Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Nick Ireland.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting were signed and confirmed as a correct record.

Cllr Gill Taylor declared an interest as her husband was a service user of Care Dorset.

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 MS 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.  Further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to chris.harrod@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Wednesday 2 October 2024

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.   

No public participation requests had been received.

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 chris.harrod@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk  8.30am on Wednesday 2 October 2024.

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13 

No councillor questions had been received in advance of the meeting.

To consider the draft Forward Plan.

The draft forward plan was noted

To consider the report.

The Interim Corporate Director for Commissioning and Improvement introduced the report which set out the recent commissioning activity.

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

• One of the key challenges for Care Dorset related to the estate that been inherited from its predecessor and there was a great need to establish what was currently possible in terms of service delivery and level of care as a result of limitations in some settings, and how it could be improved over time. The core focus of this exercise would be to ensure that service users could be in receipt of the best level of care according to their requirements.
• Early in the development of Care Dorset, there had been discussions surrounding the need for bedded reablement support and Care Dorset had been able to acquire and redevelop the building next door to the Castleman develop which had been impactful in a short space of time in terms of avoiding the requirement for long term care for people leaving hospital. The commissioning team monitored length of stay at reablement centres and were comfortable with the average lengths of stay in those beds not exceeding six weeks.
• In respect of the St Martin’s development, Care Dorset were commissioned to provide the background support which covered ‘waking nights’ and additional support that certain individuals needed such as community support. Care Dorset would like to be the provider for all individual care needs, but accepted that some residents moving in already had a domiciliary care provider in place.

NOTED

To consider the report.

The Chair of the Independent Board of Directors and Managing Director of Care Dorset introduced the report which provided a company update for the past period.

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

• In relation to ongoing contract renegotiations, there had been some constructive conversations between Care Dorset and the commissioning team and both parties were seeking to finalise arrangements towards the end of the calendar year.
• Funding for carers picking up certain healthcare roles in order to reduce the need for district nurses to visit centres was included within the funding available for reablement beds, which was provided by the better care fund.
• Voluntary staff turnover was 20%, which was common in the sector and Care Dorset was working to reducing this figure where possible.
• Care Quality Commission spot checks for registered settings were unannounced. For supported living settings however, they were announced.
• The Shared Lives transfer was to be an ‘as-is’ transfer and staff would be transferring from the employment of Dorset Council to Care Dorset. Payments would not change and would continue to be administered by the Local Authority and carers would continue to be well supported. Care Dorset were looking at how the service could be expanded upon and how it could be used in the rehabilitation space. The priority at present was to ensure smooth transition for both staff and carers.

The Chair took the opportunity to thank Care Dorset colleagues for their report and comprehensive responses, and congratulate its reablement team on being nominated for ‘Care Team of the Year’ at the National Care Awards.

NOTED

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.

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. 11 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) 3 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).

Reason for taking the item in private

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

It was moved by Cllr Richard Biggs, seconded by Cllr Gill Taylor and subsequently carried:

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 the item(s) below 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 3 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.

To consider the report.

The Chair of the Independent Board of Directors and Managing Director of Care Dorset introduced the report which set out the framework for the emerging Care Dorset 5 Year Strategy.

Officers responded to questions and comments in relation to the following topics:

• Inclusion of input received from service users
• Inclusion of commercialisation opportunities
• Offers to be broadened
• Better advertisement of Care Dorset and what it offered
• Capital investment towards improvement of existing estate where required to ensure quality of service remains.
• Appropriate staffing levels to meet growing demands.

The Chair thanked Members for their input and Care Dorset for their comprehensive responses.

RESOLVED that

1.    The direction of travel with the strategy development be endorsed.

Finished at 11:07