Issue - meetings

To submit a report by the Director of Social Services.

It was resolved to authorise Officers to conduct a formal consultation on the following -

·                    To develop more community based opportunities for people with a learning disability.

·                    To establish whether there are advantages to extending a day centre to meet more profound needs.

·                    To review the current learning disability day service provision. 

The report of the Director of Social Services incorporating a Proposal Paper for the future of Learning Disability Day Opportunities on Anglesey was presented for the Executive’s consideration. The report sought the Executive’s approval to formally consult on the proposal to “develop more community based opportunities for people with a learning disability, extend the provision at Gors Felen and close the services at Morswyn, Blaen y Coed and Gerddi Heulfre.”

The Chair and Portfolio Member for Social Services reported that it is necessary to reshape and modernise the day opportunities services in order to –

•           develop sustainable opportunities for individuals;

•           further improve the delivery of the service in the most cost-effective way;

•           respond to feedback from service users and their families as to what they would like day opportunities to look like in the future;

•           meet the current and future needs of the people whom the Authority supports;

•           meet the requirements of the Social Services Well-being (Wales) Act 2014

She highlighted that the most important people in a consultation are those who are affected by it, their families and carers and she emphasised that should the Executive decide to proceed to consultation, she was keen that it be on the basis of the following drivers  -

•           a focus on an outcome based approach i.e. a shift from  paying for prescribed activities within a set timeframe to paying for results or outcomes which increase and individual’s skills, well-being and confidence;

•           to ensure the same standards of service delivery across all services with both the in-house and external services focusing on ensuring progression and achieving outcomes for individual service users;

•           to ensure that resources are allocated fairly with the same assessment and access criteria for both in-house and external services;

•           to ensure that there is fair pricing for services reflecting the differing needs of the individuals attending e.g. it may be appropriate to pay a premium rate to support an individual with more profound or multiple learning disabilities or complex support needs;

•           providers will have greater freedom and flexibility to work with the people they support to design and co-produce the activities that will achieve those outcomes. Some of these activities may be delivered in partnership with other community groups and organisations;

•           to encourage service providers, both internal and external, to develop, adapt and change in response to this new way of working;

•           to encourage community based groups to offer regular supported placements that can add to an individual’s skills and ensure progression.

The Director of Social Services confirmed that the case for change is based on the belief that the nature of the provision for people with learning disabilities needs to be reformed to provide better outcomes for those individuals within their local communities and to ensure that those services remain sustainable and effective into the future. The Council currently has a number of different day opportunities available to people with learning disabilities some of which are  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6