Agenda for Adult Social Care & Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Thursday, 8th March, 2012, 4.00pm
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Agenda and minutes
PDF 196 KBVenue: Committee Room 1, Brighton Town Hall. View directions
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Procedural Business (a) Declaration of Substitutes – Where Councillors are unable to attend a meeting, a substitute Member from the same Political Group may attend, speak and vote in their place for that meeting.
(b) Declarations of Interest by all Members present of any personal interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Members regard the interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.
(c) Exclusion of Press and Public - To consider whether, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, or the nature of the proceedings, the press and public should be excluded from the meeting when any of the following items are under consideration.
NOTE: Any item appearing in Part 2 of the Agenda states in its heading the category under which the information disclosed in the report is exempt from disclosure and therefore not available to the public.
A list and description of the exempt categories is available for public inspection at Brighton and Hove Town Halls. Minutes: 47A Declaration of Substitutes
47.1 Cllr Follett attended as substitute member for Cllr Philips Cllr Morgan attended as substitute member for Cllr Turton Cllr Robins attended as substitute member for Cllr Gilbey
47B Declarations of Interest
47.2 There were none.
47C Declarations of Party Whip
47.3 There were none.
47D Exclusion of Press and Public
47.4 In accordance with section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, it was considered whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of any items contained in the agenda, having regard to the nature of the business to be transacted and the nature of the proceedings and the likelihood as to whether, if members of the press and public were present, there would be disclosure to them of confidential or exempt information as defined in section 100I (1) of the said Act.
47.5 RESOLVED – that the press and public be not excluded from the meeting.
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Minutes of the previous meeting (copy attached) Minutes: 48.1 RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2012 be approved and signed by the Chairman. |
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Chairman's Communications Minutes: 49.1 The Chair welcomed Cllr Buckley as deputy Chair. |
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Public Questions No public questions have been received.
Minutes: 50.1 There were none. |
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Letters from Councillors No letters have been received.
Minutes: 51.2 There were none. |
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Notices of Motions referred from Council No Notices of Motion have been received.
Minutes: 52.1 There were none. |
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Telecare: Training Session Training session on telecare. To be presented by Diana Bernhardt, Lead Commissioner, Learning Disabilities Minutes: 53.1 This item was introduced by Diana Bernhardt, Lead Commissioner, Learning Disability; Anne Hagan and Paula Martin, ASC General Managers.
53.2 In response to a question regarding the danger of telecare technologies replacing ASC staff, members were told that demographic changes would place increasing pressure on social care services in the next few years; it was essential that technology was used to free carers from routine tasks, allowing them to concentrate on work where their skills were most needed.
53.3 In answer to concerns that the use of telecare to replace direct human contact could increase loneliness/isolation, members were told that this was a risk, and that telecare solutions were therefore not universally applicable: some clients would derive greater benefit from personal contact. However, it was stressed that people experiencing isolation might typically be better supported via social activities rather than simply time-limited personal contact with a carer. In addition, many people found a carer’s presence intrusive and would prefer to be supported via telecare.
53.4 In response to questions regarding telecare equipment, the committee was told that the equipment was regularly checked and tested. Care was taken to ensure that clients understood and were confident using their aids. If necessary the council would consider paying for the installation of a landline to support telecare in a client’s home.
53.5 The Chair thanked the presenters for their contribution. |
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Report of the Strategic Director, Place, on changes to the housing allocations policy for care leavers (copy attached) Additional documents: Minutes: 54.1 This item was introduced by Terry Parkin, Strategic Director, People. Sylvia Peckham, Head of Temporary Accommodation and Assessment, Housing Strategy, was also present to answer members’ questions.
54.2 Mr Parkin told committee members that the current allocations policy for care leavers had been legally challenged. Legal advice is that the allocations policy meets the requirements of housing law, but may not meet the corporate parenting requirements set out in the 1989 Children’s Act. The council is therefore potentially vulnerable to judicial review, and indeed one application for judicial review is pending.
54.3 After consulting widely with interested parties, it was clear that most looked after children wanted to be placed in social housing when leaving care – i.e. being given Band A status on the housing waiting list. Given that the numbers involved are relatively small (10-20 young people per year), and given that that the council has an excellent record of effectively supporting care leavers to manage their tenancies (with an 85% success rate), the best option was to revert to granting care leavers Band A status. This would only apply to those young people assessed as being capable of living independently with an appropriate care package. Other young people would be offered supported housing solutions. An officer-led allocations committee chaired by the Strategic Director, People, would be established to manage the allocations process.
54.4 Although not a committee member, Cllr Mary Mears asked to be permitted to address the committee, and the Chair agreed. Cllr Mears made a number of points about the planned change in policy and how it was being introduced, telling members that:
54.5 In response to Cllr Mears’ points, Mr Parkin told members that he did not want tenants to be anxious, but that anxiety might be caused by misinformation, with some tenants believing that the number of care leavers seeking social housing was much larger than it really was. Neither was it the case that there was a policy for housing a majority of care leavers in any one part of the city – care leavers could use the Choice Based lettings system to choose their own accommodation, although many preferred to return to the communities where they had roots and family ties. (This was a difficult issue to talk about in public due to data confidentiality, but Mr Parkin was happy to talk privately with members.) It was true that CYPT had access to a number of housing places, but these were required for young people with a range of needs, not just for care leavers.
54.6 In answer to a question on elected member involvement on the proposed allocations committee, Mr Parkin told members that legal advice was that elected members should not be directly involved in making allocations decisions. However, the work of the allocations committee would be scrutinised by the member-led corporate parenting committee.
54.7 In response to a query as to which body would have oversight of children’s issues when the CYPT Board was abolished, Mr Parkin told the committee that there were no immediate plans to abolish the CYPT Board, although the Board would be placed in abeyance. Current board responsibilities would be taken on post-May 2012 by the new Children’s Committee.
54.8 Ms Peckham told members that there had been two consultations around the planned changes to allocations policy: one with the general public, and one with council tenants. The public consultation had closed on January 29, but the tenant consultation had been extended until February 19 so as to allow the first 2012 round of Area Panels to be included in the consultation. However, given the need to fit in with the Council’s decision-making timetable, this required that the report presented to HMCC at its 06 February meeting was necessarily a work in progress. The completed report will be presented to HMCC at its 19 March meeting.
54.9 In response to a question on actions taken by other local authorities, Mr Parkin told members that it was not necessarily easy to find comparable authorities. However, most similar authorities do either grant Band A status to their care leavers or offer very comprehensive support to other housing solutions.
54.10 It was noted that the security of tenure that came with assured council tenancies was a very important factor for care leavers, who typically lacked the resort of staying with their family should a private sector tenancy fail.
54.11 Members also noted that there were a number of inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the report, notably in terms of a reference to an Appendix 8 (which was not included in the report) and an unintelligible graph in Appendix 2.
54.12 Cllr Peltzer Dunn proposed an amendment to the report recommendation, namely that the committee should:
“request that Cabinet delays making a decision on the housing allocations policy report until the report has been presented to the 19March 2012 meeting of the Housing Management Consultative Committee”
Councillor Wealls seconded this amendment and it was put to the vote, with members agreeing 6-2 to accept the amendment.
54.13 RESOLVED –
(1) that the report be noted;
(2) that the Adult Social Care and Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee request that Cabinet delays making a decision on the housing allocations policy report until the report has been presented to the 19 March 2012 meeting of the Housing Management Consultative Committee.
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Community Meals, Report Back Report of the Strategic Director, Resources, on the recent Scrutiny workshop on Community Meals and subsequent developments (copy attached) Additional documents: Minutes: 55.1 This item was introduced by Philip Letchfield, Head of Commissioning, ASC.
55.2 RESOLVED – that the report be noted. |
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Items to go forward to Cabinet or the relevant Cabinet Member Meeting To consider items to be submitted to the next available Cabinet or Cabinet Member Meeting. Minutes: 56.1 Members agreed to forward an extract from the draft meeting minutes to Cabinet in relation to Item 54: Housing Allocations Policy. |
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Items to go forward to Council To consider items to be submitted to the next Council meeting for information. Minutes: 57.1 There were none. |