(KEY DECISION)

Report No. 40/2018 from the Director for People was received.

Mr A Walters, Portfolio Holder for Safeguarding Adults, Public Health, Health Commissioning, Community Safety and Road Safety, introduced the report, the purpose of which was to set out the rationale for Rutland’s Adult Social care to delegate the function of the “social care” duty of Mental Health service provision to Leicestershire County Council as permitted under the Care Act 2014 and how this would mitigate risk and promote a better outcome for service users.

During discussion the following points were raised:

1. Mr M Andrews, Deputy Director for People, clarified that the delegation of adult mental health provision would increase resilience, provide value for money and ensure the service continues to be sustainable;
2. The costs associated with the approved mental health practitioner (AMHP) were high, but to run this service in Rutland would cost significantly more.  This was a statutory service and consisted of specialist professional support for service users with complex and demanding mental health needs;
3. Provision of the AMHP service by another authority had been look at, but was not considered viable at that time.  Costs for commissioning this service would continue to be monitored and reviewed;
4. This service related to “in hours” provision, “out of hours” provision would continue to be provided as part of emergency duty arrangements with Leicester City;
5. Success of the service was measured in relation to timely assessments and positive outcomes for service users;
6. Commissioned services were subject to regular audit processes to ensure provision of services were maintained at a high standard.

DECISION

1)    Cabinet APPROVED the delegation of Adult Mental Health Social Care function to Leicestershire County Council.

2)    Cabinet APPROVED the continuation of the current in hours Approved Mental Health Practitioner (AMHP) service currently provided by Leicestershire County Council.

Reason for the decision

To approve continued support for the ongoing provision of the in hours AMPH service and the addition of the delegation of function of the Care Act provision to the existing partnership for 3 years with an option to extend the contract for an additional 2 years by agreement of the portfolio holder.