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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.
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 Scrutiny Annual Report 2024/25 be approved.
Apologies were received from Deborah Driffield (Director of Children’s Services) and Cllrs Lewis and Melbourne. Cllr Robert Hopkins and Brigid Corr (Parent Governor Representative) joined the meeting for the Neurodivergent Friendly Cardiff Strategy item as part of the Children & Young People Scrutiny Committee.
Cllrs Lent and Littlechild declared personal interests in item 5 as they had neurodivergent children. Tegan Griffiths (Youth Council) also declared a personal interest in item 5 as she was neurodivergent.
The minutes of the 16th June meeting were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.
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.
The Committee received the Adult Social Services, and Housing & Communities performance reports for the Quarter 4 period (January to March 2025). For this item, the Chair welcomed: Cllr Lynda Thorne Cabinet Member for Housing & Communities Cllr Lee Bridgeman Cabinet Member for Housing & Communities 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 Peter Bradbury Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Tackling Poverty & Supporting Young People Jane Thomas Director of Adults, Housing and Communities Helen Evans Assistant Director, Housing and Communities The Cabinet Members were invited to make opening statements. Cllr Thorne emphasised the housing pressures Cardiff faced, with nearly 10,000 people on the waiting list and 3,000 more living in overcrowded conditions. The council was committed to phasing out the use of hotels to alleviate the backlog, and the multi-disciplinary team continued to support individuals and families. In 2024/25, strong outcomes had been achieved through prevention and private sector engagement, and more than 350 new homes had been delivered. More than 70 developments were in progress totalling 4,000 homes, and they were investing in 620 new apartments for older people and four new Community Living projects. Cllr Thorne also highlighted the importance of maintaining and improving existing homes, in particular improving the responsive repairs service and addressing the backlog. The Welsh Housing Compliance Policy had been completed in March, and they had surveyed 10% of their stock, with decarbonisation and meeting energy targets key. Fire safety was another priority, with ongoing upgrades to sprinklers and recladding, and they were continuing to tackle antisocial behaviour alongside tenants, police and youth services. She thanked staff for their tireless efforts. In his statement, Cllr Bridgeman noted that Community Hubs remained essential resources for many citizens and had seen consistent increases in visitors. His tour of all the Hubs was nearly complete, with just Butetown and Rumney to go, and it had been good to see the services available and how they responded to local need. There had been 2.3m in-person visits to Hubs and libraries in 2024/25, a 5% increase on last year and significantly above the target of 1.5m. 96% of visitors had been satisfied with the service they received, and they were continuing to promote the Hubs website. He thanked staff, as well as the 193 volunteers who had delivered more than 2,000 hours of volunteering to support the program. In his statement, Cllr Bradbury thanked staff for their work this year, in particular in responding to various government decisions. They gave more than 8,000 individuals face-to-face support with Universal Credit and assisted 12,000 with money advice. The total number of people helped had gone down, partly because the local DWP service had caught up with the council and was now offering similar help. In all, they had helped individuals to claim £17m in benefits they were entitled to. In her statement, Cllr Thomson reported good performance in Adult Services despite growing demand pressures. They had completed nearly 8,000 wellbeing assessments, a 10% increase, and the average time to put domiciliary care in place remained on target at 11 days despite huge demand. The number of vacant social worker posts had reduced by 12.75% and more than 500 Unpaid Carers Assessments had been completed, a 17% increase. 4,000 care plan reviews had been completed, a 25% reduction in outstanding reviews, and events had seen strong participation, along with good individual feedback and high satisfaction levels. She added that their partnership with the UHB remained strong, and they were one of the best-performing authorities in Wales for hospital discharge, with 2,000 discharged this year. They had sought to set out a clear strategic direction for the service, with a five year development plan to deliver sustainable services focusing on prevention and right-sizing of care. The Living Well With Learning Disabilities Strategy had been passed this year, and Telecare and Meals On Wheels were now based within care hubs, supporting the overall preventative approach. In her statement, Cllr Sangani outlined the work that was ongoing to improve health in Cardiff, in particular working with Public Health Wales. This included building strong links within communities through events at travellers’ sites and in the STAR Hub. They were also working closely with the health board’s mass immunisation team, which had a mobile service for flu, MMR, RSV and Covid vaccines. They had produced a short film to explain which medicines were available in six languages, including Bengali, Somali and Urdu, and would continue to build on this in the coming year. Members were invited to ask questions and make comments; the discussion is summarised below. Members noted the KPI on information advice and systems which referred to the percentage of new cases assisted by the first point of contact, and asked how this was quantified. Officers explained that the indicator reflected how many people were helped without being sent on to social care. This was a key aspect of prevention work but was relatively hard to measure, and was currently classed as red because there were a lot of high needs cases who had to be passed on to social care. Members also queried the reporting of GP referrals for social prescribing, and heard that this was a relatively new indicator that officers sought to figure out the normal level of. The number of referrals and resolutions were recorded but a percentage could make it clearer. Members noted the reduced website hits and heard that this was partly due to a change in the way that cookies were able to capture the data needed midway through the year, and was also linked to issues with the Library Management System across Wales. Members advocated focusing more on footfall than website hits if the latter figures were not considered to be providing an accurate picture. The Committee discussed the Independent Living Service, noting that there was a relatively high level of sickness and complaints among staff and a slightly lower satisfaction rate than last year. Officers explained that sickness absence was always higher amongst frontline service workers because they couldn’t work from home, while complaints were generally linked to the disabled grant service. Members asked whether absences due to work-related stress were recorded, and heard that they were. Members asked about the key pressures expected over the winter, noting national chances to disability and winter fuel payments. Officers suggested that while demand would rise, the change to the winter fuel payment proposal announced by the government would make more people eligible, and should take some pressure off the pension credits team. The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Tackling Poverty & Supporting Young People added that he would give a statement to Council on 17th July regarding the Cabinet’s response to the government’s welfare consultation, and welcomed the review of PIP next autumn. Members welcomed progress in addressing social isolation and loneliness, and asked how this was quantified. Officers acknowledged that it could be difficult to word surveys as people tended to not want to be thought of as lonely, and staff found it difficult to broach asking the person to fill it in. They were redrafting the survey accordingly to try and focus on impact, and could inform Members when this was confirmed. Members noted the missed target in terms of time for disabled facilities adaptations, and queried the impact of this on the service’s reablement strategy. Officers explained that grants could be complex in a lot of different ways, and major projects where more work was needed on the property like extensions skewed the overall figures. The situation had improved throughout the year but they were still having problems with contractor capacity, and although they were commissioning new contractors this took time. Members suggested breaking down the KPI into short-, medium- and long-term projects to give a more accurate picture. Officers agreed to provide more information on timelines and the type of work undertaken. Members noted the delay to the roofing and window program and heard that this was due to recommissioning of contracts and taking time to determine the best way forward, for example whether to put solar panels in at the same time. Officers explained that there were relatively few ‘quick wins’ left with energy efficiency as they were onto larger projects now, but they could come up with new indicators reflecting the WHQS going forward. Members discussed hospital discharge and noted that the graph in the report suggested that Conwy, Torfaen and Caerphilly were performing better than Cardiff. Officers clarified that this was an assessment of a specific month, and that Cardiff had performed best in Wales in May. Members suggested providing a broader picture of the situation with a dynamic month-by-month assessment rather than just a snapshot. Members asked how those in temporary accommodation would be moved into permanent homes, and heard that this was done through managed accommodation blocks, new apartments like Scott Harbour, buying properties on the open market and working closely with housing associations. There were 9,000 people on the waiting list and their needs had to be balanced too when properties became available. Members welcomed the figures for homelessness prevention via Housing First, and asked how many people in total were offered that kind of support. Officers explained that Housing First was a bespoke service that offered wraparound support for the most complex cases, with separate streams for young people and single people that managed about 15 and 30 cases respectively. Members queried the situation of the roughly half of rough sleepers in Cardiff who did not have recourse to public funds. The Cabinet Member explained that the multidisciplinary team checked on them and sought to help them get to where they did have this recourse. In some cases, faith groups were able to help individuals who didn’t have access to council services. 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 report provided them with an opportunity to consider the report titled ‘Neurodivergent Friendly Cardiff Strategy (2025-2030) Consultation’, prior to its consideration by Cabinet on 10th July. For this item, the Chair welcomed: Cllr Leonora Thomson Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Public Health & Equality Cllr Ash Lister Cabinet Member for Childrens Services, Tackling Poverty & Supporting Young People Jane Thomas Director of Adults, Housing and Communities Nicola Pitman Lead Library & Strategy Manager Mel Godfrey Director of Education & Lifelong Learning Jennie Hughes Head of Inclusion (Schools) The Cabinet Members were invited to make an opening statement, introducing the draft strategy for consideration before it went out for consultation. They highlighted that one in seven people in the UK were neurodivergent in one way or another, and that this work followed a commitment made in a Council motion in 2023 to develop a strategy to remove barriers for people who were neurodivergent. Officers gave a presentation outlining the process since the Council motion was agreed, with significant engagement with partners and neurodivergent people over the last year. In March they had received Shared Prosperity Funding to make their Hubs and libraries more neurodivergent-friendly, and had put on events and focus groups which had seen good engagement. Key needs that had been identified through engagement included better training for professionals across all sectors; promoting inclusive and friendly environments; opportunities for social participation and peer support networks; improved access to trusted information and support services and increased public awareness. With these in mind, the Neurodivergent Friendly Cardiff Partnership had been established and now had 46 different partners, including the health board, the fire service, the police, Cardiff University and Transport For Wales. More had joined since the draft strategy was published, and third sector partners would be equally important. Overall, it sought to work towards a Cardiff where the needs of neurodivergent people and families were taken into account across all aspects of society. In particular, officers highlighted the importance of combatting stigma through raising awareness and challenging assumptions. Upon approval by Cabinet, the consultation would open for 8 weeks until September, enabling schools to get involved. Members were invited to ask questions and make comments; the discussion is summarised below. Members asked how the consultation would engage with those who were more severely disabled, and heard that officers had liaised with Disability Wales to produce an easy-read version of the consultation questions. This would be circulated through various partners including children’s services and the learning disability team, and they sought to enable a range of ways for people to communicate with them. The Committee emphasised the need for a thoughtful and tailored consultation strategy that took individual needs and preferences into account, in order to build a complete picture of neurodivergent need in Cardiff. Members queried part of the impact assessment where wording was repeated about different protected characteristics, and suggested undertaking another EIA seeking to establish more specific measures to follow to support these groups The Committee discussed cost and heard that the commitments that had been made were made by partners, and they would be financially responsible for them over the five-year timeline. The service was taking advantage of opportunities to apply for grants and keeping in close contact with partners about what they could do to help. Grant funding was expected to cover the costs of the consultation and the production of the strategy. Members queried the reference to trusted information and heard that this particular focus had come from engagement with parents, carers and neurodivergent people, who wanted clear information to help combat assumptions and stigma, and saw the council as an appropriate source for this. Members explored support for people with dyslexia and heard that they worked extensively with schools around all areas of neurodivergence. With regard to dyslexia in particular, there was a dyslexia friendly schools award and teams who worked within schools. The strategy sought to not only strengthen these existing arrangements and support learning, but also to enable people to take part in their communities and social opportunities. Members emphasised the importance of taking the individual into account and providing tailored support that didn’t seek to treat children with different needs in the same way. Members noted a reference in the report to neurodiverse young people not feeling safe, and advocated targeted engagement with groups of young people who might be less likely to respond to a consultation of this nature. Officers highlighted the role of education colleagues in targeting where the survey went, and explained that they had produced different forms of the survey for young people and adults. They also produced a bulletin called the Index and sought to reach out to varied groups through focus groups in Hubs, which had led to things like a walking group and a board games group being set up. Members asked whether officers felt the strategy would help to reduce the long waiting list for autism and other neurodivergence diagnoses, and heard that they hoped it would be a consequence as they built up the impression that services and support were for everyone, and received more funding from the Welsh government to enable more efficient diagnosis. Members noted the reference to helping people achieve their goals in education and employment, and asked whether employer networks were being consulted in order to identify environments where neurodivergent people could thrive. Officers explained that they were always looking to build new partnerships, and had been in contact recently with Waites and the BBC about becoming more neurodivergence-friendly. They also worked with the prison service, both in terms of the staff group and service users, and were open to consultation from all sources. Members noted that there was only one open box on the survey for people to write their specific feedback, and heard that Cardiff Research tended not to like these as they were much harder to analyse. Members recommended enabling more open responses via the survey, and tailoring engagement to suit people’s needs and preferences. Members asked whether the service was engaging with older people in particular to learn from their life experiences, and their perspectives of what would have been valuable to them in a time before these things were widely understood. Officers welcomed this suggestion and were happy to provide more information on that particular point. 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 report provided them with an opportunity to consider the report titled ‘Approval of the continued partnership agreement for the delivery of the Joint Equipment Service between the Council, Cardiff University Health Board and the Vale of Glamorgan Council’, prior to its consideration by Cabinet on 10th July. For this item, the Chair welcomed: Cllr Leonora Thomson Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Public Health & Equality Jane Thomas Director of Adults, Housing and Communities The Cabinet Member was invited to make an opening statement, in which she explained that the report sought approval for the continuation of a long-standing and successful partnership for the delivery of the Joint Equipment Service (JES), which delivered medical supplies and equipment and was managed by Cardiff Council on behalf of the region. She emphasised the benefits of the partnership, in particular economies of scale, joint purchasing powers and robust governance arrangements. Each partner contributed to the cost based on usage, which was reviewed annually. Since 2009, it had been automatically renewed through a clause in the contract, but Internal Audit had recommended updating the agreement to have it reviewed every three years. Members were invited to ask questions and make comments; the discussion is summarised below. Members asked how the impact of the service was measured, and heard that a full assessment would be undertaken of how much it had saved the council when the full plans were in place and it came back to Cabinet. Members asked for more information regarding the impact on care costs when this was available. Members explored how the service operated and heard that the office was currently looking for a new home. In Cardiff there were five permanent staff including the manager, along with five at the warehouse and seven drivers, and the staff managed referrals, deliveries and schedules as well as picking up and cleaning equipment that was to be reused. Members asked how the different equipment was sourced and heard that it was mainly by Cardiff, although the health board provided specialist beds. The equipment was essentially loaned out by the service, and each item had a sticker on it so users or their families knew who to contact when they were no longer needed. Members asked what would happen if the partners in the agreement failed to meet their obligations or dropped out, and heard that this was why agreements like this were necessary. The Vale and the UHB were reliable partners who they had worked with for a long time. 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 Scrutiny Annual Report 2024/25 be approved.
Members were advised that this report sought the Committee’s approval for the combined Scrutiny Annual Report 2024/25 prior to its consideration by Council on 17th July. Members discussed how best to add more specialist knowledge to the Committee. The Chair noted that other scrutiny committees had Co-Opted Members, although obtaining these was tricky, and they could invite more external expertise in depending on the topic. AGREED: that the Scrutiny Annual Report 2024/25 be approved.
There were none.
15th September 2025 at 4:30pm.
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