The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director of Families and Wellbeing and the Director of Public Heath/Director of Policy and Performance which provided an update in relation to the 2014/15 performance of the Families and Wellbeing and Public Health Directorates against the delivery of their Directorate Plans for 2014/15 whilst also providing an update of current performance (as at 31st July 2014) against the 2014/15 Directorate Plans.

The report translated the priorities set out in the Directorate Plans into a coherent and measurable set of performance outcome measures and targets. Members were requested to consider the details of the report and highlight any issues.

The Directorate Plan 2014/15 Performance Report set out performance against 57 outcome measures for 2014/15, 23 were rated green, 4 were rated amber and 6 were rated red whilst 24 were currently unrated. The 6 measures rated red had action plans which referred to:

·  NHS Health Checks – Take Up

·  Smoking Quitters (4 weeks)

·  Proportion of opiate drug users that left drug treatment successfully who do not re-present to treatment within 6 months

·  Timeliness of Adoptions, within 12 months of decision date

·  Became Looked After to Adoption Timescales in days

·  Average monthly bed days lost due to delayed transfers of care per 100,000

In relation to the take up of Health Checks, the Head of Public Health indicated that the department would continue to promote the use of the NHS Health Check Clinical template by GP practices to improve the accurate recording of activity; support GP practices and review the current data extraction and collation process with action to ensure data was submitted on time.

In relation to smoking quitters, the Head of Public Health indicated that there were a number of targeted initiatives being put in place to promote the service and support national health promotion campaigns such as ‘Stoptober’.

In relation to E-Cigarettes, The Head of Public Health indicated that these had attracted very mixed views nationally as to whether or not these were actually helpful or harmful to smoking quitters.

The Chief Executive of Wirral Community Trust indicated that as stop smoking services were commissioned from the Trust they would do their best to ensure that they met their contractual arrangements and offer assistance to the Local Authority to ensure this target improved.

The Deputy Director of Operations, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Trust commented that all partners had a responsibility to support this issue and indicated that at their in-patient unit (Springview) this was now totally non smoking and support was offered to those in the workforce that sought help to quit.

In relation to the proportion of opiate drug users that left drug treatment successfully who did not re-present to treatment within 6 months, the Director of Public Health indicated that the new contract which had not yet been awarded was designed to refresh and re-energise the system and bring new ideas and impetus to the challenge. The new contract was to be mobilised from October to commence delivery in February 2015.

In relation to the timeliness of adoptions, The Director of Children’s Services indicated that out of the seven children adopted between April and July 2014, only two had been placed for adoption within 12 months of the decision being taken that they should be adopted.  She commented that four of the children not placed for adoption within these timescales were siblings that the Department could not place; she explained to the Committee that sometimes in these circumstances Officers had to decide whether or not to split the siblings, this decision is balanced against the best interest of the child against their permanent adoption or permanent foster placement.

In response to Members concern, the Director of Children’s Services indicated that the Department was doing all it could to encourage more people to become adopters and had recently undertaken a marketing campaign to dispel some of the myths that surrounded adoption. Officers from the Department also consulted with the regional database to try and secure matches across the region. The Director of Children’s Services further indicated that the Children and Families Act 2014 placed great emphasis on the timeliness of adoptions being really important, with securing a good, loving home being a priority.

In relation to the indicator regarding the average monthly lost bed days due to delayed transfers of care per 100,000, the Head of Delivery, Adult Social Services Department, indicated that the Department would be working with colleagues and the NHS looking at practices and processes to look at reducing the transfer delays. The Head of Delivery indicated that the department was constantly reviewing its practices and had appointed a Discharge Manager to oversee the process, work was also continuing with the Community Trust. It was hoped that next quarter would show a significant improvement which would take the RAG rating to Amber.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the Performance Management Report be noted; and

(2)  the information contained within the report be used to inform the Committee’s future work programme.