Agenda item

Report to follow.

Alexandra Domingue, Project Manager for Adult Social Care Commissioning, introduced the report noting that the Adult Social Care Commissioning Co-Production Board was being launched in November 2023 as a response to both the recent peer review and the Scrutiny Review on this issue. The Board was envisaged as a vehicle for Adult Social Care Commissioning to involve people in the development of projects that would affect them.

Alexandra Domingue added that the Joint Partnership Board had helped to shape the development of the new Board including the terms of reference. The vision was for the Board to take upcoming commissioning work and gain input and guidance on the development as part of a multidisciplinary group including residents who access adult social care services and carers. It would also involve providers and adult social care staff. Other issues such as quality assurance work or contracts may also be brought to the attention of the Board.

Alexandra Domingue then responded to questions from the Panel:

• Asked by Cllr Connor about the membership of the new Board, Alexandra Domingue said that invitations had been sent to reference groups, carers groups and residents. It was also expected that there would be sub-groups with people joining based on their areas of experience and expertise. Cllr Lucia das Neves would be attending the Board as the Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care & Wellbeing. It may also be appropriate to involve other Council Members on certain areas of work, particularly when related to certain localities. Cllr Connor suggested that information about this should be communicated to all Council Members so that they could have the opportunity to express their interest. (ACTION)
• Cllr Mason expressed support for wider engagement with local voluntary sector organisations and Alexandra Domingue said that any further suggestions of organisations that they could reach out to would be welcomed.
• Asked by Cllr Mason how success would be measured, Alexandra Domingue said that there would be various ways of doing this including the contract monitoring process and proactively obtaining feedback from service users. This could potentially happen through a resident audit team rather than directly through officers.
• Asked by Cllr Connor about support for residents in their co-production roles, Alexandra Domingue said that specification of the position of a Co-production Board member had been provided in the agenda papers and there was also some ongoing work with colleagues on the development of some formal training and ring-fenced support/debriefing. There had also been progress in bringing forward financial remuneration measures and references for future job applications and there were ongoing conversations about the most appropriate format for this.
• Helena Kania requested further details about the link between the Co-Production Board and the Joint Partnership Board. Alexandra Domingue responded that the role of Public Voice had been instrumental in sharing details about the Co-Production Board with its members and that she would welcome close working and updates between the two Boards. This could potentially include a representative of the Joint Partnership Board joining the Co-Production Board.
• Cllr Brennan commented that she was impressed by the work that had been done as outlined in the report and presentation. Cllr O’Donovan also welcomed the work, noting in particular the egalitarian approach to the Board and the specification for Board members to have had direct experience of using or caring for someone who used adult social case services.
• Cllr Iyngkaran queried whether the specification for Board members risked self-selecting a particular group of people and excluding others, for example by attracting people who were more likely to have a higher educational background, speak English as a first language and have confidence participating in a group setting. Alexandra Domingue observed that it was important to ensure that there were other mechanisms for people to participate rather than being a Board Member, that there could be separate sub-groups to focus on particular areas and there had been different types of engagement including through social media and by producing an ‘easy-read’ version of the terms of reference. She added that the team was particularly conscious of the need to have a variety and depth of engagement and that this would be a focus of the development of the work in the coming year. Jon Tomlinson added that it was important to recognise that this was the start of a journey in many ways with the first meeting on 29^th November and that the aim of this Board was to put service users, carers and ‘experts by experience’ in the driving seat.

Cllr Connor thanked the officers for their report and indicated that the Panel would like to receive a further update on the work of the Co-production Board after it had developed further. Vicky Murphy suggested that the appropriate timescale for this would be approximately 6 to 9 months time. (ACTION)