Richard Henderson – Director for HR and Customer

Laura Pattman – Strategic Director of Finance

Malcolm Townroe – Director of Legal and Governance

None.

Last meeting held on 20 October 2020 (for confirmation)

The Board confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2020 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Local Transport

The Board considered the report of the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Local Transport, outlining the Adult Social Care Winter Plan. This year, due to the combined impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and winter flu the Department for Health and Social Care requires that the Winter Plan be more comprehensive than previous years. 

The Winter Plan is grouped into 21 key areas and identifies actions required and associated risks. The plan includes details of partnership working and it is through this that the Council will work towards ensuring high quality, safe and timely care is provided to everyone who needs it, whilst protecting those who need care, their carers and the social care workforce from Covid-19. The following points were made during discussion:

(a)  Fear through increased isolation, especially in elderly and vulnerable citizens, is a real and worrying issue. Nottingham City Council is working hard to tackle people’s fears and extra anxiety with clear and easily accessible information. The Council is being led in its response to this issue by the Director of Public Health and is working with partners to maintain trusted relationships with service users. There is also additional work being done to support the informal relationships and community connections to reduce isolation and easy additional anxieties;

(b)  There have been concerning reports from some parts of the country about care facilities becoming very low staffed due to Covid-19 outbreaks amongst staff. Nottingham City Council has a number of measures in place to reduce this risk to care facilities and it has been a focus of work and planning since before the first period of lockdown in March 2020. Each service has its own contingency plans for such an event, but given the extent of the challenges facing the service a stronger system was developed to ensure all care services had access to bank staff through partnership working. There has also been a reduction in movement of staff between services, this along side other measures has reduced the risk of infection within care facilities.

Members of the Board expressed their thanks to frontline care staff for their continued hard work and dedication. Members also expressed thanks to frontline staff working with Homeless rough sleepers, commissioning staff and all those involved in the extensive partnership working across the city through the pandemic. 

Resolved to approve the Adult Social Care Winter Plan 2020-21.

Reasons for decision

Each year the Council puts in place plans to ensure that adult social care needs of citizens are responded to effectively during the winter period when demand is higher.  This year the Council is required to have a Winter Plan which meets the recently published national requirements as part of the Council’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other Options Considered 

The other option considered was to not produce the Winter Plan this was rejected as its production is a requirement of the Department of Health and Social Care and to fail to do so would be a breach of statutory duties.