Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Anne Cyron.

Any member of the Council who has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a matter to be considered at the meeting is reminded to disclose the interest to the meeting and to leave the Chamber while any discussion or vote on the matter takes place.

Members are also reminded that if they have any other significant interest in a matter to be considered at the meeting, which they feel should be declared in the public interest, such interests should be declared to the meeting. In such circumstances Members should consider whether their continued participation, in the matter relating to the interest, would be reasonable in the circumstances, particularly if the interest may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interests, or whether they should leave the Chamber while any discussion or vote on the matter takes place.

Cllr Dr Mona Ahmed declared an interest as an NHS worker.

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 November 2024 will be submitted for confirmation at the next ordinary meeting of the Committee.

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 November were deferred to the next public meeting.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Lead Member to comment on the report. The Lead Member discussed the challenge of maintaining services whilst ensuring a balanced budget, particularly given the significant pressures on Adult Social Care budgets across the country, but assured the Committee that despite substantial savings proposals front line services would not be affected.

The Chair invited questions or comments from members of the Committee. The Lead Member was joined by Visva Sathasivam, Director of Adult Social Care and Tom Dennerly, Head of Finance for Adult Social Care and Public Health.

The Committee:

1. Noted significant budget growth planned for the six cases of large care and support packages transitioning from Children’s Services in 2025/26 and asked the extent to which the budget was vulnerable to similar growth pressures in future years. Officers advised they had a rough idea but it was not possible to predict too far in advance the number of care and support packages transitioning from Children’s Services and commensurate budget requirement as the complexity of need was liable to change over time and access to continuing healthcare funding via the NHS was possible. Officers assured the Committee that they worked with Children’s Services colleagues regularly to understand as far as possible expected growth figures.

2. Noted the overall financial position of the directorate was dependent on the outcome of the Local Government Finance Settlement and discussed threats to the budget and the Council’s ability to maintain services given the funding uncertainty. Members expressed particular concern over changes to employer national insurance contributions which had not been budgeted for and would heavily impact providers of commissioned services, and suggested contingency work should be carried out. Officers advised the Finance Settlement was expected in mid-December 2024 and would provide clarity on whether further growth was required.

3. Sought assurance that front-line mental health services would not be adversely affected by re-modelling the care workforce following the conclusion of the s75 agreement.

4. Raised concerns about staffing, including the use of temporary vacancies to achieve savings and the sustainability of that practice moving into the medium term, and potential down-skilling of the overall service by asking existing staff to do more. Officers were confident that identified staffing savings could be achieved by redesigning business processes, reducing bureaucracy and providing a more efficient service.

5. Discussed the use of Public Health reserves. Officers advised that part of the reserves were being deployed across the Council, with other service areas able to bid for project funding if a public health outcome could be evidenced.

6. Questioned zero growth and savings for the Public Health budget. Officers advised that in-year contract savings had been reinvested in service delivery.

7. Sought assurance that the proposed re-design of services at Chamberlain House would lead to a service more responsive to the needs of residents.

8. Noted pressure on the mental health budget, and increasing referrals, from the closure of local in-patient ward services and rising ‘discharge to assets’ by the NHS.

9. Received assurance that funding was sufficient to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Lead Member to comment on the report. The Lead Member discussed the need to transform services in the face of the challenging environment the service operated in and the identification and implementation of technological innovations to improve service delivery in that context.

The Chair invited questions and comments from the Committee. The Lead Member was joined by Gareth Wall, Bi-borough Director of Integrated Commissioning.

The Committee:

1. Highlighted need to explore how other councils were transforming services, and understand how RBKC was performing comparatively. Officers advised that some Councils were ahead of RBKC in adopting solutions for technology enabled living, such as GPS and monitoring devices. In response, Adult Social Care had adopted a ‘dragon’s den’ style approach to enable providers to pitch transformational products and trial them if of particular interest. The directorate was also looking internationally on the application of technology solutions in aging populations.

2. Discussed AI as a transformative tool and asked how AI was being adopted across the service. Officers noted many of the solutions available contained AI elements. The Council was seeking to trial an AI tool to allow social workers to record conversations and generate care assessments.

3. Welcomed the aim to increase in-borough accommodation for care placements and asked how achievable it was. The Lead Member responded that it was realistic to introduce 60 additional units across the borough, with further units possible by discussing with the developers of the planned Kensal Canalside and Earls Court developments.

4. Asked how residents were responding to attempts to introduce more technology solutions. Officers advised that generally one third of residents were keen to trial new solutions and provide feedback, another third were curious about tech solutions, and the final third not interested or unwilling to trial new technologies.

5. Highlighted the importance of sharing data with health partners and care providers for achieving effective and efficient care.

6. Expressed concern that the report did not discuss technology solutions for increasing productivity and sought reassurance that the directorate was working to ensure technologies that could benefit the workforce were being pursued. Officers confirmed that the directorate was working with the Council’s Digital, Data and Transformation department to develop technological capacity in Adult Social Care, improve efficiencies and allow front-line workers to work with more agility.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Committee to discuss the Work Programme. The Committee:

1. Agreed to focus on the NHS Specialist Adult Palliative Care Public Consultation at the meeting on 6 February 2025 but consider hospital discharge and cancer services if capacity at the meeting.

2. Suggested items on the Suicide Prevention Strategy working group be rescheduled.

Action: Policy and Scrutiny Officer