You are on page 1of 8

Older People’s Partnership Board

September 11 2017

Ely Cathedral Conference Centre, Palace Green, Ely CB7 4EW

Minutes

Present:
LA Laura Adcock Housing Services Manager, Cambridge City
DB David Bache Independent Member
AB Anna Bailey Councillor, Adults Committee
CB Charlotte Black Director Adults and Safeguarding, CCC
SC Sally Cleghorn Development Officer, CAIL
HD Helen Duncan Principal Social Worker, CCC
JE Jenny Egbe Independent Member
KH Kate Hales Healthwatch
RJ Rita Jones Services Manager, Alzheimer’s Society
GL Graham Lewis Development Officer, CAIL
PM Paul McCloskey Independent Member
MM Margaret Moffat Independent Member
JN Jean Newman Independent Member
LO Lynne O’Brien Commissioner, CCC
BP Barry Payne Independent Member
FR Flora Raffai CEO, Cam Sight
HR Helen Reed Housing Strategy Manager, Cambridge City
BW Brian Walker Independent Member
SW Susie Willis CEO, Care Network

Fen House, Fen Road, Cambridge, CB4 1UN


Tel: 0300 111 2301 Email:admin@cambridgeshirealliance.org.uk
Registered Charity No. 1132290 Company limited by guarantee No 06861653
1. Welcome, introductions, apologies
Apologies: Cath Mitchell, Gill Kelly, Amanda Morgan and Diarmid McKenzie.
SC noted that Sylvia Prier had resigned from the OPPB as she has moved to be
closer to her family.

CB her new job title is Director: Adults and Safeguarding; People and
Communities

LO her new job title is Commissioner; People and Communities

2. Helen Duncan, Principal Social Worker for Adults & Head of Safeguarding

HD explained that she previously worked at Leicester City Council, a unitary


authority, in the same role.

HD has six teams reporting to her:


 Customer Care (includes complaints and compliments)
 Multi Agency Adult Safeguarding Hub
 Safeguarding Adults Manager
 Counting Every Adult
 Policy and Governance
 Deprivation of Liberty
HD is very keen to attend Partnership Boards to hear about what is happening
DB Do you chair the Safeguarding Board?
HD No – that has an independent chair.
DB In Peterborough 65% of all safeguarding cases related to Older People.
HD That would be similar to CCC; lots of cases and many more than
Peterborough. Worryingly there are many cases which are not known about.
DB What are the statistics? Would be useful for the OPPB to understand e.g.
financial, sexual, physical etc
HD Very happy to provide these details
Action: SC to email HD to get statistics on safeguarding.
PM Is the safeguarding training in Cambridgeshire robust?
HD Yes. More robust than other areas. HD is now co-delivering the training; it is
not just about attending the training course but also safeguarding in practice.
Also ensuring that the training is rolled out to providers.
SW Care Network’s team of Community Navigators don’t work with people who
are experiencing poor mental health or are drug and alcohol users. However,

Page 2 of 8
people who do not meet the threshold for ongoing support from the County
Council are being referred by social care. Can Care Network access the
Counting Every Adult team?
HD Yes
CB Is this about people over 65 who are using drugs and alcohol?
SW Yes, those experiencing poor mental health also. People keep being referred
to Care Network but don’t meet the criteria for statutory support.
CB Can we have 2 or 3 case studies? Need to find a solution.
RJ Had a referral of a carer but on making contact was only able to speak to the
carer’s daughter who explained the carer had recently attempted suicide.
This was raised with the Safeguarding team but were advised wasn’t a
safeguarding concern. Safeguarding is the only route to refer without
consent.
HD Care Act covers self-neglect; however, suicide is a primary care or mental
health service issue.
LD Re: SW’s question on inappropriate Care Network referrals. The Visiting
Support Service does provide support to people in such situations.

3. Older People’s Team update

CB explained that following the restructure of the County Council, the Children,
Family and Adults Directorate has been renamed as People and Communities. The
directorate is now split between commissioning and operations. The People and
Communities directorate covers Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

CB updated on the following:

 Adult Early Help Centre


o Based in contact centre, able to provide support now and resolve
issues as soon as possible e.g. Housing – using HOOP (Housing
Options for Older People) to help people think through their housing
needs
o Benefits advice
 Neighbourhood Cares Pilot
o Teams now operating in both Soham and St Ives
o Project will be live from October
o Focuses on prevention and how can help in crisis, based on Buurtzorg
model from the Netherlands but adapted to work in social care rather
than health.

Page 3 of 8
o York Consulting have been appointed to carry out the evaluation
 Enhanced Response Service
o Funded through the Transformation Fund
o Operating in Cambridge (24hours) and Huntingdonshire (night time
only)
o 378 calls from Cambridge, 57 Huntingdonshire
o Supporting people who have fallen, experienced flood, fire, power cuts
etc. Staff have been able to respond speedily and result in people not
being admitted to hospital or residential care.
 Neighbourhood Teams (part of CPFT)
o Social worker sits in meetings and able to check cases against social
care database and then ensure services are coordinated
 Home Care contracts
o New tender process is in progress and will be operational by November
o Managing demand because cases are more complex
o Ensuring we make best use of staff in the right places and time
 Delayed transfer of care
o Focus is on people
o Working with hospitals. Challenges with Addenbrookes due to the size
of the organisation
o Better Care Fund is supporting re-ablement
o Key issue is staff being in the right place / time.

DB Will new home care contract improve situation?

CB We hope so

SC Do you have a plan on evaluating savings?

CB yes anything funded via transformation fund must be evaluated

JN Discharge planning – if two companies are going down the same street at the
same time etc to see different people, are these going to be adjusted to be
more effective?

CB This is an area that would be looked at. The Neighbourhood Cares teams
may also be able to help resolve this.

HD People may also be eligible for Direct Payments. Cambridgeshire County


Council would like to see greater uptake of these.

CB Purple is able to support people with aspects of Direct Payments

CB County Council is looking at introducing a pre-payment card that would be


able to help people access services through Direct Payments, but in a way

Page 4 of 8
that means they reduce paperwork and also don’t have to have an extra bank
account.

4. Independent Members’ Feedback


BW At the pre meeting it was noted that there is an overlap between the 4
Partnership Boards, eg Direct Payments. The OPPB wondered how can the
Boards work better together.
PM Somersham Parish Council recently held a ‘Changing Lives’ event for people
with neurological conditions. The Parish Council’s Health and Wellbeing
Board supported this; it has received funding from the Innovation Fund. The
project is designed to provide greater access to exercise. There will be 2 six
week packages and will cost participants £3 each session.
AB Are you telling the other Parish Councils about this?
PM Yes.

Break

5. Cambridgeshire Discretionary Facilities Grants

Helen Reed, Cambridge City Council, is working on a project to align the


Discretionary Facilities Grants policy for private housing across the 5 district
councils.

A mandatory disabled facilities grant is for people who need adaptations made to
their homes to have funding provided by central government – although the funds
are managed locally.

The rules relating to these grants have changed to enable a wider range of
interventions. The Government are increasing the funds available to areas but this
should be viewed in light of the aging population.

HR explained that the councils are currently considering the following issues:
 councils cannot pay over £30K for larger adaptations
 cannot pay for home repairs, e.g. boiler replacements or roof
 cannot reduce trip hazards or improve security
 for some people home adaptations will not be the best solution; moving may
be better so looking at making funds available to assist.
Success of the policy will also depend on the use of other services – such as HOOP
(Housing Options for Older People).

Page 5 of 8
The policy consultation will take place in October, aiming to come in to operation in
April 2018. This policy will have to be approved by the 5 district councils.
Action: HR to send SC draft policy to SC to distribute
BW How flexible will it be?
HR Want it to be very flexible, but being targeted, geared to meet persons
outcomes
JN Question relating to moving expenses. When an older person wants to move,
they may not be able to pack everything. Will the fund cover this cost?
HR Based on individual needs
BW if adaptations are approved for vehicle access to a property, will it include
funding a dropped curb? Aware of a situation where drive and ramp to front
door could not be done until the dropped curb had been done but that nobody
would/could fund the dropped curb.
HR Would be wanting to explore to ensure doesn’t happen
AB Want to stop such situations happening
JN Aware of an elderly person whose Occupational Therapist has said she needs
a stairlift to go upstairs, which will cost £3k. The district council have said that
the home is a family home currently under occupied and so they will not
provide, wanting the resident to move. JN wondered if the system is waiting
for the person to have a fall and go in to residential care.
HR There are definitely tensions between people and policy.
SW Policy is about the 5 districts but very aware of differences in each
HR Ideally the policy will be the same in each district but there may be slight
nuances, aiming for consistency.
SC When you send the consultation out can you remember not everyone has
internet so an easily identifiable phone number would be helpful. An Easy
Read version of the consultation document would be helpful. People who use
software technology to read the document to them cannot read PDF
documents so please also send as a MS Word document.
AB Prioritisation of cases, Occupational Therapists work with children and
therefore these cases get prioritised. Also if people are referred early in the
financial year may get their works funded, but those referred later in the year
less so.
HR Monitoring / consistency will be looked at.

Page 6 of 8
AB an example would also be someone who needs £1.5k walk in shower not
installed so eventually social care/health have to become involved for the
sake of £1.5k
KH Need health, social care, everyone to work together
HR Want everyone to go to a single point of contact
JE Are people means tested?
HR Means testing takes place for the disabled facilities grant. Do need to think
what can be done speedily even if this means people having to contribute.

6. Adult Social Care Forum (feedback from, items for)


SC Explained that HD is the new Chair of the ASCF.
SC as per the OPPB request, the minutes of the ASCF are now circulated to the
OPPB, but it is noted that they are draft and therefore subject to change.
The OPPB did not have anything that it wished to raise at the ASCF

GL CAIL had been made aware of an issue relating to Direct Payments. CAIL
had been made aware that some people were not having money transferred
from the County Council to their accounts at Purple (the DPSS who arrange
payment of salaries, taxes etc) and that as such this was causing distress.
Purple had advised CAIL that there were a number of cases where this had
happened.
HD Has Purple raised this directly with the Council through their named contact?
Issues cannot always wait for ASCF meetings.
Action: GL will contact Purple in the morning and ask that they do so if they haven’t
already.

7. Action Log
SC has updated all actions.

9. AOB and Agenda ideas

SC Terms of Reference are to be reviewed. SC will send dates for a Task and
Finish Group to work on this.

HD CCG – is there representation on the OPPB? SC explained that Cath Mitchell


is and that she had sent her apologies for today’s meeting.

Page 7 of 8
JE Had been on Regent St, Cambridge. She was asked by an older lady for
assistance. The lady was trying to cross the road but was unable to step up
on to the pavement due to the very high curb. BW and GL explained that the
curbs are high for level access on to busses; however also noted that there
are no marked pedestrian crossings in his part of the street. There are
dropped curbs for crossings near Christs Lane and outside the Nat West
Bank, however neither are easily identifiable by pedestrians or
vehicle/cyclists. It was noted that this was not helpful for people with Physical
Disabilities, blind/visually impaired or older people.

Action: GL to send JE the email address for the highways agency.


.

Next meeting: November 13, 10:30am – 12:30pm, Orchard Park


Community Centre, Central Avenue, Orchard Park, Cambridge CB4 2EZ

Please note that there will be a pre-meeting for independent members


starting at 10:00am

Page 8 of 8

You might also like