Agenda item

The Committee will receive an update on the progress of the recommendations as set out in the attached report which was agreed by this Committee on 2 March 2011.

The Committee received a report outlining the developments in Havering following the Dementia Strategy Topic Group report which was presented to the Committee on 12 April 2011.

The Committee were informed that the Lead Member for Individuals was taking the lead role in regard to people with dementia. The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment was being reviewed and was out for consultation. This would feed into the Health and Wellbeing Strategy which would form the work of the Shadow Health and Wellbeing Board.

A Dementia Implementation Group had been established which would look at the National Strategy in much the same way the topic group had.  This included partner organisations including Health and the Voluntary Sector. The Committee raised concerns that there was no Member involvement on the group. Officers informed the Committee however that the Lead Member had commissioned the work and chaired the Health and Wellbeing Board which also comprised other Members. 

The Committee had received a report of the audit of staff in care homes, at its meeting in November 2011.

The Committee were informed that the Health and Wellbeing Board had commissioned a range of activities for carers.  These included:

Peer Support – This service would provide support for people with dementia and their carers by matching volunteers and others with dementia and their carers to others on the basis of shared need and preference. This service was being delivered by the Alzheimer’s Society. 

Information and Advice Outreach Service – This service was also delivered by the Alzheimer’s Society and would improve the knowledge and awareness of dementia.  It would refer increased numbers of patients to the available dementia services and provide support by giving people early access to relevant information via a preventative approach. The outreach service would be targeted and flexible to local needs and would average up to four hours of direct community information provision per week. This also tied in with the Care Point resource which had recently launched.

Additional Support for Carers – This service would be provided by Crossroads Care which offered a specialist, carer needs-led and client-centred service. This service, in the main, was for people who had moderate to advanced stage dementia and provided a home-based respite support.  The service aimed to reduce residential care admissions and to improve health and wellbeing of the carer.

The original topic group report requested that the NELFT Borough Director developed an action plan from the recommendations made.  This was viewed by the Committee and the actions were explained.  Members asked about the number of vacant posts that there were and how many were being recruited. Officers agreed to clarify this with NELFT and to circulate this information to Committee Members.

Members also queried the ethnic profile of paid care staff. Officers confirmed that staff within Adult Social Care and NELFT reflected the ethnic profile of the local population.

The Committee discussed issues around the standard of English, both written and spoken, and highlighted potential difficulties in communication with clients.  A member outlined an example of communication problems and queried whether it was possible to enforce a standard of communication for staff given relevant equalities legislation. Officers indicated that communication was important and that a number of organisations had taken steps to improve the written and spoken standards of communication with their staff. Work was underway between Health and Social Care Commissioners to ensure basic service outcomes were in place to meet the needs of vulnerable adults in residential and nursing care.

The Committee asked about how the problem of abuse of people with dementia in their own home was dealt with, especially if other members of the family were involved in the incident.  Officers indicated that it was important to distinguish between incidents of abuse, and to take a proportionate response to such incidents (alerts)

The Committee queried the funding for the various initiatives outlined during the discussions. Officers explained that this was funded from the Government grant to support such initiatives in partnership with Health. The Health and Wellbeing Board would be reviewing progress on these projects, and in conjunction with Health and other partner agencies clarifying future funding arrangements i.e. considering whether these were projects which would be funded in the long term by the local authority and/or the Clinical Commissioning Groups.

The Committee queried the membership and accountability of the Health and Wellbeing Board and whether they could receive copies of relevant reports which went to the Board for consideration.  Officers indicated that this was an issue for the Committee to discuss with the Lead Member.

The Committee thanked the officers for their commitment and asked that an update on the progress of the work of the Dementia Strategy be brought to the Committee in 6 months time.