Councillors Bibby, M Brown, Cameron, Gilmour, Glen, Henry, Hood, McCartin, McEwan, McGee, I McMillan and J Sharkey.

Councillor I McMillan, Convener, presided.

P Macleod, Director of Children's Services; D Leese, Chief Officer Designate, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership and S Strachan, Head of Adult Services; D Hawthorn, Head of Childcare and Criminal Justice; A McMillan, Head of Resources (all Children's Services); and D Low, Senior Committee Services Officer and E Currie, Committee Services Officer (both Finance & Resources).

The Convener advised that this was Shiona Strachan's last policy board meeting meeting before she took up her new post at Clackmannanshire Council. He paid tribute to her work as the Head of Adult Services of Renfrewshire Council and wished her well in the future.

Councillors Andy Doig and Harte.

There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.

There was submitted a joint revenue budget monitoring report by the Directors of Finance & Resources and Children’s Services for Social Work for the period 1 April, 2014 to 27 February, 2015.

DECIDED:

(a) That the budget position and the forecast year end overspend of around £400,000 (0.4%) be noted;

(b) That it be noted that monies used to help mitigate the current budget position would be available in the current year only; and

(c) That it be noted that there had been net budget realignments of £116,059 processed since the last report related primarily to training funds drawn down from general fund reserves together with early years funding transferred from Education and partly offset by procurement savings.

There was submitted a capital budget monitoring report by the Director of Finance & Resources for Social Work for the period 1 April, 2014 to 27 February, 2015.

DECIDED: That the report be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Officer Designate, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership relative to the work being undertaken to prepare for the practical implementation of the integrated working arrangements in relation to the establishment of the Integration Joint Board (IJB); the development of the Strategic Plan for approval by the IJB; the programme of work, in addition to the Strategic Plan to progress the other key elements of integration, which the Council and the Health Board committed to in Renfrewshire’s Integration Scheme; and the appointment of the Chief Finance Officer to the IJB.

DECIDED:

(a) That it be noted that the Integration Scheme had now been submitted to the Scottish Government. Once approved by Scottish Ministers, the Renfrewshire Integration Joint Board (IJB) would be formally constituted;

(b) That it be noted that a Shadow Integration Joint Board had been established to ensure continuity in governance arrangements during the period prior to the IJB being formally constituted;




(c) That it be noted that work was being undertaken to develop the Strategic Plan and a supporting programme of work which would ensure that all the key elements of integration, which the Council and the Health Board had committed to in Renfrewshire’s Integration Scheme, were progressed; and

(d) That it be noted that the recruitment process for the Chief Finance Officer was underway.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Officer Designate, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership relative to the service improvement plan monitoring report for adult social work services.

The report intimated that the service improvement plan 2014/17 provided a comprehensive statement of the outcomes social work aimed to achieve and the actions required to achieve these. The plan was framed within the context of the Council Plan and the Community Plan and enabled elected members to have oversight of developments within the service and to consider and develop policy options which reflected customer need and resource availability.

As 2015/16 was a transition year, this report provided elected members with an update on activity within adult social care. This Board would continue to have oversight of this area of service until functions transferred to the Integration Joint Board.

DECIDED:

(a) That the priority areas for adult social care over the next six to 12 months be noted; and

(b) That progress on these priorities be again reviewed in November 2015 if functions had not been delegated to the Integration Joint Board.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Officer Designate, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership relative to the social work adult services risk management plan 2015/16. The risk management plan and the risk register were appended to the report. The Plan identified the key risks faced by the service together with management action to minimise the risks.

DECIDED: That the social work adult services risk management plan for 2015/16 be approved.

There was submitted a report by Director of Children’s Services relative to the annual health and safety report for Social Work 2014/15, a copy of which formed Appendix 1 to the report.



The report set out the arrangements for the management of health and safety within the service and demonstrated the service’s commitment to continuous improvement in health and safety performance. Appendix 2 to the report provided details of training undertaken during 2014/15 and Appendix 3 detailed the actions which the service aimed to take by March 2016 for social work adult services to consolidate and improve health and safety practice.

DECIDED:

(a) That the annual health and safety report, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved;

(b) That the health and safety training figures, as detailed in Appendix 2 to the report, be noted; and

(c) That the health and safety plan for 2015/16, as detailed in Appendix 3 to the report, be approved.

Under reference to item 5 of page 131 of the Minute of the meeting of this Board held on 4 November, 2014 there was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to the inspection by the Care Inspectorate of individually-registered services.

The report intimated that social work services had been subject historically to a range of in-depth and rigorous inspections. It was noted that a multi-agency inspection of integrated children’s services took place in January 2015 and that a national inspection of Criminal Justice Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) would be undertaken in 2015.

Renfrewshire Council currently provided 24 services which were subject to inspection, eight children’s services; five learning disability services; eight older adult services; and three other registered services. These services would be assessed against four themes: quality of care and support; environment; staffing; and management and leadership, and would be awarded gradings of one to six with one being unsatisfactory and six being excellent. The report summarised the latest inspections.

Future inspection reports relating to children’s services would be submitted to the Education & Children Policy Board and those relating to adult social care would be provided to this Board until such time as functions transferred to the Integration Joint Board.

DECIDED:

(a) That the strong performance of the social work registered services, with all services graded as good, very good or excellent for quality of care and support be noted;

(b) That it be agreed that performance in registered service inspections would, in future, be reported to the most relevant policy board, reflecting the split between the governance of services for children and adults; and

(c) That the arrangements for future reporting be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Officer Designate, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership relative to the Carers (Scotland) Bill which was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 9th March, 2015.

The report intimated that the provisions of the Bill covered a range of areas related to supporting carers including a number of new duties and requirements that impacted on the Council. The bill gave a broader definition of the terms ‘carer’ and ‘young carer’; replaced the current carers' assessment with a new adult carer support plan and provided a young carer statement for all young carers; provided for the establishment of an information and advice service for carers in each local authority area which had to include a short breaks services statement; introduced a duty to support carers whose needs could not be met by general services in the community; required local authorities, in determining which support to provide carers, to consider in particular whether the support should take the form of, or include, a break from caring; required local authorities to prepare local carer strategies for their areas; and required local authorities and health boards to involve carers in carer services, being those services provided by the local authority or health board to carers or cared-for persons.

DECIDED: That the main provisions of the Bill be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Children’s Services relative to an application received from Engage Renfrewshire for funding for 2015/16 under Section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. It was proposed that funding amounting to £11,000 be awarded to Engage Renfrewshire as detailed in the appendix to the report.

DECIDED: That funding of £11,000 to Engage Renfrewshire be approved.

The Board resolved that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business as it was likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted that if members of the press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 5 and 6 of part I of schedule 7A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.