be aligned with rest of budget. Current contracts are to be waivered until 2020 when they will then be re-aligned with supporting people services. Some services such as the alarm service will end in 2019.

Officer commended the ‘can do’ attitude of colleagues in this department and trying to think of innovative ways of working and co design. Officer confirmed that there is a 30k overspend for this financial year however this will be balanced elsewhere in the budget.

Analysis still being undertaken for the Better Lives programme. New Procurement to be in place by April 2020. Programme to align with three tier model and incorporate a one whole city approach. It is confirmed that there will be a strong focus on Social Value.

The ACE Scrutiny Commission commended the work that has been done in this area

Officer presented report.

Officer confirmed that delays in transfer of care have improved greatly this year. Overall a calmer situation this year with similar number of attendances but quicker dischargers. This can be attributed to an improved back office function – which includes a digitalised roster, mobile phone roll outs, virtual integrated care (with assessments happening electronically) and flexibility – the ability to move staff across sites. Officer stated that there is still work to be done but improvements have been made. The calmer situation can also be accredited to the success of flu jab and mild weather.

The technology improvement plan is going well – Social Workers’ are now equipped with phones. There have been some issues with technology syncing with tablets and the roll out has been slightly delayed but implementation is being worked on. The Officer confirmed that the timeline for this is two months.

 Better Care fund has revamped it’s funding to be better prepared this winter. The Integrated Care Bureau (ICS), as well as a Single referral form which ensure a consistency of information across the board has also helped the situation.

 Discussion took place around the best use of Social Worker Resources as the average Social Worker spends a day and a half chasing inappropriate ward referrals. Information has shown that over 20% of hospital Social Worker didn’t understand and / or trust services available and as more assessments done at home, discussions are being had about whether the number of Hospital Social Workers should be reduced and the number of Community Social Workers increased. There are currently still vacant Social Worker posts and the position is being advertised on a rolling basis.

A commission member questioned the discrepancy between discharge times in the Bristol Royal Infirmary against North Bristol Trust. Officer clarified that there are significant differences in the performance of the two Trusts. Commission members note that anecdotally it has been reported that discharge from both hospitals can be quite complicated with many layers of communication from different departments within the hospitals.

Resolved: Scrutiny of NBT and BRI discharge procedure proposed for JHOSC

Officer presented report.

Schools and post 16 services have been investing in prevention. Commission members advocated for a targeted support approach and stress that resilience building in children should begin in primary school but acknowledge that schools are struggling with capacity and resourcing issues.

The Suicide rate in is now in line with the National Average. The Officer acknowledged that there is a difficultly in drawing conclusions from the data as the numbers are so low.

Officer clarified that different Universities take different approaches to notifying parents when students are in crisis, Bristol University for example have an ‘opt in’ approach.

Officer confirmed that reducing access to means has proven to be a very effective prevention method. Clifton Bridge is a hotspot – barriers and volunteers to talk to people. Work is still being done to reduce the stigma around talking about mental health.

Aside from young people, Officer acknowledged that men are another high risk group and advised that South Gloucestershire & North Somerset have recently developed a fund to look at innovative approaches to tackling these issues.

Officer presented the report.

Officer explained that Thrive Mental Health is part of the One City Approach and that a theory of change workshop will be happening in March.

Employers and the voluntary sector have embraced the new approach and the Officer confirmed that further Councillor Briefings will take place once the new Public Health Director (PHD) is in post.

Officer presented the report.

The Officer explained that this is data from November and new data will be released imminently.

It is confirmed that Bristol Better Eating has been temporarily stalled but will be back up and running once the new Public Health Director (PHD) starts in post. The programme will be tackling issues around licencing of food outlets in parks and working to ensure a consistent Better Eating message permanents across all departments of the council.

For information only

Officer presented report.

Officer confirms that the Improvement Plan was submitted to Ofsted today.

For Information Only

Short video shown, link can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnCDPDIQVI

Officer presented report

Officer confirmed that the tender documents are on a procurement e-portal and members can log in to see the documents if interested. Officer cannot disclose who has expressed an interest while the procurement exercise is live.

Officer clarified that the importance of the bidders understanding of local area runs throughout the tender documents. While there is a standardised service in terms of opening hours and standard of service needed, Officer re-iterated that the importance of local knowledge is stressed throughout the questions and a high level of knowledge will be expected in the answers.

Officer confirmed that an equalities impact assessment has been completed.

Officer outlined that the winning bid is expected to be confirmed in  August 2019 with services to begin early 2020 . Officer has acknowledged that lessons have been learned from previous Procurements and a detailed handover will be in place. Work is already being done to prepare for the transition period.

The Officer confirmed that to ensure the suitable bidder wins there will be a strong emphasis on Social Value in the evaluation process. The Officer also confirmed they have a plan in place in the instance that there is not a suitable bidder but is unable to discuss due to the procurement currently being live.