The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director Families and Wellbeing which detailed the Quarter 2 (July – September 2015) performance against delivery of the Families and Wellbeing Directorate Plan. The performance report was attached as Appendix 1 and set out progress against a suite of agreed key performance indicators.

Introduced by the Strategic Director Families and Wellbeing, the report indicated that the Corporate Plan 2015/16 (and supporting Directorate Plans) had been superseded by the Wirral Council Plan 2020 Vision and they still formed the basis of the in-year performance management framework. A new Performance Management Framework would be developed for the Council Plan once the associated delivery plan had been finalised.

In relation to the performance indicator regarding the rate of referrals to Children’s Social Care, the Head of Specialist Services indicated that the services surrounding assessment had been re-designed to ensure greater planning and assessment turnaround. The assessment rate was now just below the regional average and children were moving more effectively through the process. 

In response to a Member, in relation domestic abuse, the Head of Specialist Services indicated that prior to August 2015, the Department had no Police presence when dealing with domestic abuse referrals, the Police in August introduced a system to log all domestic violence referrals but had no admin support therefore the department had supported them through the August and September periods. Domestic Violence officers were now working alongside Social Work staff in the MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) and this had, had a massive impact on the amount of referrals received.

In relation to the rates of Children in Need (CIN) and Child Protection Plans, the Director of Children Services indicated that CIN, were cases that without social work or partner intervention were children that would not meet their potential. The local authority had looked at those cases to ascertain whether or not there was a need for a Child Protection Plan, this was partially responsible for the increase in children with a child protection plan since April. 

In relation to the adoption timescales, the Head of Specialist Services indicated that process for adoptions was being improved to ensure that they were dealt with more efficiently there would also be a greater drive to encourage more Special Guardianships.

In response to a Members question, the Director of Childrens Services indicated that the family intervention services would be picked up as part of Phase 2 following the successful Troubled Families initiative. Phase 2 was now in progress and included managing issues of neglect within families.

In preparation for Phase 2, the intensive family intervention service had been rolled out and the service had undergone a major re-design with staffing etc.. It was hoped that the RAG rating would be Green from October 2016.

In relation to the target on smoking cessation a Member sought assurances that the new contract would be effective and that this would be monitored to ensure it was fit for purpose and had successful outcomes.

In relation to the impact e-cigarettes had on smoking cessation, the Director of Public Health indicated that Public Health England had produced a report giving their views on the use of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid, their judgement was that e-cigarettes did less harm than a cigarette, however the long term effects of e-cigarettes were not yet known.

The Chair indicated that at the last meeting of the Health and Care Panel, the providers of the drug and alcohol service gave Members a presentation giving what they felt was a very positive overview of the services they provided.

In relation to concerns raised regarding both the delayed transfer of care and the re-admission targets, the Director of Adult Social Services indicated that the department was working with national agencies helping hospital improve these targets and work had been undertaken to improve the assessment and rolling out self–assessment within the wards. There was also an investment in services to help reduce the amount of unplanned admissions. He further indicated that the implications of the Care Act were impacting on the amount of patients waiting to be assessed.

In relation to the re-admission rate, this was largely down to those people who had serious or multiple illnesses that had been discharged from hospital and had for health reasons returned to hospital, with the introduction of the Healthy Wirral programme it was hoped to gain a better understanding of the people within the community and offer early help and intervention in relation to their health.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.