Agenda and minutes

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.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 22 September 2025.

Minutes to follow.

The minutes of the meeting 22 september 2025 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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 [email protected] by 8.30am on Wednesday, 12 November 2025.

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 [email protected] by 8.30am on Wednesday, 12 November 2025. 

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

There were no councillor questions.

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 consider a report on behalf of the Executive Director for Adults and Housing.

(report to follow)

The item was introduced by the Executive Director for Adults, Health and Housing and thanked the committee for receiving these items. The presentation from the Corporate Director for Adult Social Care provided additional contextual information the most up to date figures and highlighted areas of focus from the report provided.

The discussion between members and officers covered several key areas;

·       The duration of waits for those people who are on waiting lists and the classification of wait times and the improvements made in reducing numbers of people on the waiting lists and the duration of the waits.

·       Locality nuance around population demographics and the performance of each locality service.

·       Detail around the types of referrals that are addressed at access without care assessments.

·       The importance of community support to aid in the reduction of waiting lists and meeting needs through non-commissioned care.

·       The inter connectedness between adult social care and health and the statutory responsibilities of the local authority under the Care Act and the Mental Health act.

·       The levels of staffing and the impact of vacancies on delivery with emphasis on how service redesign work will impact the future of roles.

·       The level of demand which is increasing and the relation between demands and contact numbers increases.

·       The development of service delivery to manage and reduce waiting times through different working practices such as the change from a specialised centralist approach to a hub and spoke design for safeguarding.

·       Data cleansing and the importance of accurate information in delivering services and the impact on individuals in receipt of care and support.

·       Reasons for the increase in average wait times were due to the number of safeguarding referrals being received as well as a legacy from Covid.

Recommendation

The committee provided scrutiny and provide feedback in relation to Waiting Lists.

To consider a report on behalf of the Executive Director for Adults and Housing.

(report to follow)

The Corporate Director for Adult Social Care presented an introduction to the report drawing in additional information and highlighting key areas of the report to be considered about the context of carers in Dorset.

The subsequent discussion of committee covered off several key areas

·       Child carers and the support for children and making sure that the right support and advice is in place and concerns on the potential expectations of caring placed upon children.

·       The placement of the service within birth to settled adulthood and the provision of training to workers in recognition of child carers

·       The increase of carers accessing advocacy services and its relation to the increase visibility of service provision

·       The change of provision and the actions taken to mitigate impact on individuals managing risk.

Additional questions were provided in writing to Children’s Services to respond in writing focusing on the support in education settings for recognising and supporting child carers.

Recommendation

The Committee scrutinised and provided feedback in relation to carers and considered the potential of revisiting this report as part of a 6-month service review.

To receive a report by the FutureCare Programme Director.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care provided some background context to the Future Care programme. The Workstream Lead - Future Care introduced the item and shared a detailed summary of the work completed so far and the impact of the approach.

After the presentation there was a discussion that covered of the following areas;

·       The programme reset and the impact of changes delivered so far

·       The change backdrop in the health sector and the cultural shift across partners to deliver the impact of the programme

·       The constant challenge to provide services within a sector with cultural differences. The community bed flow is critical to service improvement and reducing discharge delay.

·       The framework approach and how it works.

·       The workflow and the visibility of capacity to ensure best use of resources

·       The role of community hospitals are within the bed based intermediate care allocation part of the programme and the number of community beds in Dorset.

·       The frequency of readmissions back into hospital particularly when discharged to home. Committee concerned about how re-admission can be prevented, and the need to understand the demographics and vulnerabilities. The Committee need to be assured that the investment ensures a real stop change and not just a short term solution.

·       The different aspects of the programme and the dependant nature of the phases of work.

·       The price of beds and the placement of individuals based upon their specific needs.

·       The trend towards higher complexity and needs as part of the rationale for reablement centres.

·       The discharge process from Acute hospital to community hospital, reablement bed or home settings and the way they are recorded,

·       The cross-area settings in the North of the county and how that is working with out of county hospital stays is accommodated within the Transfer of Care approach

·       Consideration around user experience – how  was this to be gathered and taken into account

The Chairman summarised the discussion recognising the complexity of the system and the budget constraints highlighting the action to be taken to prevent overspend and invited a further update of progress.

Recommendation-

The Committee reviewed the progress that the programme continues to make in respect of improved outcomes for people and the delivery of financial benefits to the Dorset Integrated Care System, but also recognised that more work is required to reduce the further reduce the average length of stay for people in hospital ready to leave hospital with further support

To consider a report by the Business Partner for Communities and Partnerships.

The item was introduced by the portfolio holder for Customer, Culture and Community Engagement and the backdrop that has led to this work. The details and key considerations from the report were set out by the Business Partner for Communities & Partnerships.

Following the presentation the discussion covered off the following areas.

·       The different sources of funding including Crisis Resilience Fund (CRF) and the Household Support Fund (HSF) and how they interconnect.

·       The prevention focus of the new fund and detail of situations that are likely to be covered in accessing funding.

·       The community transport funding available and the system to address issues.

·       A 3-year figure for the household support fund will be provided in December 2025/January 2026.

·       Ensuring that all areas across Dorset are covered by services and access was not restricted by an individuals’ location.

·       The role of awareness and publicity in the delivery of prevention-based work.

·       Citizen’s Advice funding model and their access to funding.

·       The discretionary housing payment is applied for a 3-6 month period generally to rebalance and move out of crisis.

·       The devolved responsibilities of town and parish councils.

Information was provided after the meeting to the People and Health Scrutiny committee to show the frequency of multiple allocations of housing payments.

Recommendations

1.The Committee reviewed and commented on the progress of the £1.2 million investment in preventative and reactive spend.

2. The Committee noted that government has announced the Household Support Fund will be phased out at the end of the current spending cycle. From April 2026, the Household Support Fund was to be replaced by a new, long-term initiative called the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF).

3. The Committee request that Community Transport to be considered at Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee.

At 12:51 the vote to extend the meeting was proposed by the Chairman and unanimously agreed.

To receive feedback on the Dorset Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report.

Feedback will be given by committee members following a working group meeting with the Safeguarding Adults Board Independent Chair and the Corporate Director for Adult Social Care.

The Committee welcomed the attendance of the Independent Chair

Independent Chair of Safeguarding Adults Board provided an initial context around the report provided and the committee shared some early observations from a discussion that happened with a subgroup of the Committee. A summary of the highlights was provided by the members of the subgroup and the effectiveness of the safeguarding practices of Dorset Council were recognised by the Independent chair of Safeguarding Adults Board.

There was a question about the cross border working and the learnings from the “Simon” SAR and the requirement of legislative change in the solution. The Committee were pleased to hear that a review of recent SAR’s would be included in next year’s report.

The findings of the Safeguarding Adults Board investigation into out of county placements was to be shared with the committee.

To consider a report by the Strategic Performance and Risk Lead.

The Strategic Performance Lead for Intelligence & Risk introduced the progress to date and the report provided and set out the key indicators.

The subsequent discussion focussed on the following areas;

• Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and the resource required to manage the current performance around this area and the plan to utilise Artificial Intelligence and increased capacity.
• System issues around EHCP and the reviews have resulted in more amendments which are more time intensive from an officer perspective.
• The outcomes of children on EHCP around academic performance has improved and is currently above national averages.
• Children in care population and the services that are used to manage the population and keep children in their homes as much as possible.
• The role of information sharing in the ability to support children at hubs and in communities and the importance of parental consent.
• The need for local solutions around school transport.
• Identification of need and the importance of that in shaping provision and the right support.
• The Valuing Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (VSEND) programme and the early support provision and that the needs of children can be met outside of EHCP provision.
• Concern was raised that the new management system was not fully working yet, although the committee understood that this was affected by the complexities of partnership working.

Note: Please use the following link to access the Quarter 1 Performance Dashboard: Link to Performance Dashboard

Recommendation

The Committee noted the Quarter 1 (April–June 2025) performance overview available via the Scrutiny dashboard, with an accompanying exceptions extract provided in Annex 1 and 2.

The Committee considered the triangulated analysis for the identified areas of performance focus, to inform actions and recommendations

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

Suggested future items:

Help and care young carer support requested for summer 2026

Reablement service performance and rationale

To consider passing the following recommendation:  

Recommendation  

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting for the business specified in item(s) No X because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) x of Part 1 of schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.  

The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered. (Any live streaming will end at this juncture).  

Reasons for taking items in private:

Paragraph 1 - Information relating to any individual.  

Paragraph 2 - Information which is likely to reveal identity of an individual.  

Paragraph 3 - Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).  

Paragraph 4 - Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office holders under, the authority.  

Paragraph 5 - Information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.  

Paragraph 6 - Information which reveals that the authority proposes: (a) to give under any enactment a notice under or by virtue of which requirements are imposed on a person; or (b) to make an order or direction under any enactment.  

Paragraph 7 - Information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation, or prosecution of crime.

There was no exempt business.