Agenda item

The Committee received for consideration a report on the work being undertaken under the auspices of the 2014 Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act on Service Integration, Pooled Funding and regional Governance Arrangements. It was noted that under the Act, all local authorities were required to establish and maintain pooled fund arrangements in relation to:

-        the exercise of their care home accommodation functions (by 6^th April 2018)

-        the exercise of their family support functions

-        Specified functions exercised jointly in response to Population Assessments, where such arrangements were considered appropriate.

In accordance with the above requirements it was noted that The West Wales Care Partnership, established under Part 9 of the Act, had prioritised the establishment of pooled fund arrangements for older people’s care homes by the statutory deadline with that approach being consistent elsewhere within Wales.

The Programme Manager advised that subsequent to the report’s preparation a number of developments had taken place on which the Committee needed to be apprised. Firstly, the care home pooled fund would initially operate ‘Virtually’ due to concerns raised on a number of issues incorporating cross subsidy, administration costs on transactions, audit implications and financial traceability of care packages provided across the three counties. Secondly, parallel arrangements were being progressed for the establishment a regional Integrated Family Care Support Team to prevent children going into care. Thirdly, as each of the authorities within the partnership had integrated equipment stores, consideration was being given to whether a regional approach on their provision could be advantageous.

The following questions/issues were raised on the report:

·        In response to a question on the establishment of a virtual pooled fund the Programme Manager confirmed that the Welsh Government had been informed of the identified issues. Whilst some regions had decided to operate regional pooled budgets by appointing a host region to which pooled funds would be paid and then returned to the contributing bodies, the West Wales Care Partnership considered that to be a ‘paper exercise’ and had instead decided to operate a virtual fund. The benefit of that approach would enable the partnership to evaluate and understand data produced during the first year of operation on the level and allocation of available funding and market forces, thereby informing the decision making process and obtaining the best value for council tax payers whilst also examining the value of what the Act allowed partnerships to do. It would also enable discussions to be undertaken with the Wales Audit Office on its concerns around pooled funding.

He also confirmed that should an over spend occur within the pooled budget, that would be borne by the individual overspending authority and not by the region.

·        Reference was made to the Welsh Government requirements for local authorities to have joint arrangements for the exercise of their care home accommodation functions and the pooling of budgets to achieve that aim in place by the 6^th April, 2018. Disappointment was expressed on both the lack of detail within the report particularly with regard to the arrangement for a virtual pooled fund, which differed from members’ interpretations of a pooled budget, and the reason provided for that arrangement. A view was expressed that the required data should be readily available to provide a shadow base budget.

·        It was noted that a formal decision paper setting out the detailed provisions for agreement by the partners would be submitted to the committee for consideration at its 5^th March meeting. It was suggested that due to the short time scale between the March meeting and the April deadline, it would be beneficial for the committee to meet prior to March to receive further explanation on the proposals having regard to the potential risk management issues identified within the report.

·        Comments were also expressed on how difficult, frustrating and time consuming partnership working could be, particularly when partners had to co-operate within legislative frameworks. Reference was made to the history of partnership working over the previous six years across the region and the impact that may have had for Carmarthenshire’s resources both financial and staffing having regard to the lead role it often took in those partnerships. It was suggested that a report be presented to a future meeting of the committee evidencing what benefits, particularly financial, Carmarthenshire had received as a direct result of regional and partnership working over recent years.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that: