Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Members are asked to declare any interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2023 were confirmed as correct.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Integration presented a report on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assurance and Improvement Update.

The CQC assessed local authority performance in the delivery of adult social care responsibilities. A self-assessment and an improvement plan was developed to prepare for the assessment, with the self-assessment setting out what the council was doing well and improvements that needed to be made.  The Improvement Plan set out the outcomes that the council would aim to achieve in the future for adult social care. Both the self-assessment and an improvement plan were structured around four themes that the CQC would review:

- Working with people;

- Providing support;

- Ensuring safety; and

- Leadership.

In response to questions from the Committee, the CQC Programme Lead, and the Operational Director advised that:

- It was unknown exactly how many residents within the borough needed social care, however there were reports and surveys undertaken that could give an estimate;

- There was a predicted overspend of £400,000 in adult social care for the third quarter. The cost for providing social care to residents would vary from case to case with and would increase for residents with either complex needs or younger people with long-term disabilities. Inflation also had an impact on the cost of social care as care providers had increased their costs; however, the CQC Programme Lead, and the Operational Director assured the committee that the in-year budget pressures were being mitigated to ensure budgets aligned with those allocated and there were no further cost pressures;

- The borough currently had around 4,000 carers. It was estimated from that there were an additional 10,000 hidden carers within the borough, which would usually consist of family members providing care. Training had been provided to healthcare professionals and frontline staff to assist in identifying hidden carers. In 2023/23 there were 579 new carers identified;

- The information on health inequalities was taken from the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment prepared by Public Health which in turn was taken from the Public Health England report on inequalities. The reports included reviews of mental health issues for both Black Caribbean and Black African ethnic backgrounds and had established trends;

- There were information and data sharing protocols in place that would be an obstacle in data sharing from the new electronic systems between the Local Trust and GP practices, however it would still be possible. The health service was exploring the possibility of utilising Pharmacies in terms of passing data on through the system.

- The methodology of the self-assessment of Adult Social care survey was set by the Department of Health and Social Care. It was sent to a representative sample of residents that received health and social care.

- With regards to residents’ satisfaction with their care and support. 60-70% of users were extremely satisfied, 23% were quite satisfied, 9% were neither satisfied or dissatisfied, 2% were quite dissatisfied and, 2% were extremely dissatisfied.

- Regarding monitoring of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

The Director of Public Realm introduced a report on the Waste Strategy.

LBBD as the Waste Collection Authority (WCA) had a statutory responsibility to collect waste from the Borough. It worked in conjunction with East London Waste Authority (ELWA) who was the statutory Waste Disposal Authority (WDA).

The Director of Public Realm advised that in January 2022, Cabinet approved the Joint Strategy for East London's Resources and Waste for the period of 2027 to 2057 for the future of waste management. This joint strategy was developed by ELWA and the Constituent Councils, collectively the Partner Authorities (Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge Councils).

The report before the Committee provided an update on the progress and plans of how LBBD, ELWA and other Constituent Councils aim to achieve the objectives of the Joint Strategy.

In response to questions from the committee, the Director of Public Realm stated that:

- The purpose of the Communication and Engagement Plan was to establish what methodologies would be most successful in getting messages across to all residents. It was decided not to publicise the Communication and Engagement Plan as it focused on building foundations with residents:

- Residents with larger families that had requested larger bins would receive a visit from the Waste Minimisation Team who may approve the larger bin. Discussions would be had on ways the family could reduce their waste. If there was general need for additional bins within an area, these would be provided;

- Enforcement around fly-tipping cases was not straightforward. Evidence was required to identify the individuals. Public Realm was working on a collaborative approach with enforcement colleagues to address high profile hotspots for fly tipping within the borough;

- Best practice for disposing of garden waste was via Open Windrow Compost – allowing the material to break down in the presence of oxygen. However, the compost would need to reach a certain POS standard before being used and this was not financially viable for the council;

- There was a fee of £43 per year per bin for garden waste collection. There was an average of 7000 subscriptions within the borough with the garden waste collection services forecasted to generate around £300,000. This covered the full cost of the service provided;

- The delay around certain legislation and consultations had meant there was uncertainty with the funding that the Council relied on to make it the plan effective. It was hoped that capital funding would be available for the council to purchase food waste collection vehicles;

- The council was restricted by budget regarding street cleaning; however the Communication and Engagement Plan included a strategy to develop waste champions within the borough’s wards. 

- All of the Public Realm fleet was ULEZ compliant and there were four electric road sweepers operating within the borough.

- In response to a question on educating residents on their waste management, the committee was advised that In June, the Council website introduced an A-Z for what residents could do with different  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

The Chair advised that the Medium-Term Financial Plan had been moved from October 2023 to December 2023 and suggested to include an item on the Ofsted report on children social care for the November meeting.

The committee approved the amendments to the work programme.