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 9 June were noted.

The Council’s Strategic Director for Community Solutions (SD) and Commissioning Director for Care and Support (CD) introduced a report on the Targeted Early Help Review, which provided an evaluation of the Council’s Early Help service and the journey to date. The report highlighted a number of improvements required, as detailed through an Independent Review commissioned in January 2021, and outlined corrective action both already undertaken and scheduled to take place over the next 12-18 months.

In response to questions from Members, the SD and CD stated that:

• The original 2015/16 Business Case outlined that Early Help would sit at the top end of Community Solutions’ remit, in relation to challenging complexity of need. Local Authorities often faced a challenge in determining whether to place these ‘top end’, yet universal cases underneath, or within statutory services, and this placement differed between councils.
• 2015/16 council plans, although borne out of sensible drivers and motivations, required services to reduce their costs. Early Help demand also began to increase at this time, and action to mitigate these pressures should have been enacted sooner. 
• Community Solutions was originally designed to work more generally with residents, earlier in the system. Nevertheless, following the OFSTED visit in February 2019 and the changing need in the Borough, it had been recognised that there needed to be a greater focus on the cusp of care. As the original design was not predicated on this, the Council had been working to move the service forward in this way through its Improvement Programme, which was agreed at its Early Help Summit in September 2019.
• A major aim of the Improvement Programme was to bring the disparate elements that were sat in different places across Community Solutions, together into one comprehensive targeted early help offer. Within that, the Council brought in additional support to work towards the training and skilling of its staff. It was recognised that the skill and pay for these staff became less reflective of their new remit, and that the new Targeted Operating Model (TOM) should have been reached sooner; however, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic redirected priorities. The Council was now working with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) to develop the new TOM. 

The Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration (CM) stated that when Early Help was transferred over into Community Solutions, the Early Help service had already had 125 staff delivering this service. They therefore understood the job and had received training, albeit the Community Solutions remit was slightly different in that it covered universal casework. The SD stated that the 125 staff members referenced was also the base number of Early Help staff that started upon the establishment of Community Solutions. A number of these 125 staff had retired, taken redundancy or progressed into different roles, which along with savings made, made it difficult to account for these 125 staff members at present. It was acknowledged that some skills had been lost, and that the ask for staff now was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Council’s Strategic Director for My Place (MP), Assistant Construction Director (ACD) for Be First and Head of Major Works (MW) at BDTP presented a general progress update regarding working with residents affected by capital works, based on feedback previously received from the Committee at its 2 December 2020 meeting (minute 30 refers). Report authors had acknowledged this feedback and reviewed how the Council’s stock investment programme was delivered and how customer satisfaction data was collected and assessed, to ensure that a proper improvement programme was in place.

The Council’s One Borough Voice system was to be employed to ensure that customer satisfaction data was collected and assessed via the Council, and not through contracted companies. The teams were also working with residents and contractors to understand any concerns that they may have had around Covid-19 and putting in means to alleviate these, such as through using the same operatives to deliver all works in any particular property. When sub-contractors were appointed, their experience of working during the Covid-19 pandemic was now also essential, to ensure that they understood all precautions needed.

Updates were also provided on the work and projects undertaken, and it was noted that whilst good progress had been made in relation to work undertaken by the teams, Covid-19 had impacted on the ability to deliver all works envisioned.

In response to questions from Members, the MP stated that:

• My Place needed to take more ownership and responsibility for managing customer satisfaction, as this was a major priority for the service. The new digital customer satisfaction surveys would be better way of achieving this, instead of relying on the contractor to collect this data. Through the new digital surveys, residents who had work completed on their properties would likely feel more able to provide honest feedback, rather than under pressure to provide good feedback to the contractors who undertook the work.
• My Place would aim to receive an 85 percent satisfaction rate for works completed, which was a good rate to receive when looking across the board at other local authorities and areas. Once an 85 percent satisfaction rate was achieved, the service would aim to get higher percentage scores.
• The Council had a very large spending power and this came with a lot of scrutiny to ensure that procurement was undertaken properly. With every contract procured, My Place had to undertake extensive checks on aspects such as an organisation’s insurance, liability and working practices, and could not just employ any company to undertake their works.
• Where costs were high, My Place scrutinised these. The MP also regularly spoke to the Council’s Head of Property Management to discuss how the Council could achieve greater value for money from these contracts, such as through social value through contracts that would generate apprenticeships and more jobs for local residents. The Council also looked for good quality work at industry-standard prices, employing extensive checks and scrutiny. Regardless of which organisation the Council used, there would always be an industry-standard  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Chair asked that the Committee provide any feedback in relation to the Draft Work Programme 2021/22 via email, for further consideration.