Report from the
Cabinet Member for
Firstly,
I would like to thank all the staff who worked over the Christmas and New Year
period, providing essential Social Services support to vulnerable people. The
Christmas period saw an unprecedented number of people admitted to hospital and
our staff, along with health partners, are still working hard to ensure people
can return home safely.
1.
Adult Services
A new whole systems approach is being adopted with
regular meetings now established between ourselves, the Primary Care Trust,
general practitioners and the ambulance service.
A fuel poverty strategy is shortly to be launched and
plans are in place to cope with any severe downturn in weather conditions,
which may impact negatively on the older population.
I have attended the Learning Disabilities Workshop,
at the Medina Centre, where I met with a range of stakeholders, young people
and older residents with special needs. The prevalence of unemployment amongst
young people with a disability was a key issue. It was agreed that this should
be tackled as a priority.
I was pleased to attend the Isle of Wight Disability
Awards. Many congratulations to Rosie Barnard and the Isle of Wight Council,
who netted the special award for achievement.
A conference is planned in March to bring all staff
and stakeholders up to date with the health white paper entitled ‘our health,
our care, our say’ and to put a delivery plan in place that will ensure we make
the shift in health and social care from acute to community care.
A meeting took place this week with Gerald Wistow
(London School of Economics) and Eileen Waddington (Nuffield Institute), who
have both agreed to assist us move the integrated care agenda forward. We have
also been offered assistance by IDEA (the government improvement agency).
A carer’s conference is planned to take place on the
8th February, in the Riverside Centre. Details will be circulated
shortly.
Many congratulations and thanks to Social Services
staff who retained their two star status, despite extreme difficulties and
resource pressures. An action plan, designed to monitor improvements, is in
place.
2.
Children’s Services
Members will be pleased to note that the Director of
Children’s Services has introduced a new process to routinely ask our ‘looked
after children’ for a view on the quality of the service that they receive, as
part of their annual review. The recent Government white paper, entitled ‘every
child matters’, highlights the need for local authorities to discharge their
corporate parenting responsibilities more effectively.
A review of the approaches to ensure we improve the
life chances of our children is underway.
The cost of residential placements on the mainland
remains a cause for concern and the Director of Children’s Services is looking
into this issue as a matter of priority.
A review of our youth services is to commence on the
7th February and will be chaired by Cllr Swan.
An inspection of the Wessex Youth Offending Team,
which includes the
I have attended a meeting of the parent’s interest
group, held at the
3.
Local Government Association (LGA)
I attended the LGA general assembly on the 14th
December. There were a number of key speakers who covered a variety of issues,
including the Local Government White Paper entitled ‘People and Places’, the
comprehensive spending review (in particular, the pressures on social services)
and also an introduction to ‘the Best review’.
I attended the LGA community wellbeing board meeting
on the 10th January. Rosie Winterton MP, Minister of State for
Health Services, addressed the board and detailed the forthcoming proposals
within the health bill, which will be published shortly. The minister also outlined the proposed
changes regarding local involvement networks (part 2 of the local government
and public involvement bill).
The commissioning framework for health and wellbeing
was discussed and it was noted that a consultation paper will be issued, by the
Department of Health, shortly.
A briefing was given on the recent publication ‘the
state of social care in England 2005/06’ issued by the Commission for Social
Care Inspection. Details can be accessed through the CSCI website.
There are a number of useful documents that have been
recently published by the LGA, including the Fair Care initiative. Details can be
accessed at www.lga.gov.uk
The Cabinet/Director’s monthly briefings are proving
most beneficial and the next event on 5 February will major on the new
Parenting Handbook initiative and a further update, by Sarah Mitchell, on Adult
Services’ direction of travel.