Issue - meetings

[NOTE: Cllr. M. James, having earlier declared an interest in this item, remained in the meeting for its consideration.]

The Committee considered the Annual Report of the Statutory Director of Social Care Services 2021/22 which detailed the performance of social care services in the county. The report also set out the challenges of an unprecedented year due to Covid 19 and highlighted those areas to be developed in the current year.

There was a statutory requirement for the Director of Social Services to report annually to their Council on the delivery and performance as well as plans for the improvement of the whole range of Social Services.

It was noted that the report was still in draft and will be further revised and

reformatted prior to completion.

Amongst the questions/observations raised on the report were the following:-

·       The Head of Service: Children & Families agreed to ascertain the current position with regard to the Housing Support Grant;

·       In response to a question the Director of Community Services states that the figure of 57% who had answered ‘Yes’ to the question as to whether they could do the things that were important to them was broadly consistent with previous years;

·       the Director of Social Services, in response to a query, stated that the  new Domiciliary Care Framework would hopefully address the challenges of providing domiciliary care in rural areas which had been exacerbated by workforce shortages;

·       In response to a query as to whether the pay rate of £13 per hour for in-house domiciliary care workers was fair in terms of their responsibilities the Director of Community Services commented that whilst pay rates and conditions of service had improved significantly over the last few years, particularly in Carmarthenshire, there was room for progress

·       The Head of Integrated Services stated the provision of overnight continence care for people who were bed bound at home was challenging and had to be looked at on an individual basis utilising the expertise of the continence nurse;

·       In response to a reference made to the need to increase the number of care staff able to converse in Welsh the Head of Adult Social Care stated that there was a Welsh Language Board in Social Care and Housing which she chaired. Recently there had been a workshop session to refresh its strategy and an action plan was currently being formulated. She agreed to provide details of the percentage of staff able to speak welsh and emphasised that service uses were always asked their language preference. There was also provision for hearing impaired service users.

RESOLVED

4.1 TO RECOMMEND TO THE CABINET that the report be received;

4.2 that a letter be sent to Welsh Government by the Committee Chair reiterating the importance of strengthening the structures in place with regard to Electively Home Educated children.