Issue - meetings

To note the report.

The Chair of the Independent Board of Directors and Managing Director of Care Dorset introduced the report which gave Members a brief context of the work undertaken since October 2022 and set out the recent activity within the company, including some of the future ambitions.

Officers responded to Members’ comments and requests for clarification, details included:

• There was an ambition to raise rates of pay amongst employees of Care Dorset, but this may come with increased expectations of colleagues, although a balance would be struck. A systems review was taking place at present that would assist Care Dorset in identifying areas for improvement.
• Para 8.6 of the report should have read “5000 care hours”, not “5000 care homes”.
• There was a plan to develop the ‘Care Dorset Academy’, which would allow Care Dorset to grow and develop its own colleagues and provide them with different career progression pathways and make use of the apprenticeship levy to offer a series of qualifications.
• There were improvements still required in some of the day service opportunities, which weren’t regulated, but Care Dorset used the same standard across the board, and this was therefore a desire to make improvements, as opposed to a requirement.
• The process followed in relation to the reablement service involved colleagues working directly with hospitals to identify individuals suitable for the reablement service and were also on the multi-disciplinary team calls that took place to identify individuals ready for discharge. The result of these initiatives had seen improvements in the levels of occupancy.
• The use of agency staff was part of the makeup of social care administration. There was always a desire to keep it as low as possible, due to costs, but sometimes it was unavoidable. There was an agency cap within Care Dorset, which needed to be approved each month by the director of operations or managing director. Usage of agency staff had improved with this model being in place and a tool had been developed for teams to ensure safe staffing levels, similar to that used within the pandemic although it was acknowledged that there was still room for improvement within the service though.
• Care Dorset would work more closely with Dorset Council in the future prior to making what could be perceived as controversial operational decisions.

NOTED