Agenda item

7.1

The Committee received a report of the Home Care Scrutiny Task Group, which had been established to look at how the Council would improve the quality of home care services.

7.2

The report set out details in terms of the work of the Task Group, together with details of its findings and recommendations. 

7.3

Councillor Sue Alston, a Member of the Task Group, reported that the Group had met seven times, with providers, commissioners and staff in order to assess the overall picture in terms of the quality of home care services, and referred specifically to problems the Group identified in terms of the recruitment/training of staff. Helen Rowe, Task Group Member, added that the Group had not been able to look at two areas – people who need direct payments and feedback from users. 

7.4

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·                The collation of feedback from users was a requirement of registration with the Clinical Quality Commission (CQC). The sites  do it differently, therefore it was difficult to quantify.

·                The information in terms of why Adult Social Care performance indicators show that user satisfaction with social services in Sheffield compared poorly with other Core Cities and Yorkshire and Humber Authorities was not available as there was such a wide range of services provided by the different authorities, together with too many possible variables.  The main purpose was to try and improve the provision of services for all users.

7.5

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       notes and approves the report of the Home Care Scrutiny Task Group now submitted;

(b)       agrees that the report be presented to the Cabinet, requesting that the Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Independent Living responds to the Committee within three months, including a timetable for implementing the recommendations within the re-commissioning process; and

(c)        expresses its thanks to those members of the Task Group for the work undertaken in this regard.