Loading
The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
Apologies were received from Cllrs Ali Ahmed, Ash-Edwards, Boes and Lent.
Cllr Littlechild declared a personal interest with regard to housing provision and emergency winter planning as he was working with Cadwyn Housing Association on a social housing project at Albany Road Baptist Church, and worked for a church in Cardiff.
The minutes of the 14th October meeting were approved and signed as a correct record.
Decision as recorded
AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
Members were advised that this report presented the Adult Social Services, Housing & Communities performance reports for the Quarter 2 period (July to September 2024). For this item, the Chair welcomed: Cllr Peter Bradbury Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Tackling Poverty & Supporting Young People Cllr Leonora Thomson Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Public Health & Equality Cllr Julie Sangani Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Public Health & Equality Cllr Lynda Thorne Cabinet Member for Housing & Communities Cllr Lee Bridgeman Cabinet Member for Housing & Communities Jane Thomas Director of Adults, Housing & Communities Helen Evans Assistant Director of Housing & Communities The Cabinet Members were invited to make their opening statements. In her statement, Cllr Thorne commended the work of the prevention team as they sought to deal with the large increase in single homeless people. The primary reason for approaching homelessness services continued to be the loss of rented accommodation, although there were some cases of individuals being asked to leave accommodation with family or friends, for which prevention was difficult. 75% of clients who sought services were prevented from becoming homeless, but rough sleeping remained high, with an average of 49 individuals in quarter 2. About half of rough sleepers had no connection to Cardiff or eligibility for public funds, but the outreach team continued to offer targeted assistance to those eligible. The Housing First scheme gave wraparound support to the most complex cases, with 93% breaking the cycle of homelessness. She welcomed the more than 12,000 volunteer hours given to Housing & Communities, which was a 75% increase on the same period last year, and noted the importance of clearing the backlog in the responsive repairs service. In his statement, Cllr Bridgeman highlighted the importance of community hubs as a vital lifeline for many residents. They had surpassed a million visits this year with a target of 1.5m across the full year. The digital aspects of the service were progressing well, although the views were below their target so work was being done to promote and enhance the website. Listening to tenants was key, and they were continuing to put on events in hubs to boost engagement. He added that Cardiff’s library provision had recently been commended for the service it offered. In her statement, Cllr Thomson acknowledged the high demand for adult services, which had led to 4,000 wellbeing assessments being completed in the first two quarters – a 25% increase on last year. Individuals presenting to the service also had higher levels of need, but their partnership with the university health board was working well and nearly 1,000 people had been discharged with care in place in the first half of the year. The availability of care generally remained good, and the average time to put domiciliary care in place was on target at 12 days. The number of annual care plan reviews was key and remained consistent, while a new volunteering project was in place to build up resources. Hubs For All was now operational five days a week, offering important social time for older people and carers, while lots of work was being done on the council’s goals to make Cardiff age-, dementia- and neurodivergent-friendly, with a focus on prevention and keeping people active. Last week was National Safeguarding Week, which shone a light on the performance of adult safeguarding, with 99% of enquiries completed within seven days. Challenges remained, in particular recruitment, but 14% of permanent social worker posts were now vacant compared to 18% before, in part thanks to their ‘grow our own’ approach. In her statement, Cllr Sangani praised the work undertaken with Public Health Wales and other partners across the city, and underlined the importance of engaging with parents and children at hubs about vaccinations. She was pleased to report that funding had been secured to create short videos about dementia in a variety of languages, and the service would continue to encourage positive lifestyle changes including physical activity and healthy eating. The service had performed well over the quarter and there was lots to build on. In his statement, Cllr Bradbury reported that the service was meeting its targets, which would be reviewed at the end of the year to ensure they were robust. 8,648 customers had been engaged face to face at hubs, and residents had been helped to secure more than £11m in additional weekly benefits since April, along with 703 food bank vouchers and 396 fuel vouchers. The advice line had seen an 86% increase in calls, with a total of 28,000 compared to 15,000 last year, and the team had managed an answer rate of 87%. He added that if any Members had constituents in need of help or advice, they could refer them to the money advice team. The Committee explored the council’s dementia-friendly city work and heard that dementia-friendly training for staff was below its target, while the number of businesses signing up was down on the previous quarter. Officers explained that there was work to be done across all departments on this, and they had been working hard to get businesses involved, including taking on volunteer dementia ambassadors. The Committee emphasised that in order to get organisations following suit and building a dementia-friendly city, the council needed to be hitting its own internal targets first, and advocated setting a clear timeline. Members noted that there were currently 275 cases on the deprivation of liberty safeguarding waiting list, and heard that this was a relatively complex process organised by the Vale of Glamorgan. Individuals were referred in and a best interest meeting took place with a doctor involved. The UK government had consulted on proposed new legislation to make this simpler, but most councils’ response was that it might make things even more complicated, so it had not progressed at the moment. The Welsh government was aware of the challenges here, and it was important to keep numbers down while new legislation was considered. The council would commission new services and bring in more staff to alleviate this, but it would likely continue to be a problem until the legislation changes, with the ageing population being a further contributing factor. The Committee discussed overdue care reviews and heard that this had fallen from around 1500 to 1347. Members noted that this was not a big drop, and queried whether the data cleansing mentioned at previous meetings had been undertaken. Officers explained that this was an ongoing process, and although they were behind on the reviews they were making progress. Wellbeing assessments had risen by 25% this year and it was necessary to prioritise those coming through the door. They were looking at using more trusted assessors to do the reviews, identifying which cases could use a lighter touch as opposed to a full review, and taking on more staff to assist with these. On the topic of staffing, Members noted that a number of social workers had been promoted internally, and asked about the impact of this on the organisation. Officers explained that there had been a restructure some time ago to reinforce the management layer, with a number of Grade 8 social workers taking these posts and Grade 7s moving up to replace them. Members asked why nearly 15% of positions were still vacant, and heard that although adult services was recruiting more staff than it was losing, it had an ageing workforce and needed to replace those who retired. They were attracting new social workers and continuing to develop their workforce strategy. Members welcomed the increase in compliments for the service in Quarter 1 and the high number of volunteers, and asked why engagement with the volunteering portal seemed to be down. Officers explained that volunteering had really taken off as part of the Covid response, with high numbers maintained since then, though there had been some technical issues with the website earlier this year. It could always be promoted more, not just by council services but also others more widely that could offer volunteering opportunities. Members explored the decrease in numbers for first point of contact, and heard that there was more that could be done to communicate this. It was not always easy to find the phone number or email address for the first point of contact, and it could be made more accessible. The service had been short-staffed during the first two quarters and had now recruited staff, but it took time to train them fully. Members echoed the point on accessibility and highlighted the importance of avoiding digital inclusion considering Cardiff’s ageing population. Members queried why a proportion of calls went unanswered and what was being done to reduce that figure. The Cabinet Member explained that it was an extremely busy line, both in the summer and winter, and sometimes people disconnected rather than wait. There were a number of different phone lines and they were looking to align them into more generic advice lines where callers could be triaged and sent to the right place. This would reduce the length of the initial call, freeing up staff to answer more of them, and reduce waiting times for callers. Members asked about the review of housing repairs and heard this was underway at the moment, although the service was under pressure at the moment due to the need to respond proactively to issues of damp and mould, with emergency and urgent work taking priority. The review would look wholesale at how the service was organised, with a key issue being complex cases requiring multiple visits. Members advocated putting an online system in place so residents could check up on how they were progressing, particularly in complex cases. Members queried the process of turning around vacant stock and the relatively lengthy timelines involved. Officers explained that this was due to the state of disrepair many of these properties were in. They had often been lived in by older people for decades and were in a poor state by the time they left. The service had to find a balance between the speed and quality of refurbishment to avoid creating problems down the line. The Committee explored the use of police and security guards at hubs, and heard that a number of hubs were fully integrated with the police and youth services. The hubs were able to call on peripatetic security guards as and when they were needed, to respond quickly to incidents that might become serious, and protect both staff and service users. It was important to take a supportive approach rather than an enforcement approach, and diversionary activities were key to keep young people at hubs entertained. Members asked about Shared Prosperity Funding and heard that this was due in March, with a Cabinet paper coming forward soon in the Leader’s portfolio once they had more clarity from the Treasury and Welsh government. The SPF covered a lot of funding across the council and had a particular impact on the advice service. The Cabinet Member was happy to come back to scrutiny once a more detailed picture of the ramifications had emerged. Members queried the relatively low figures for reviews of mental health support for older people (MHSOP), and heard that this part of the service worked across Cardiff and the Vale, in particular with people with advanced dementia. The 28% figure for completed reviews was due to there being a high number of cases to assess, and many of these cases moving within the main adult services review team rather than staying with MHSOP, a multidisciplinary team which worked outside of hospitals. Members asked for clarification on the 1,596 total delay days for Cardiff and heard that this was a cumulative total of bed days lost since the previous month, based on a monthly census of who was in the hospital. Cardiff’s delays were only 7.9% of the total for Wales, and the figure had improved significantly compared to previous years, mainly thanks to effective discharge. Members noted that remaining in hospital for a long time led to more problems such as a loss of mobility. Officers acknowledged that cases got more complex over time, and emphasised that the cases with the largest delays were the most complex ones. If someone went to the hospital social work team then this tended to mean they were not suitable for domiciliary care. Members queried the mention of ‘escalated concerns’, for which nine providers had been flagged. Officers explained that they thoroughly monitored all care providers through a process which started at a very low level and rose up to more serious concerns, which might lead to a provider being embargoed. Multi-agency meetings were co-ordinated with providers in difficulty and Care Inspectorate Wales to ensure constant monitoring. A provider being listed as ‘escalated concerns’ was not necessarily a major cause for concern, but could just mean that they were undergoing a change of some kind which the council needed to keep an eye on, such as being under new management. AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
Decision as recorded
AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
Members were advised that this item sought to give the Committee a briefing on the Homeless Provision Winter Planning for 2024-25. For this item, the Chair welcomed: Cllr Lynda Thorne Cabinet Member for Housing & Communities Cllr Lee Bridgeman Cabinet Member for Housing & Communities Jane Thomas Director of Adults, Housing & Communities Helen Evans Assistant Director of Housing & Communities Matt Evans OM Specialist Accommodation & Support The Cabinet Members were invited to make an opening statement, before officers gave a presentation. Officers acknowledged that exposure to cold weather was known to result in an increase in deaths, with those sleeping rough at increased risk. The number of individuals turning to the local authority for support always increased during the winter months, so the council put on additional spaces in homeless provision. The cold weather period ran from 1st November to 31st March, but emergency spaces were also available during short periods of severe weather. They explained that last winter had seen the highest demand since before the pandemic, with 50 individual rough sleepers and the out of hours service experiencing up to 97 presentations in one night. They also saw more overdoses and an increase in deaths, so they opened up another unit with space for 100 individuals. Since last winter the council had sought to focus on early planning, developing a dedicated pathway for those leaving Home Office accommodation and enhancing their recruitment and induction programme in order to be more prepared for the surge in demand. They had also improved move-on into the private rented sector and expanded the managed accommodation service, expanded housing-led services focused on young people, utilised the buyback process to increase available accommodation and worked with substance misuse agencies to reduce drug-related harm. Officers noted that the prevention rate had been sustained at 84%, with 800 open prevention cases compared to 500 this time last year. Three hotels had been utilised for single people with 202 spaces in total, and an additional location in place. The waiting list was currently 54, a 73% reduction on last year. There were currently 44 rough sleepers, of whom roughly half had no recourse to public funds. They continued to see large numbers leaving Home Office accommodation, and 529 prisoner release presentations in total compared to 266 last year. Officers added that around 30 emergency beds were available at the start of the cold weather period, but they were also in conversation with churches about plans to provide accommodation for those with no recourse to public funds. The 2024/25 cold weather plan involved a hotel in north Cardiff offering 95 spaces, as well as temporary night shelters offering 61 and 71 additional contingency space, with 20 in a night shelter, 30 units in existing provision, 6 low needs units, and a further 10 at another site. In total there were 50 additional spaces available. The next steps would be to increase accommodation by building and acquiring additional sites, reducing dependence on hotels. 212 further units would be in place by April 2025 and a further 156 had been identified to be delivered by the summer. The Committee welcomed the focus on learning lessons from last year, and explored the possible role of churches in supporting those with no local connection or recourse to public funds. Officers clarified that everyone could access accommodation during the severe weather period whether they have recourse to public funds or not. They also worked with the Salvation Army to see if they could support people to get back to their registered local authority, but stressed that nobody would be forcibly removed. Members requested a briefing note on what was to be provided by the churches once it was confirmed. Members explored the difficulties of providing accommodation for single individuals and heard that there was less of it available. The additional pressure of prisoner releases was a key factor this year, as was the cost of living crisis. It was harder to move on single homeless people, which was why they were using new managed blocks with low-level support on site. The council now ran three of these blocks and had seen 100% tenancy sustainment within them. Members queried how the night shelters worked, and heard that individuals could stay in most of them during the day too, and the council could look to provide holistic support. Some sites could not offer this due to staffing or resource limitations but in these cases there were sites nearby where someone could stay during the day. The Committee discussed a number of specific supported accommodation schemes and heard that the Cathays scheme would be operational on 25th November. The Citadel site had been delayed, mainly due to it being a complicated modular project, and they were looking at next autumn. Members queried how exactly the sites were identified and heard that there was a detailed list of criteria. Officers took a realistic approach looking at what was actually available, for example using vacant building lists, and the key factors included health and safety, their ability to staff it, proximity to services and the number of units possible. Members asked how staff working in homelessness services were supported, and heard that they were offered counselling services and wellbeing support. Shifts were organised on a rota to give them time away from their challenging work, and management structures had been strengthened to lessen administrative workloads. Members asked whether the availability dates were planned with last year’s peak in mind, and heard that they were. Provision was based on when they expected people to engage, but they were able to respond quickly if demand surged sooner than expected. With regard to prisoner releases, there had been two specific tranches of large-scale releases, but it was also a factor throughout the year. Home Office decisions were a key factor too, and last year there had been 47 presentations in January alone as a result. AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
There were none.
Members were advised that this item sought nominations from committee members who wished to sit on a forthcoming Task & Finish inquiry exploring ethnic minority communities’ access to and experience of Cardiff Council’s Adult Social Care services. Cllr Lewis indicated that she would be willing to take part in the inquiry.
9th December 2024 at 4:30pm.
Councillors must say when they have a personal link to something being discussed, such as a job, a property or a family member. A prejudicial interest is one strong enough that the councillor usually leaves the room and takes no part.
Declarations are read from the minutes once they are published.
Lists the council's current councillors only. Co-opted members, officers and former councillors aren't shown.