Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing is attached.

Councillor Tamoor Tariq, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, presented the report which proposed to end the Support at Home Service in order to reduce spending in the coming years (£500,000 as stated in the Budget Cabinet papers). Members noted that Support at Home was a non-statutory service for people over the age of 60 that provides wellbeing checks and advice and support with day-to-day tasks (known as the warden service), and should not be confused with Care at Home that supports people with personal care.

Members discussed the needs and confusion of residents using the service, and Councillor Tariq offered assurances that everything possible would be done to ensure the changes were as smooth as possible, with individual concerns picked up and residents signposted to solutions.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Agreed to continue with the proposal to cease to provide the Support at Home service once the consultation with the current Support at Home workforce is completed;

2.    Agreed the commencement of consultation with affected staff on the proposed closure of the Support at Home service, as set out within the body of the report and subject to the agreement of the recognised Trades Unions through the Local Government Services Consultation meeting; and

3.    Delegated authority to the Executive Director of Health and Adult Care and the Cabinet Members for Health and Wellbeing and HR (Human Resources) and Corporate Affairs, in consultation with the Director of People and Inclusion, Monitoring Officer and S151 Officer to consider responses received from the consultation and produce a final version of the structure.

Reasons for the decision:

·         Ending the Support at Home service will remove long-standing issues around duplication of service provision with Six Town Housing. Housing responsibilities will be the responsibility of Six Town Housing, and people with care needs will be referred to Adult Care Services.

·         All customers will be screened by the current Support at Home service prior to it ending, and referrals/signposting will take place as appropriate for individual needs.

·         Although most of the consultation feedback highlighted concerns about the proposal to end the Support at Home service, an inequitable demand for support has been created over many years which runs the risk of creating dependency, rather than maintaining independence and we must now support people in the shift towards streamlined services that promote self-help and resilience.

·         We will work with partners and relevant services to ensure that information and advice on alternative provision is communicated in an inclusive manner.

Other options considered and rejected:

Alternative options have been considered but found to be unfeasible at this time, for example, we are unable to increase customer charges to keep the service, because the wellbeing element of the service is not housing benefit eligible and largely subsidised by the Council.