Agenda item

Report attached for consideration.

The report presented to the Committee outlined the Council’s performance against 2 indicators.

Members of the Committee noted that for the first indicator, Percentage of service users receiving direct payment, the Council was performing within target tolerance. The percentage of service users receiving direct payment was 36% compared to the target of 36.5%. The Committee noted that this percentage was higher than the previous quarter on the same quarter the year before. Committee members then considered the second indicator, Number of permanent admission to residential care, and noted that the Council was performing well. Members were advised that the number of admissions of users aged 18-64 had gone down but aged 65+ had gone up, however the Council was still working below the target.

Councillors asked whether there was any comparison of Havering’s performance against other Boroughs or Local Authorities to which they were advised that with regards to the direct payments indicator, havering was performing well compared to other Local Authorities but it is harder to compare the other indicator. A Councillor stated that the red arrows showing the decrease in numbers being permanently admitted to residential care is misleading as the lower the number the better. It was suggested that these are changed to green in future.

The Committee was then presented with the outcomes of the survey completed by users of independent homecare providers funded by Havering. This survey had collected 104 responses across all providers but the Council aims to collect at least 120 responses each year. Responses were usually collected over the phone, unless a home visit was required, with the users having been wrote to beforehand to alleviate the worry of cold calls for users. Members noted there was no time limit for the users to answer the questions and officers would spend time talking to the users as they may be isolated. The Council target users that they had not surveyed before, but members were of the opinion that users who were survey a couple of years prior should be re-surveyed to ensure the quality of service doesn’t drop for existing users.

The following areas were considered by the Committee:

·         The percentage of users rating the services overall as good or very good had increased by 4.1% (89.4% for the current year compared to 85.3% the previous year).

·         4.8% of users answered that their carer sometimes does not greet them or ask them how they are. Members were concerned by this percentage as some users are lonely and isolated. Members questioned whether there were any measures in place to deal with carers not greeting their residents. It was explained that all the figures are reported back to each individual service provider and the concern would be raised with them. Members agreed that vulnerable adults may not complain directly due to concerns that their care may deteriorate as the care would not favour them, however, members were reassured that the survey is anonymous and each service provider has a complaints procedure that sits in line with the Council’s own complaints procedure.

·         12.5% of users reported that they do not have the same carer. Members noted that carers may change due to illness or shortage of staff but some users cannot easily find out why their carer has changed.

·         7.7% of users reported that their carer does not always arrive on time at the agreed time. It was explained to the Committee that this can be due to traffic or that multiple people ask for the same time slot and this is not always possible.

Members noted that a minimum payment for 30 minutes was introduced for carers and this was timetabled should the work they conducted take less than 30 minutes.