Agenda and minutes

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Venue: Committee Room 1, Council Offices, Llangefni. View directions

Contact: Mairwen Hughes 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

As noted above.

2.

Declaration of Interest

To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

Minutes:

None received.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 36 KB

To submit the minutes of the following meetings:-

 

·        Minutes of the meeting held on 13 June, 2019

·        Minutes of the special meeting held on 11 July, 2019

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the following meeting were confirmed as correct:-

 

·           Minutes of the meeting held on 13 June, 2019

·           Minutes of the meeting held on 11 July, 2019

4.

Monitoring of Social Services Contracts pdf icon PDF 991 KB

To submit a report by the Director of Social Services.

Minutes:

Submitted – a report by the Director of Social Services on the Social Services Monitoring Arrangements.

 

The Director of Social Services gave a presentation to the Committee and highlighted the role of the Contracting Team, which at present has 3 Officers, carrying out the work so as to:-

 

·           Ensure contracts meet legislative and statutory requirements;

·           Operate a framework for robust contract monitoring, ensuring performance of contracts is monitored against specifications;

·           Ensure systematic monitoring and review of residential and nursing home services, community living services, domiciliary and day services within Anglesey and out of county providers.

 

The Director of Social Services referred to the monitoring procedure by the Contracting Team as follows:-

 

Domiciliary Care - Annual announced site visits (looking at Service User files and staff files, policies, accident and incident book, record of complaints and MAR sheets;

 

Residential/Nursing Care – Joint announced site visit with BCUHB (looking at Service User files and staff files, policies, accident and incident book, record of complaints and MAR sheets.  Interaction with residents and observations of practises within the Home;

 

Fostering – Commissioning Consortium Cymru (4Cs) which has a monitoring team working as part of this consortium;

 

Residential children’s – Desk top monitoring, 4Cs.

 

Supported Living – Annual announced site visit – looking at Service User files and staff files, policies, accident and incident book, record of complaints and MAR sheets;

 

Day Services – Currently full site visit and audit of all relevant policies and risk assessments.

 

He said that significant improvements have been made within Residential Care Homes in terms of achieving and evidencing the 9 specific outcomes noted within the monitoring framework.  As regards to Domiciliary Care a contract model enables providers to better manage costs through efficiencies in service delivery, providing a more localised service and improving recruitment and retention.  Children Fostering/Residential – live placement referrals and tendering process, using CCSR to shortlist the providers who are relevant to the child’s needs.  Providers increase the visibility of their offerings each time a child requires a placement.

 

The Committee considered the report and raised the following matters:-

 

·           Clarification was sought as to whether the Local Authority’s Care Homes are monitored in the same way as private Care Homes.  The Director of Social Services responded that the Local Authority’s Care Homes are monitored in exactly the same way;

·           Questions were raised as to whether there is sufficient staff to carry out the monitoring of the services to the best standards possible.  The Director of Social Services responded that the Contracts Team has been increased in the last year to 3 and he considered that the team is monitoring the services to an acceptable level.  He referred to the monitoring of risks and noted that consideration will be given as to whether there is a need for visits as frequently if the Local Authority is confident that the service providers are performing to a high standard.  However, if there are concerns the Contracts Team can carry out more frequent visits.  Where residents from Anglesey are  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Corporate Safeguarding pdf icon PDF 476 KB

To submit a report by the Director of Social Services.

Minutes:

 Submitted – a report by the Director of Social Services on the overview of the work of the Corporate Safeguarding Board and the priorities for the future.

 

The Director of Social Services reported that the Social Services Department deal with Safeguarding issues daily as regards to referrals regarding individuals who may be at risk.  However, Safeguarding is a responsibility across every Service within the Council and every member of staff is given training and be aware of their role within safeguarding matters. 

 

The Service Manager – Safeguarding and Quality Improvement gave a presentation to the Committee and said that every organisation that works with children, young people and adults should be committed to safeguarding and improving their well-being. There is a duty on the Council to ensure that it discharges its functions in a way that safeguards and promotes the well-being of children and adults who could be at risk.  She noted that the Corporate Safeguarding Policy gives clear guidelines to each Officer on the expectations of them. Each Head of Service is responsible for the safeguarding arrangements within their service.  A Strategic Corporate Safeguarding Board was established by the Council to provide assurance of the effectiveness of the Council’s safeguarding arrangements.  An Operational Corporate Safeguarding Board has also been established with group membership which includes safeguarding champions from all the services of the Council.  The Service Manager – Safeguarding and Quality Improvement further said that each Head of Service must include their safeguarding priorities within their service Annual Business Plan and are thereafter monitored in accordance with the Council’s monitoring procedures.  She said that she believed that this matter is evolving into a natural overlap between community safeguarding agenda i.e. Prevent and Modern Slavery.  Handling cases where individuals are considered to be at risk and corporate safeguarding matters.

 

The Service Manager – Safeguarding and Quality Improvement further said that the Authority has a Corporate Safeguarding Action Plan (included as Appendix 1 to the report) which focuses on actions that are mainly cross cutting across the whole authority and are not single service matters.  She said that corporate responsibility for this area is strengthening within the Council and the establishment of the Strategic Corporate Safeguarding Board has maximised the profile across the Local Authority.   A recent internal audit report has highlighted that there is governance risk that the Strategic Corporate Safeguarding Board meetings are not recorded so the Board cannot evidence its discussions/decisions.  It was noted that this matter is now being addressed and the Board notes will be specifically recorded as such. The Service Manager noted that she considered that there is risk is to the reputation of the Council should there be a safeguarding error which leads to harm to individuals.  She referred to examples of organisation that had suffered reputational harm due to safe workforce matters. The Audit Report has also highlighted the need to strengthen the role of the Strategic Board to make sure that the internal services are implementing the framework and policies that have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Schools' Progress Review Panel : Progress Report pdf icon PDF 709 KB

To submit a report by the Director of Education, Skills and Young People

Minutes:

 

 

 

Submitted – a report on the progress update on the work of the Schools’ Progress Review Panel.

 

The Chair as Chair of the Schools’ Progress Review Panel said that the Panel met on 3 occasions between May and July, 2019.  The Panel received verbal feedback and reflections from Members in light of the first GwE shadowing activities.  These initial reflections enabled the Panel to refine arrangements with GwE for the coming period, including introduction of a feedback proforma for completion at the end of each shadowing visit.  This process will further strengthen the governance arrangements underpinning this work stream, providing collective evidence of Members’ impressions and reflections as well as a mechanism for escalating key messages for further consideration by the Panel.  The Chair said that the Panel had an opportunity to see the work of pupils in June 2019 as regards to the Foundations Phase and were able to scrutinise the impact of collaboration project on standards. It was noted that the Panel will resume with its programme of challenge on individual schools’ performance building on its work over the past few years.   The Chair further said that it is timely to reflect the remit of the Schools’ Progress Review Panel so that it conforms to corporate priorities.  A meeting was held recently between the Chair and the Vice-Chair of the Panel, Scrutiny Manager and Deputy Chief Executive and it was agreed that a Workshop be arranged on the 27th September, 2019 for Elected Members.

 

The Director of Education, Skills and Young People reported that this Committee is requested to note the progress made to date with the work of the Schools’ Progress Review Panel in terms of achieving its current work programme which includes robust challenge on individual schools’ performance; areas of work covered thus far by the newly introduced GwE shadowing arrangements; the outcomes of the recent self-evaluation to measure impact and added value of the Panel and the need to revise the terms of reference of the Panel to ensure continued alignment with corporate priorities.  He referred that that the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Panel had met with representative from Estyn in June and noted the outcome of that meeting within this report. 

 

The Committee considered the report and raised the following matters:-

 

·      Reference was made that all the Elected Members are Governor’s on the schools on the Island and it would be beneficial for them to be aware of the work of Schools’ Progress Review Panel and the role they should be undertaking to improve and challenge standards within the schools.  The Director of Education, Skills and Young People responded that the development areas were identified by the Panel as part of the self-evaluation and these were summarised under 7 key themes as shown at 3.5 of the report.  He noted that Governor’s need to be aware of the new Curriculum for Wales and to challenge roles of leadership of schools;

·      Reference was made that Estyn has said that more attention is required  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 300 KB

To submit a report by the Scrutiny Manager.

Minutes:

Submitted – a report by the Scrutiny Manager on the Committee’s Work Programme to April 2020.

 

The Head of Democratic Services referred to the special meeting of the Partnerships and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee to be held on 24 October, 2019 and noted that the item as regards to the Annual Report : Galw Gofal will be rescheduled for discussion at a later date.  He further said that an additional item on Medrwn Môn is to be included within the work programme for the 24 October meeting.

 

It was RESOLVED to note the Work Programme to April, 2020.