Adult Services Cabinet Member – Minutes – 21 April 2010
55 (15) NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE POSITIVE RISK TAKING POLICY – The Service Director Adult Social Care submitted a report proposing that a Multi Agency Positive Risk Policy be adopted by North Lincolnshire Council from 3 May 2010.
Government had set out the future direction for health and adult social services in “Our Health, Our Care, Our Say” (DH 2007) and “Putting People First” (DH 2008).These policy documents outlined the need for health and adult social services to give people greater choice and control over the way in which their support and care needs were met.Changes to the ways in which people received care and support meant councils moving away from an approach that placed people into services, to one that helped people to find the best support for them. This new way of working was called ‘personalisation’ and all councils were required to adopt it.
The North Lincolnshire Safeguarding Adults Board (NLSAB) had considered the impact of personalisation with regard to vulnerable people and agreed that risk would be minimised when all agencies agreed a common set of principles to apply to their internal risk management processes. The response of the NLSAB to this issue is the multi agency policy contained in Appendix 1 of the report.
The policy included the creation of a safeguarding adults board risk advisory group to allow professional staff, managers and organisations to seek guidance when service users who wish to take risks pushed the boundaries of the policy. The group would be multi-agency and be able to offer a view on the risks being suggested, and any further potential risk management options available. The group would be accountable to the NLSAB.
The group would also be responsible for monitoring decision making in support planning and risk. It would report to the NLSAB and would highlight issues of concern or areas of good and positive practice. The work of the group would form part of the NLSAB annual report presented to the Cabinet Member.
Resolved – That the North Lincolnshire Positive Risk Taking Policy be adopted from 3 May 2010.
For service users resident in the community the Fairer Charging Guidance (2001) provides a framework for designing charging policies which were reasonable, fair, and consistent with councils’ objectives in social care and with principles of social inclusion.
The council’s fairer charging policy set out the principles that applied to the assessment of a person’s contribution to their care. It was based on determining their means, which was their overall income minus various disregards. The person’s contribution was then calculated by comparing their means to the cost of their care package, approximately one third of financial assessments resulted in a nil charge. All councils were required to change the way they provided social care services and subsequently the way they made charges.
Implementing personalisation meant that individual budgets would be calculated by allocating funds according to people’s social care needs. Receiving an individual budget, a person could choose to meet his/her needs in ways that might not easily be described by current service types. Also, people could choose to use their individual budgets in different ways from week to week.
The implementation of personalisation and the issuing of individual budgets would mean that there was no set care package to charge against. It followed, therefore, that the way in which a person’s contribution was calculated needed to be changed.
Resolved – (a) That from 3 May 2010 for those service users with an individual budget, charges be made in respect of their individual budget allocation, (b) approval be given for the retention of the existing charging system for those who had not yet moved to a personal budget with the application of changes outlined in the fees and charges report approved by the Cabinet Member in March, (c) that as an interim measure for 2010-2011, a cap be applied to increases in assessed charges for existing service users moving to a personal budget as outlined in the report, (d) that a technical review of the “means test” part of the council’s fairer charging policy be undertaken, and (e) That the impact of the proposed charging system, the results of the technical review proposed in the report and the outcomes of a local consultation exercise with stakeholders be reported to the Cabinet Member in autumn 2010.
The following item contains exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended)
57 (17) TRANSFER OF CMISS STAFF – The Service Director Children and Young People and Service Director Adult Social Care submitted a joint report seeking approval for the change in line management of three posts from Children and Young People’s Service to Adults Social Services with effect from 1 May 2010.
Details of the proposed transfer along with the staffing and financial implications were set out in the report and appendices.
Resolved – (a) That the transfer of line management and budgets outlined in the report, be agreed, and (b) that the report be forwarded to Corporate Services Cabinet Member for approval.
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Where there is no report this is because it is exempt, as it contains information which is considered to be of a confidential nature, as detailed in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act.