The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting as well as those watching the webcast.

No apologies had been received.

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Members were asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests and any other relevant interest and to state the nature of the interest. Councillor Mary Jordan stated that she was now vice Chair of the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB Scrutiny Committee.

To approve the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2024.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2024 be agreed as a correct record.

A public question had been received from Alison Avery who was unable to attend. The Chair read out the question as follows: Have the public health benefits of the Birkenhead regeneration been calculated? If so, what are they?

The Chair provided the answer that the business case for the Birkenhead regeneration areas and the Sustainability Appraisal undertaken for the Wirral Local Plan outlined the potential benefits of development. It was important to note that in terms of direct impact on health and wellbeing, many of the potential benefits were unlikely to be seen in the short-term. However, by ensuring that the regeneration was inclusive, there were significant opportunities to address the inequalities in the wider factors that influence health. Improved housing, increased employment opportunities, training and community infrastructure were likely to lead to substantial benefits to health and wellbeing over the longer term and to a reduction in health inequalities.

The Public Health team had worked with colleagues in Regeneration to ensure a holistic and people-centred approach to social regeneration in order to develop and foster inclusive and sustainable communities. There had been a range of work undertaken to help both understand and gather residents’ views and experiences and gather the current baseline:

• The Public Health Qualitative Insight Team had worked to actively involve residents in regeneration projects e.g. dock branch park, and neighbourhood areas to help ensure that regeneration initiatives address the real needs of the population. A link to all insight can be accessed at- Local Voice - Wirral Intelligence Service

• A Qualitative Research Toolkit had also been developed and training delivered in regeneration areas to empower individuals and groups to shape the future of their neighbourhoods.

• Profiles had been developed for specific areas including the Birkenhead Regeneration Framework area, Hamilton Square heritage action zone, Hind Street urban garden village, Well North Birkenhead area to develop health indicators and establish baseline reports.

Ensuring that the views and experiences of residents are considered, and continue to shape plans will help to ensure that the benefits to health and wellbeing that were identified as part of the initial business case and SA are delivered and maximised.

The Chair confirmed that the answer was to be provided to Alison Avery in writing.

There were no member questions or statements and petitions to report.

This PDF may not be suitable to view for people with disabilities, users of assistive technology or mobile phone devices. Please contact Amandaparrymateo@wirral.gov.uk if you would like this document in an accessible format.

The Assistant Director of All Age Independence presented the report of the Director of Adults, Health and Strategic Commissioning which provided information regarding the progress and future development of the Shared Lives Wirral, Adult Social Care. Shared Lives Wirral is a Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered service, which was brought back into the Council in April 2023.

The State of Shared Lives Care in England, published in February 2022, stated that 96% of Shared Lives services in England had a CQC rating of Good and above. From this, 98% of people living in Shared Lives felt that they were part of a family most or all of the time and 85% felt that Shared Lives had improved their social life. It was reported that Wirral has a supported housing service provided by a dedicated set of couples and individuals in their own homes. It was highlighted that since the transition in, a carers co-production group had been established and an improvement plan had been produced. All the practices and policies had been reviewed with the carers and quality assured and additional resources had been secured to help with the growth. Shared Lives had grown organically with a 19% increase in people supported and a 21% increase in the number of new carers recruited.

It was highlighted that the recruitment of additional capacity would enable the support of 40 to 50 more people a year to enable better outcomes and a cost avoidance of £8000 per person. This was an annual value of £320,000 to £400,000. These extra posts were to be fixed term posts.

Another area of growth was to explore the Shared Lives respite model with Lucys’ Guest House which enables the people who are supported to go on holiday. Another area looked at foster parents within Childrens Services and how they transition into adults in terms of staying with their foster carers and enabling those children to become carers themselves and looked at a mentoring programme to have a wrap round service for two years after they feel that they are independent. Shared Lives Wirral has self-employed carers to allow people to live, work and play in Wirral and that had a positive impact on the local community and economy.

Members asked about how the range of options for recruitment was publicised and requested further detail on the £8,000 cost saving per person compared to traditional residential care. It was reported that a strategy called Preparing for Adulthood was being worked on to make the transition from child to adulthood as seamless as possible.

It was clarified to Members that with the right investment into the promotional campaigns another 40-50 people could be supported per year. Members also asked about the quality of care and the retention of carers.

It was agreed that a Shared Lives Workshop would be added to the work programme and a visit Lucy’s Guest House would be arranged.

Resolved – That the progress of Shared Lives Wirral be noted.

This PDF may not be suitable to view for people with disabilities, users of assistive technology or mobile phone devices. Please contact nancyclarkson@wirral.gov.uk if you would like this document in an accessible format.

The Assistant Director of Integrated Services and Commissioning presented the report of the Director of Health and Strategic Commissioning which provided a performance report in relation to Adult Social Care and Public Health. The report was designed based on discussion with Members through working group activity in December 2022. Areas of significant interest in the report were highlighted. A growth in the number of people supported by the Adult Social Care Department to over 9600 reflected the growth in the demographic. Members were reassured that there was a seven percent vacancy rate in the care home market with availability in care homes at all categories of care within Wirral.  It was reported that the new direct payment service was to go live in mid-January 2025. There was an ambition to continue to grow the number of people in receipt of Direct Payments so that they could direct their own care.

It was highlighted that there had been a continued increase in domiciliary care packages and, many of these were high level packages of care where the Council were supporting the ICB with continuing healthcare. The number of people in receipt of assistive technology had increased to over 5200 through the Wirral Independence Commission. 85percent of the transfer from analogue to digital equipment had been completed and was on track to completed by December 2024.

It was noted that there had been an increase in the numbers of people receiving extra care as Sycamore House had recently opened and the Council were in the handover period of Spinnaker House which is a 102 bed scheme in Rockferry.

The Care Quality Commission ratings of those care homes that required improvement or were inadequate were reported and the associated outcomes of PAMMS assessments.  58 care homes were rated good and 32 care homes were rated requires improvement and CQC re-inspections were awaited. In the meantime, a digital PAMMS tool was being used and of the thirty two providers that required improvement, it was reported that twenty of them now had a PAMMS rating of good and there were seven with a PAMMS rating of excellent. There were still five care homes with requires improvement plans which were checked on a monthly basis by quality improvement practitioners.

Members requested a workshop regarding the criteria for CQC inspections and the PAMMS tool. Members also asked questions about the correlation between the PAMMS tool and the CQC ratings and about dementia nursing and capacity in care homes. In response to a Member question about the criteria for place allocation it was clarified that the criteria was being reviewed for allocations into extra care schemes.

A visit to Spinnaker House would be organised for Members.

Members asked questions about reablement and it was explained that since the new NHS Homefirst Service had been introduced there had been less demand for the Council reablement service provision. It was clarified to Members that market sufficiency and models of care could be looked at to consider the best outcomes for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

The Chair of the Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee introduced this report which presented the future work programme of the Committee.

Additional items were suggested including:

·  A Shared Lives Matter workshop

·  A workshop to provide more information on the correlation between the PAMMS tool and the CQC inspection ratings.

·  A Dementia workshop.

·  A Dentistry workshop.

A visit to Spinnaker House and a visit to Lucy’s Guest House would be arranged for Members.

Resolved – That subject to the changes noted above, the proposed Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee work programme for the remainder of the 2024/2025 municipal year be noted.