Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Democratic Services (Nottingham City Council)

Sally Seely and Caroline Baria, Senior Responsible Officer and Deputy Responsible Officer for the Programme, gave a presentation on the Transforming Care Programme for People with Learning Disabilities and/or Autism who display challenging behaviours in Nottinghamshire, highlighting the following points:

(a)  there is a national focus on building up community capacity and reducing inappropriate hospital admissions following the investigation into abuse at Winterbourne View;

(b)  Nottinghamshire was one of 6 ‘fast track’ areas chosen to form Transforming Care Partnerships (TCPs), involving CCGs, local authorities and NHS England specialist commissioners. A Transformation Plan to ensure affected citizens are kept healthy, well and supported in the community was submitted in September 2015, and public consultation on the Plan will commence in February 2016;

(c)  those most affected will be citizens currently in in-patient care, for which a resettlement programme will be required. In future, the expectation is that hospital admission will only be when necessary, and will be time-limited;

(d)  all 10 commissioning organisations in the area are involved with the programme’s Transformation Board, under which a Professionals Reference Group of health and social care specialists sits. An Operational Committee manages 6 workstreams: Admission and Prevention, Strategic Commissioning, Operational Commissioning, Workforce Planning and Development, Integrating Care and Support/Finance, and Communications and Engagement;

(e)  a number of key deliverables to June 2016 have been identified, including developing Strategic Commissioning and Workforce Development Plans, establishing multiagency pooled/aligned budgets, establishing emergency and longer term crisis support services, extending Care and treatment reviews to children and those with autism and no learning disability.

The following issues were raised and points made during discussion:

(f)  a councillor criticised the lack of specific detail on numbers of children with disabilities in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County. In response, Ms Seely explained that commissioners were also frustrated by the lack of clarity on this issue within the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment;

(g)  Ms Seely also shared councillors’ concerns about challenges involved in securing a trained and dedicated workforce in the time available, and confirmed that the focus was on ensuring that the health and social care sector offered attractive career options. She also assured councillors that workforce concerns have been fed back to NHS England, Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services;

(h)  it was very important to consult as widely as possible with both existing and potential service users, as well as through focus groups which reflected the demography of local populations. Ms Seely agreed with the assertion that it would have been preferable to consult current service users sooner, but explained that Nottinghamshire was not originally aware that it would be ‘fast-tracked’. There was insufficient time to carry out full consultation within the nationally set timescales for submission of the Plan but some limited consultation did take place with existing inpatients and their families. She also stated that the Plan was open to significant alteration, depending on consultation outcomes;

(i)  the Nottingham Healthwatch representative supported the aims of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56