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There is no summary of this meeting yet. Summaries are written once the council publishes the minutes, which are its official record of what a meeting decided. They usually appear a few weeks after the meeting.
1.1 The Chair welcomed Members and Officers to the meeting. 1.2 Apologies had been received by Councillors Karl Gauden & Gaynor James
2.1 Councillor Steve Evans declared an interest as Ty Glas y Dorlan was situated in his Ward. Councillor David Williams declared an interest as he sat on the RPB.
3.1 The minutes of the previous meeting held on 20 February 2025 were confirmed as an accurate record.
3.1 The TLS went through the action sheet, there were no outstanding actions. Members agreed to note the action sheet.
5.1 The Chair introduced the item and explained to the Officers that Members had read the report so an introduction was not necessary before moving on to questions. 5.2 In response to Members’ questions the officers provided the following answers: • HoAS - The redesigned Front Door service had also included self-referrals, however there had only been a low number of referrals received since the redesign with most referrals being received from other agencies or families. • HoAS – It was too early at this point to identify any gaps with the redesigned service, however there was the ability now to monitor trends and identify gaps and the Information, Advice & Assistance (IAA) Hub would allow for these discussed in that forum and solutions to be found. • HoAS – We had done a lot of work within communities to gather knowledge and understanding to ensure the community offer was sufficient, however more work would be needed to map what was available already and to discuss with community leaders the extend of demand. • HoAS – The redesigned system had been successful in simplifying what had been a complex route into the service. The new system had been successful over the winter months although there was confidence that we could further improve this. • GM-IRS – There was sufficient capacity at Ty Glas y Dorlan to accommodate the “if not home, why not Ty Glas y Dorlan” protocol, with there being 12 spaces available and only a minimal waiting list. • GM-IAA – When the redesign took place, ensuring a seamless service was a key consideration. We had regularly met with the patch teams to further ensure this and also to gather their feedback. • GM-IRS – Recruitment and retention remained a challenge with the vacancy levels being at 53% amongst carers at the time of the meeting. EM – It was important to note that this was a national problem and not just isolated to Torfaen. It was suggested that this could be discussed at the Regional Partnership Board and a regional solution could be developed. • HoAS – It was said that it would be a challenge within the service when funding ends, we had used funding to remove the nightly charge at Ty Glas y Dorlan as well as increasing our available hours of care to support users discharged from hospital by offering assessments on evenings or weekends. • GM-IRS – There were a variety of reasons for why a third of referrals did not complete the reablement programme, such as their illness may require them to return to hospital which would then restart the process, sometimes users didn’t complete the program due to cost of the service and also some users had died. • HoAS – The 65% target was an aspirational target and while it had been a challenging target to hit, the belief was that once vacancies had been filled we would be able to hit the target. It was also stated that the target was tracked on a quarterly basis. • GM-IRS – We had taken feedback on board from our staff although it was acknowledged that more would need to be done on a regular basis to ensure the service didn’t stand still. • GM-IAA – We had built into the system an evaluation process to allow for user feedback. Cases were taken at random and then the user would be contacted to ask for feedback from the process and this was reported back in to allow for changes to be made to the system. HoAS - Feedback had been broadly positive so far from service users. • GM-CMS&SS – The redesign of the service had not required any compulsory redundancies. • GM-CMS&SS – Performance metrics were reported monthly to the HoAS and to the Strategic Director, who then reported this to the senior Leadership team within the Council. If any issues were identified then these would be reported back to the HoAS which had meant that there was a constant review of the reported data. Data was also reported back to WG as well. • HoAS – We had benefitted from a loyal workforce which had mitigated a lot of the risks that had come with the redesigned service. We had also been helped by a good regional relationship which had allowed for ideas to be shared and support to be provided when necessary. • HoAS – It was said that the culture change from more care in the community to hospital settings had been a challenge but inroads had been made and that having good relationships between the service and hospitals had been key to this. 5.3 Officers left the meeting and members and the TLS and TD&MSO remained. 5.4 Recommendations Upon completion of their scrutiny activity, the Committee offered the following recommendations:- Recommendation 1:- The committee expressed significant concerns at the vacancy rate for Reablement Practitioners and carers. Members recommended recruitment and retention be a matter of priority and raised by the Executive Member for Adults and Housing in his capacity as Chair of the RPB, with a view to taking a regional approach to improving recruitment and retention and ensuring longer term sustainability in the workforce. Recommendation 2:- The committee welcomed the positive impact of the 50 Day Challenge, and the accompanying WG funding to facilitate this programme. Members recommended that based on the outcomes from this initiative, WG be lobbied to explore the potential for longer term funding for this work and for them to be more flexible in the restrictions imposed on funding allocations, allowing local authorities to determine where funding would be most effectively directed. Recommendation 3:- Members determined the removal of some of the charging policy blockages, enabling closer working with Health to dedicate flats within Ty Glas Y Dorlan, was an effective mechanism to expediate hospital discharge. Members recommended the potential be explored for sourcing funding to deliver a longer term, more fair and equitable charging policy, that applies throughout the year, rather than just through the winter months, and for all who may need or would benefit in being discharged to TGD. Recommendation 4:- The Adults & Communities O&S Committee expressed concerns about the number of Public Protection Notices that don’t meet the threshold for social care support and the inappropriate resources and effort that could be directed to better outcomes. Members recommended the Executive Member Adults & Housing write to the Chief Inspector and the Police & Crime Commissioner to reinforce this message, stressing the impact it is having on resources and recommit to the offer of training for police officers to build a better understanding of appropriate referrals. Recommendation 5:- Members were extremely encouraged by the data showing 51.4% of people who completed reablement will have reduced or mitigated the need for support, especially considering the significant staffing vacancy rates. Concerned that a target of 65% was particularly ambitious at this stage, the committee recommended commentary accompany this data when reported to ensure the gap isn’t disproportionately negatively viewed or misunderstood. Recommendation 6:- To ensure continued improvement, members recommended that lessons learnt from interconnecting the IAA, IR with EIP are shared across teams and partner agencies Additional Comments & Observations from the Committee: The Adults & Communities O&S Committee commended the work of the IAA and IR Teams, particularly complimenting the extraordinary achievement in implementing the redesigned services, when working with such high vacancy rates. Members were considerate of the demanding nature of working in Adult Social care and stressed the importance of being mindful of staff’s wellbeing. The committee were satisfied that the redesign and new operating systems had resulted in achieving improvements in performance and improved flow through the system, however, as it was still early with only 11 months of data and evidence to analyse, they commit to scrutinising this area further in the coming years. Members commented that in future reports setting out performance, it would be useful to have ‘Reablements not Completed’ broken down into categories to provide a fuller picture for analysis Members welcomed the case studies, which provided them with positive examples of the difference this new approach is having in real, lived experiences.
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