To submit additional service data requested by the Panel (to be distributed separately).
Minutes:
Adult Social Care had submitted supplementary finance and monitoring information requested by the panel at the last meeting. This information was circulated to the Panel at the meeting (attached). As the information was not available before the meeting, this precluded any detailed examination of the documents, though the Panel made a number of preliminary observations and recommendations.
§ The service was requested to keep a transport diary for the week 20th-24th October to provide the Panel with a snapshot of transport activity (usage, journeys, destination, passengers etc). It was reported to the Panel that although this had been undertaken, the service was still in the process of collating and analysing the data that was generated. In this context some preliminary findings were highlighted to the Panel:
o In the week of the assessment, there were no outings from the older people’s day centres, though the vehicles were providing additional transport runs to other drop-ins during this period.
o There were 96 vehicle journeys and 570 passenger journeys made during the week within older people’s day care.
o The average vehicle down time per vehicle per day was 3 hrs 20mins.
§ The Panel noted that for the service, the diary represented the start of the process of collecting meaningful monitoring data and that it would take time to find an appropriate system that collected the correct data in an appropriate and efficient manner.
§ The Panel was keen to emphasise that it did not want the service to collect data unnecessarily and did not want to place any data requirement on the service that was over burdensome. It was therefore important that the service find an appropriate balance. In this context, the Panel were keen that the service continue with this data monitoring exercise and present their analysis of this data to the Panel at the next meeting.
Agreed: That the service collates the transport diary data and presents an analysis of these findings with service recommendations/ developments. To be for next Panel meeting (26th November).
§ The service presented additional financial data requested by the Panel which included overall cost summaries and a breakdown of the component cost pressures for the transport budget in adult social care (these are attached).
§ The service reported that it was impracticable to compare the previous costs of the transport service (under the previous centralised system) with the new service based model of transport due to the recharge system. Under this system, services were recharged simply as a proportion of the overall transport costs for the whole borough wide passenger transport service which meant local managers had little control over their transport costs.
§ It was reported to the Panel that with additional control that local managers had over their transport budgets, they were in the process of developing financial benchmarks for the service (unit costs and cost per passenger journey). This data would help to develop comparisons with the performance of other passenger transport services.
§ The service also presented data relating to the geographical distribution of transport routes. It was agreed it would be more beneficial if these were to be mapped as it may facilitate the internal transport planning process.
Agreed: That transport routes be mapped.