Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received by Cllr Louie O’Leary.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interest as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

Cllr Ireland declared that he is a Governor of Dorset HealthCare and that his wife worked at Yeovil Hospital and was a trustee at the Lantern Trust which was referred to in a report.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2023.

Proposed by Cllr Ridout, seconded by Cllr Ireland.

Decision:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2023 be confirmed and signed.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via Microsoft Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  For further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to george.dare@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Wednesday, 28 June 2023.

When submitting your question or statement please note that: 

·         You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

·         a question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

·         It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted.

·         Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

·         when submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder) 

·         Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting. 

·         questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda. 

·         all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.

There was no public participation.

To receive questions submitted by councillors.  

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total.   Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting. 

The submissions must be emailed in full to george.dare@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Wednesday, 28 June 2023.

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

There were no questions from councillors.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4)b) of the Local Government Act 1972.  The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To receive a presentation by the Corporate Director for Commissioning and the Chief Operating Officer, NHS Dorset.

The Corporate Director for Commissioning and the Chief Operating Officer of NHS Dorset gave a presentation which is appended to these minutes. The following points were covered in detail during the presentation: hospital discharge pathways, including discharge to assess and discharge into adult social care; building the right capacity in the community and Home First; performance and discharge data pre- and post-Covid; the number of people currently awaiting discharge from hospital.

At this point in the meeting Cllr Gill Taylor declared for transparency that her husband was a member of the step-up process which was mentioned in the presentation.

Members discussed the presentation and asked questions of the officers. The following points were raised:

·         Where possible patients that are discharged to care homes would be placed locally.

·         There was an average stay of 28 days in a Discharge to Assess or reablement bed which was an interim placement to help support people to get back home.

·         There was not any seasonality to the preferred discharge pathway. There are more respiratory problems during the winter, such as flu, which may cause seasonality in the numbers.

·         There was more work to do to use the full potential of IT systems.

·         Relating to the 168 individuals waiting for discharge, this number was across all Dorset hospitals and sites. On the day of the committee, there were 70 people in Dorset County Hospital waiting for discharge.

·         The number of people waiting for discharge decreased in April and May but had increased following those months due to industrial action and bank holidays.

·         If someone has a care package upon arrival at hospital, the package would be kept open if they were likely to be discharged quickly. This enabled continuity of care.

·         Patients would be offered reablement if they would benefit from it of if it was needed.

The committee was satisfied with the presentation and responses. It was noted and the committee could receive an update in a year.

To consider a report by the Service Manager for Housing Strategy & Performance and the Service Manager for Housing Advice and Homelessness.

The Lead Member for Housing and the Corporate Director for Housing introduced the report. The strategy provided a plan to tackle and prevent homelessness and it was supported by an action plan. This review considered the progress against the action plan and strategy. Members heard that the number of people at risk of homelessness has risen so it was important to ensure that the resourcing was right.

During discussion the following points were raised:

·         The strategy had a public consultation and a service-user consultation.

·         In relation to the top two reasons for homelessness, these were trying to be reduced through improving the landlord incentive.

·         The majority of rough sleepers were in Weymouth and the housing service has been dependent on accommodation in Weymouth.

·         The service could be more preventative rather than reactive through information campaigns and looking at council tax arrears.

·         Many landlords were good, and the landlord forums were well attended.

·         In order to protect tenants, the housing service would like to be able to use enforcement powers earlier. They were also waiting for national policy changes.

·         End of private rented accommodation can be caused through landlords leaving the market. There was a need to see whether houses were then being sold or re-let.

·         A member suggested renaming the strategy to the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Prevention Strategy.

·         In response to a question on increasing temporary accommodation and funding for this, the council has done well receiving government grants for temporary accommodation, however the council has to be caution about where the funding is from in the future.

Proposed by Cllr Taylor and seconded by Cllr Kimber, the committee made the following recommendation:

That the Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care, Health, and Housing oversees the revised action plan.

To consider a report by the Service Manager for Housing Strategy & Performance and the Service Manager for Housing Solutions.

The Lead Member for Housing introduced the report. He explained that this was the first time the Housing Allocation Policy has been reviewed since 2019 and it was a statutory requirement to have the policy.

The committee discussed the report and asked questions of the officers. The following points were raised:

·         If it was possible to incentivise downsizing homes if there was funding available for it.

·         Second homes and Air B&Bs were an issue and owners were being encouraged to bring the homes back into use.

·         In response to a question on key worker housing, the committee was advised that there was an intention to develop a joint strategy with local health services about access to housing.

·         Social housing lettings plans were on new build sites to ensure mixed communities and local lettings plans were in areas with anti-social behaviour so vulnerable people do not move there.

·         In relation to the local connection part of the policy, most lets were going to people who meet the more local requirements, and most people were not moving across the council area.

·         A member queried whether housing prioritisation could be streamlined using the Dorset Care Record to check their local need? In response officers informed that this was something that could be looked into.

Proposed by Cllr Taylor, seconded by Cllr Ridout.

Decision

That the implementation of the minor amendments identified be supported.

A review of the relevant Dorset Council performance dashboard to inform the Scrutiny Committee’s work programme and identify items for deep dives.

The following link is the dashboard for the committee:

People and Health Scrutiny Committee Dashboard

The Service Manager for Business Intelligence and Performance outlined the following areas of concern raised during a review of the performance dashboard:

·         The percentage of long-term clients reviewed in the last 12 months.

·         The number of care leavers in B&B accommodation.

·         The number of first-time entrants into the Youth Justice System.

·         The rate of children with a child protection plan per 10,000

·         The percentage of looked after children placed outside the council area. 

Officers responded to the performance areas and members asked questions of the officers. The following points were raised:

·         The target for number of reviews would ideally be 100%. There are some people that receive multiple reviews due to changing need.

·         There was only 1 care leaver in B&B accommodation.

·         The target for children with a child protection plan was below the national average. It was important that the right children were being protected.

·         Some children were placed outside the council area because they were living with family who live elsewhere.

·         Where children are placed is often reviewed to ensure they are in the right place. It would be inappropriate to make changes to where children are placed during exam periods. Family circumstances may change allowing them to return home.

To consider the committee’s Work Programme and the Cabinet Forward Plan.

The committee noted the work programme and Cabinet Forward Plan.

An informal work programme development session was held following the meeting.

To move the exclusion of the press and public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph x of schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

The public and press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.

There is no planned exempt business for this meeting.

There was no exempt business.