Agenda item

3.1

Question 1 – Received from Mr. Howard Gordon

The strict criteria for the Disabled Persons Council Tax reduction and Bus Pass discriminates against some people living with dementia and other disabilities.

The only qualification for a School/Under 24/Older persons Bus Pass is age, yet people with disabilities face significant barriers to attain equality of services and attain their rights regardless of diagnosis under International Law including via articles 9,19,20,25,26 & 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabilities, through the strict criteria imposed on them.

Will the Health and Wellbeing board act to ensure that Sheffield City Council uphold the rights and protected characteristics of people with Disabilities under International Law and remove the strict criteria for the Disabled Persons Council Tax Reduction and Bus Pass, replacing the criteria with a persons diagnosis, thereby redressing the inequality that some with a disability face in this and other matters.

3.1

The Chair responded with an offer to discuss the issue in person.  Bus pass need was assessed by the Council on behalf of South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive.  A full written answer would be provided.

3.3

Question 2 – Received from Natasha Wilson

I would like to pose the question as to how the city is facilitating essential family visits to people with dementia in care homes? Even with the rise in infection rates & covid positive homes, it is of paramount importance that people in their last months/summer/winter of their lives are allowed to have some degree of quality to it, which involves having loves ones surrounding them.

John's Campaign lead on his & have launched a judicial review in to this: https://johnscampaign.org.uk/#/

It would be useful for Sheffield care and nursing homes to have a minimum consistent standard approach.  As this is here to stay for the foreseeable, I think we need to explore:

need to explore:

• Ways of updating family & friends; e.g all homes to readdress their media consent procedures for residents and have Facebook Groups & WhatsApp Groups for individual homes or even better specific floors. Newsletters for people who aren't online. Frequential texts so that relatives aren't having to do the contacting or just be contacted in an emergency. Updates about wellbeing & occupation aside from just "falls", "nutrition" etc.
• Could a new role be created for a member of existing staff or a volunteer to lead in facilitating this. I seemingly remember an update being sent in May/June time from SCC asking for social care staff to volunteer themselves for just that, so to free care staff for care tasks and have a volunteer helping with video calls etc. The offers were never took up as far as I'm aware.

It seems a relatively small ask considering how long this will go on for. Some homes do this, but others don't. I feel consistency & minimum expectations are needed in our new approach.

3.4

Greg Fell responded that a full written response would be provided, as this was a big issue.  Most care homes were facilitating essential visits within  Government guidelines and trying to balance the benefits with the risks.

3.5

The Chair explained that a Task and Finish Group was looking at the challenges involved.