Agenda and draft minutes

Members are asked to declare any interest and the nature of that interest which they may have in any of the items under consideration at this meeting.

The Chair declared that she was apointed by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) as a director of South Northants Volunteer Bureau.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 14 September 2023.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 14 September 2023 were agreed as an accurate record.

To receive communications from the Chair.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and wished them a happy new year. The Chair advised that the Director of Public Health and Councillor Roberts had asked to join the meeting remotely due to family commitments.

The Committee to consider the perspective of the Cabinet Member for Adult Care, Wellbeing and Health Integration on West Northamptonshire Council’s current performance against KPIs, challenges faced and responses.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Care, Wellbeing and Health Integration introduced the agenda item and commented that a scorecard on adult social care performance was reported to Cabinet quarterly. There was recent activity in the directorate to review and enhance the key performance indicators (KPIs) in line with Care Quality Commission (CQC) guidance ahead of inspections. As part of his role as Cabinet Member he monitored the performance of adult social care and sought assurance from the Executive Director People Services where necessary. The high number of safeguarding referrals had been an area of significant attention that should start to have an impact. 

The Cabinet Member highlighted the WNC Self-Assessment report and explained that it was a working document, produced by the Assistant Director Commissioning and Performance, and demonstrated the journey of the Council and helped it prepare for future CQC inspections. The report set out the challenges and strengths of the Council and explained the history and direction of services. WNC was experiencing many similar issues to other authorities. Its Self-Assessment had been identified as an exemplar within the region.

The Executive Director People Services went on to present the report and explained the corporate dashboard was the basis for performance reporting. There were changes made last year to refresh the dashboard in line with the upcoming CQC inspections and to give a more meaningful depiction of areas for improvement and areas to celebrate. The KPIs included were all nationally reported indicators and when CQC inspected it would want to see that WNC had a good understanding of its situation. The dashboard also reflected a drive to reduce the number of residents going into care homes and a commitment to keeping people independent for longer.

The Executive Director People Services highlighted the following points relating to the KPI report:

·         In terms of care assessments, the main statutory assessment that WNC was responsible for, members should expect to see an increase due to the level of demand for the service.

·         One of the current challenges for WNC was carers assessments as previously this function was commissioned and although a good service was delivered, the separate service caused issues for WNC in relation to understanding users’ needs and data collection.

·         One of the main changes was a move towards client level data (CLD) across all adult social care data sets. This would mean that there would be 28 data fields relating to an individual’s personal circumstances and would document their journey and show what support has been provided to them which would be shared with the NHS. WNC had begun collecting CLD for 6 months ago and would be able to review the impact of this in the short-term future.

·         Reviews of support packages and placements were on an improvement trajectory as shown in the report.

·         The KPI relating to reablement was one of the most significant indicators being monitored on how well the service was doing at keeping people at home following a discharge from hospital.

·         The corporate indicators would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The Committee to consider an overview of the use of the Public Health Grant in West Northamptonshire.

The Chair commented that the agenda item was intended to consider how Public Health funding was used in West Northamptonshire and whether there were further opportunities to maximise the benefit obtained from these resources. 

The Cabinet Member for Adult Care, Wellbeing and Health Integration commented that the current position was significantly informed by the legacy from NCC, which had created a Public Health reserve to pay back resources that had not been used correctly. As Cabinet Member he had sought to make the Public Health function more outward looking than in the past. The annual budget was £9.7m, with a majority of this used on specific contracts. WNC was currently working on disaggregation and procurement of future services for functions such as Healthwatch and 0-19 services. There was a focus on how WNC delivers better use of contracts for residents.

The Director of Public Health presented the report and gave a further overview of key areas of work supported by Public Health funding, highlighting the following points:

·         The Public Health grant increased by a small amount each year. The Director considered that the funding received by WNC was fairly low relative to the size of the authority.

·         The Cabinet in January 2023 had agreed the Public Health Framework setting out the approach and key priorities for use of the Public Health grant to 2024.

·         75% of Public Health grant funding was used through contracts.

·         The disaggregation of previous countywide contracts for functions such as sexual health services and 0-19 services would increase the opportunity to shape future services to meet the needs of West Northamptonshire.

·         The Public Health reserve established had been used to support significant projects that had produced a benefit for West Northamptonshire: for example, £2m had been used to support projects under the Anti-Poverty Strategy.

·         It was likely to take several years to align the Public Health budget exactly as wanted, given the percentage of it that was used on existing contracts.

The Committee considered the report, asked questions and had discussion as follows:

·         Members discussed the need for a joined-up working approach, promoting the use of the LAPs, for example with drugs misuse there could be small scale projects taking place at a local level that could feed into the overall approach. The Director of Public Health responded that a lot of substance misuse work was tied up in contracts, but this could be passed onto the LAP project managers in the future for consideration.

·         Members emphasised the need for school nurse and mental health advice and asked if this was incorporated in current provision. The Committee was advised that there was an opportunity for WNC to join up services more in the new 0-19 contract. There were funds allocated for mental health and a process about to start on how these funds could be used to better meet the voluntary and community sector needs joining forces with the LAPs. Members asked supplementary questions relating to provision of school nurses and the number of contracts with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

The Committee to consider an overview of Council Tax and West Northamptonshire Council’s approaches to collection and recovery, in the context of the Anti-Poverty Strategy.

The Chair commented that the agenda item was intended to enable the Committee to consider WNC’s approaches to Council Tax collection and recovery in the context of the Anti-Poverty Strategy and the impact of debt on individual wellbeing.

The Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits and Interim Revenues and Benefits Manager presented the report and highlighted the following points:

·         WNC’s approach to Council Tax collection needed to reflect that Council Tax paid for vital local services.

·         WNC aimed for a 98% collection rate. It had achieved just under 97% last year, which was a significant improvement on the previous year and was above the national average. 

·         There was a hierarchy of liability for Council Tax and WNC applied discounts or exemptions where individuals met criteria to qualify for this.

·         WNC sought to avoid using court processes to recover Council Tax as far as possible due to the extra cost to the customer this involved.

·         WNC had a vulnerable person’s policy that it followed when considering how to approach recovery action or whether an individual may require some support in paying Council Tax. Options for assistance included Council Tax reduction and Council Tax hardship payments. Hardship payments were discretionary. WNC had a £500K budget provision for this purpose at vesting day, which had since reduced and could benefit from being topped up again. Sources of advice included the WNC debt and money advice service and the voluntary sector.

The Committee considered the report, asked questions and had discussion as follows:

·         Members raised concern that in a scenario where a resident chose to pay Council Tax on the first day of the month this could result in a quicker court summons for non-payment compared to a payment date at the end of the month.

·         Members asked how long the Council Tax reduction scheme process took to come into effect. The Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits advised that the aim was to process as quickly as possible but there were some incomplete applications which caused delays. There was also a month allocated for individuals to complete the application.

·         Members praised the revenues and benefits service and the Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits for her hard work and excellent response time to queries from councillors.

·         Members discussed support for those in debt and asked if there was a dedicated phone line for debt advice for residents who needed help. The Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits urged that residents in need should contact WNC as soon as they could. The debt and money advice service would be key in future as it would have a direct line and would link up with the Council Tax tea. It would be a confidential free service for residents. 

·         Members suggested that they could assist in reviewing the language used in letters relating to Council Tax sent out to residents to ensure that these informed people about sources of support.

·         Members emphasised the benefit of Council Tax hardship payments and the potential for demand to increase in future. It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

a)    To review and note the Committee Work Programme for 2023/24.

b)    To respond to a scrutiny review proposal concerning a matter within the remit of the Committee.

The Chair invited the Committee to review the current work programme and consider any modifications, including any points arising from the current meeting. The Chair noted that the Support for Unpaid Carers Task and Finish Panel was due to have its first meeting on 23 January 2024.

The Chair subsequently invited the Committee to consider its response to a proposal for scrutiny work on the relationship between the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) and WNC, in light of joint management arrangements between UHN and University Hospitals of Leicester. The Chair proposed that the UHN Chief Executive could be invited to attend the next meeting of the Committee to deal with this matter.

A member raised the need for further scrutiny of other matters for which WNC was responsible that could contribute to individual debt, such as highway fines. The Democratic Services Assistant Manager advised that the Committee should have regard to its remit. The Chair offered to raise this matter with the Triangulation Group. 

RESOLVED: That the Committee reviewed its work programme for 2023/24 and agreed that:

·         The proposal received relating to the relationship between the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire Council be added to the work programme as a topic for the Committee meeting on 17 April 2024.

·         The Chair would highlight individual debt as a potential topic for scrutiny for consideration at the next Overview and Scrutiny Triangulation Group meeting. 

The Chair to advise whether they have agreed to any items of urgent business being admitted to the agenda.

There were no items of urgent business.