To receive Report No. 182/2016 from the Director for People.

Before the Portfolio Holder, Mr Clifton, introduced the report Mr Conde advised the Panel that although members were advised that service users would be present it had not, in fact, been practicable to include them due to the timing of the meeting and their care needs.   Officers were working to see if it would be possible for members to visit service users in their own environment.

Report No. 182/2016 was received from the Director for People.  Mr Clifton introduced Ms Newton who then gave a short presentation before members were invited to ask questions on the topic.  Members were introduced to Ms Bull who was one of the Council’s current care providers, a total of three providers were invited to attend but unfortunately two had to withdraw at the last minute.

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Mr Walters joined the meeting during discussion of this item.

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During discussion the following points were noted:

a)    Members commented that the comments from service users and providers contained in the presentation were all favourable and indicated that what was required was a “warts and all” representation of comments and not just the good ones.  Mr Clifton advised that the feedback received was generally positive and assured members that negative feedback was not being supressed.  Miss Waller advised that she had knowledge of a service user who had expressed dissatisfaction with the service received, in order to learn and improve the service provision both positive and negative feedback was vital.

b)    Recruitment and retention of staff for care provision was challenging and staff turnover was high, not just in the local area but nationwide.  This was due to many issues, travel time between cases, especially in more rural areas, could add several hours to a person’s working day and this time was not paid by many agencies thereby acting as a deterrent to potential new staff and for the retention of existing staff.  Ms Bull advised that there was a perception that  care working was an easy way to earn money when, in fact it requires a high standard of training and long hours, this in turn lead to staff turnover being high.

c)    Ms Newton explained to members that those entering caring would need to have GCSE qualifications, a minimum level 2 NVQ raising to level 5 with promotion / progression, incentives were generally offered when the next level was achieved.

d)    Members asked about the possibility of supporting a recruitment drive across the county, to include neighbouring counties where possible.  Ms Bull advised that this would be welcomed by her Care Agency, especially if there was a way to target specific areas such as local military bases, they had tried this in their own right but could not gain access to the bases or leaflet the properties on base.  Ms Newton noted that two of the councils providers had previously approached local post-16 colleges as part of a recruitment drive, they found that due to the hours worked, both evenings and weekends, students were reluctant to engage in this career path.  Mr Clifton advised that he would investigate approaching military bases to see if a recruitment event for this service area was feasible. 

e)    Mr Gale and Miss Waller raised the question of speaking to the persons employed in Domiciliary Care, they felt that an important part of the service may be being missed by looking at users and providers and not what the carers felt was necessary to be happy in their work.  Ms Newton replied that a provider forum had been arranged for October. Carers were invited to attend the scrutiny meeting but as in the case of service users, their work commitments meant that they were unable to.  Mr Conde asked if the council would be represented at the forum, Ms Newton confirmed that she would be attending to explain the re-commissioning of the service and to obtain dates for future meetings.  Mr Conde asked if the responses gained from this could be brought to the panel at the December meeting.  Ms Newton advised that she had designed a form to gain feedback from carers and, if approved by management her intent was to distribute this following the October forum.

AGREED:

1.    That the Panel NOTED the content of the Report.

2.    That Mr Clifton would explore the possibility of involving the military bases in a recruitment drive.