Dear Member,
Before we head into the Christmas period I
wanted to provide Members with an adult social care update and also take time
to reflect on my first six months as Lead Member for Adult Social Care & Health Services.
I’m constantly reminded of the hard work,
dedication and desire of staff from across the health and care system to do
the right things, the things that matter to people, and I think for the people
we serve that has an additional resonance at this time of year. And we
are collectively making a difference.
We have been listening to the views
of people and their carers who use disability services across Devon to ensure
that we are doing the right things and what matters to them, such as their
independence. We have also improved significantly on reducing delayed
transfers of care across the system since the summer, at a time when the
spotlight has been fixed on this nationally.
But
the backdrop to the Health and Care nationally is still tough and set to get
tougher. We are seeing continued lobbying from across the country and
across the sector for sustainable and long term funding, and Devon is no
different. At Cabinet
last week it was resolved that the
views of the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee are welcomed and endorsed
when Cabinet makes representations to central government for fairer funding in
respect of the County Council’s Public Health Grant and for Adult Social Care
and Health Services.
Managing demand not only from the aged and
ageing population but increasingly from those of working age with significant
and multiple long term needs requires innovation and investment in
prevention. Workforce challenges remain, not only in terms of recruitment
and retention which we expect to be further tested as the UK leaves the EU, but
additionally the workforce costs more each year.
These are real challenges
and challenges that continue to test us, but we have opportunities to lobby for
fairer and sustainable funding and to champion the needs of Devon and I am
committed to doing this through regular dialogue with our MP which
I will be continuing in early 2018.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a
happy New Year.
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 Andrew Leadbetter
In its annual State of Care report, the
Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated 86% of providers of adult social care in Devon as either 'Good'
or 'Outstanding'. This is fantastic news and a tribute to the daily hard
work of providers and DCC adults social care commissioners and
operations. This result sees Devon having a better quality of adults
social care providers than the England average (80%).
The picture is just as positive for our Clinical Commissioning Group
colleagues where across Devon 98% of General Practice has been rated 'Good' or
'Outstanding' compared to the England average of 93%.
The conference this year again provided the opportunity to network with colleagues from around the country; share our experiences over the last 12 months and learn how others might be doing things differently and better.
It was however clear from the tone and atmosphere at this year's conference that those of us working in adults social care are experiencing unprecedented pressures on a number of fronts including: demand, workforce and funding that are combining to make the delivery of social care a significant and increasing challenge, this despite there being no-one better than local government at delivering more for less.
With seemingly a single issue dominating and occupying central Government it was little surprise that the adult social care green paper, expected this autumn, has now been delayed until summer 2018. But like I have said, we have a real opportunity with our MPs to champion the needs of Devon and what we would like to see in the green paper.
I met with our MPs in November for the
first time in my new role as Lead Member for Adult Social Care and Health
Services. The conversations we had were extremely positive and productive
and I was able to land some key messages about the challenges in Devon and also
where we have had successes, which they were receptive to.
In fact, we
have been encouraged to make use of the Health
Select Committee, given that Sarah Wollaston MP is the Chair and two further
Devon-based MPs are Committee Members. We will now start to think
about how the pending green paper in summer 2018 could address the health and
social care challenges we face and how the Health Select Committee might help
to champion Devon.
We also discussed another opportunity to
lobby nationally with Ann Marie Morris MP who is the Chair of the Rural
Health and Social Care All Parliamentary Party Group (APPG). This APPG is
focussed on the challenge of delivering health and social care in rural areas
compared to urban settings. This will be a useful platform for us,
alongside health colleagues, to lobby for the fairer funding of rural areas
where the cost of meeting need is higher compared to urban areas.
Preparations are already underway for my
next round of meetings with our MPs in the New Year, where amongst other
things, I shall be expressing my frustration with the lack of mention of
solutions to the national funding challenge of adult social care
You may have seen a feature on a recent
edition of ITV Westcountry News about Tatiana, a young disabled adult
living in Exeter being supported in a way that is promoting her independence
through employment. Our colleagues at Living Options Devon have been
working with Tatiana and a local charity called Fixers that works with young
people. I encourage you to watch this inspirational story and see how
building on people's strengths and doing what is important to people can make a
significant difference to their lives.
Thank you to all Members who have engaged
in this work so far whether that be attending my initial briefing session, the
listening events, or requesting further information and the opportunities
to be further involved. The listening events have now come to
an end, and as I wrote in my earlier briefing we will be reflecting on what we
have heard and how we take this forward. Through my further briefings I
will ensure Members are fully informed, including receiving a summary report of
the listening events.
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