Agenda item

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Adult Services which was presented to provide an overview on the current allocation of funding for projects monitored by the Social Services Department and funded via the Welsh Government Integrated Care Fund (ICF) as at November 2020.

The Head of Adult Services spoke to the report and advised Members that the Welsh Government had given a verbal update for a further extension of the fund for the transition year (2021/22), however, official confirmation of the exact allocation had not yet been received.   The four key areas of the ICF were:-

•        Older people with complex needs and long term conditions including dementia

•        People with Learning Disabilities

•        Children with Complex Needs due to disability or illness

•        Carers, including young carers

With regard to projects ranked as a high/critical priority, the Chair enquired if the Regional Partnership Board and Regional Partners had made concerted efforts to raise concerns with the Welsh Government on the detrimental impact removal of the funding would have on these projects.  The Head of Adult Services said that both the Director of Social Services and the Executive Member for Social Services as representatives on the Regional Partnership Board had, for the last two years, continually highlighted the concerns.  Risk rating of the projects had provided a clear understanding of the impact moving forward and the final report on the risk rating and the financial pressures had been reported back to the Regional Partnership Board.

In response to a Member’s question regarding how the impact of staff leaving could affect the running of the services, the Head of Adult Services said this had been a challenge all through the ICF projects, but with assurances from the Welsh Government for funding for the additional year, staff had not left in significant numbers but this was a high risk in relation to any grant funded programme.

In relation to posts a Member enquired about the differential between wte (whole time equivalent) posts and fte (full time equivalent) posts.  The Head of Adult Services clarified the differential between the two; a number of posts were part time and some staff who had part time permanent posts within the Local Authority may be working full time by making up the hours using ICF funding.

A Member requested an update on the proposed extension to Augusta House, Ebbw Vale.  The Head of Adult Services said initially there had been a delay due to the pandemic, but plans had been reviewed and gone back out to Planning.  Exploratory work in relation to the groundworks were already underway.

In response to a Member’s question regarding Blaenau Gwent’s funding allocation for Adult Services and Children’s Services, the Head of Adult Services explained that the allocation and bidding process can be complex as there were both revenue and capital funding streams within the investment plan of ICF.  Since 2014 there had been bidding rounds every year, if a project that was suitable for ICF and aligned to the strategic priorities of the local authority, then a bid was submitted to the Regional Partnership Board.  Some projects were regional so Blaenau Gwent’s proportion of grant monies would be less, as it could be split five ways.  In relation to Children’s Services and the critical numbers of children they support, some of the grant monies allocated could be contributed to support wider Gwent projects.

The Director of Social Services explained that in 2014 when the Integrated Care Fund first started, it had been around older adults, funding for complex children came into being from 2016, historically a lot of the funding had gone to older people and adult services, only lately had the Authority been able to apply for children’s funding this could be part of the reason for the differential of the funding allocation.

In relation to the recommendations, a Member enquired if neighbouring authorities had alternative approaches for consideration.  The Head of Adult Services said that no alternative approaches had been raised by neighbouring authorities, if Blaenau Gwent wanted to do anything specifically different then that would be presented to the RPB for discussion.

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1; namely that the actions currently underway to evaluate the future impact of the cessation of the ICF funded posts and services be approved.