Agenda item

To receive an update on the Council’s response to the recommendations of the ‘Living Through Lockdown’ report.

The report was published in August 2020 by the Joint Partnership Board and is provided in full in this pack.

To follow - Details on Council response.

Charlotte Pomery, Assistant Director for Commissioning, introduced this item noting the apologies from Helena Kania because this was a joint response from the Council and the Joint Partnership Board.

Charlotte Pomery said that the Living Through Lockdown report conveyed the experience of vulnerable residents and those with additional needs during the first Covid-19 lockdown and made recommendations on how services were delivered. There was a co-production working group in place which involved members from the various reference groups of the Joint Partnership Board and this working group would continue to operate. The working group was chaired by Helena Kania with around eight members as well as representatives of the Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group and there were minutes taken by Public Voice.

Charlotte Pomery explained that there were a series of headline points responding to the recommendations of the report, a selection of which were then discussed:

The first section was on better and faster communication. Charlotte Pomery acknowledged that this was critical in the first lockdown and that there had been a significant amount of work on improving digital communications and digital inclusion, investing in roles such as community champions and the community newsroom and a stronger focus on communication in community languages and easy read. Cllr Connor observed that the feedback from some service users was that they weren’t always sure what was happening and didn’t feel that they had sufficient access to information. She asked what had changed as a result of this feedback. Charlotte Pomery said that the response was all about changing ways of working and the communications model in areas such as community champions and the emphasis on co-production were examples of the long-term shift in this area. Beverley Tarka, Director for Adults & Health, added that the shift in communications was part of an ongoing journey which included the new locality-based working approach which had been a topic of discussion at previous Panel meetings.

Another recommendation was on default financial assistance where it had been felt that, if steps had been taken to reduce a financial burden, this should be applied automatically rather than by requiring individuals to apply. Charlotte Pomery said that this was possible in some areas where this had been implemented but not in others such as where a means-tests was necessary.

On Care Assessments and Annual Reviews, there had been a recommendation on non-digital routes to care and assessment. Charlotte Pomery said it was agreed that there should be dual offers of face-to-face and digital services and that this had now been in place for some time wherever possible. She acknowledged that there was still some debate about the balance between people preferring face-to-face access (due to lack of confidence with digital services) and people preferring digital access (due to concerns about Covid-19). Cllr Connor noted that, according to the report, this dual approach was a strain on services and asked whether this was impacting on timescales for care assessments. Beverley Tarka added that there had been delays to the social care assessment waiting list caused by Covid-19 and that, while the Council triages and prioritises cases to manage the waiting lists, this was part of the argument to central Government on appropriate funding for social care. She confirmed that there were some performance statistics on this issue that could be shared with the Panel. (ACTION) Cllr das Neves suggested that this information should be provided to the Panel on a regular basis. Charlotte Pomery confirmed that a recommendation on sharing information on backlogs and plans to address this with the Joint Partnership Board had been agreed.

On a recommendation that Haringey Council should ensure that they contact all those with a learning difficulty, Charlotte Pomery observed that while some contact lists were available (such as those registered with their GP) and the Council did seek to contact all known vulnerable residents, there was no single register of everyone with a learning disability in the Borough.

On the Carers and Caring section, Charlotte Pomery noted that the recommendations in this section were being picked up through the Carers’ Strategy work and that there was already a Carers’ Strategy Implementation Action Group in place, as had previously been discussed with the Panel. This involved members from the JPB Carers’ Reference Group but included a wider group of carers as well. They had emphasised good communication and respite as priority issues.

Charlotte Pomery said that there had been no break in home care provision during the pandemic, though obviously there had been anxieties from some users about people coming into their households. There had been some reduction in demand for day services due to concerns about Covid-19, so there was more work to do in future on encouraging and enabling people back into day services.

On the Mental Health and Wellbeing section, Charlotte Pomery said that the huge impact of the pandemic on mental health in the community was widely acknowledged and that the response in this area included some excellent work on bereavement counselling through the Community Bereavement Framework and the wider community-based initiatives described in the previous agenda item.

On the Housing and Sheltered Accommodation section, there were recommendations on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and on plans to reduce evictions. It was recognised that sheltered housing was an important element of supporting vulnerable residents. It had been proposed that this area be the topic of a wider discussion with the Joint Partnership Board. She also noted that the Scrutiny Panel had recently been doing a Review on sheltered housing which could potentially feed into the wider debate on this.

On the Care Homes section, Charlotte Pomery said that communications with care homes had improved but a major challenge had been the national guidance for care homes which changed very frequently and made it difficult to keep families connected. Funding had been provided through the NHS and central Government on digital technology for residents to help enable them to keep in touch with friends and family. Cllr Connor observed that residents had reported frustrations with the inconsistencies in the visiting rules during the pandemic across different care homes in the Borough. Will Maimaris acknowledged that there was some local flexibility with different contexts in different care homes and that the Council had strengthened relationships with the care homes and had tried to support visiting where possible. Cllr das Neves observed that this was a national issue and that some large care providers had taken a particular stance on all of their homes.

On the Parks and Recreation section, Charlotte Pomery said that some interested points had been raised on how to ensure that vulnerable residents could access parks and open spaces. Safety and parking were issues that had come through strongly. The Council was developing a new Parks and Green Spaces Strategy and was keen to ensure that the Joint Partnership Board was actively involved in this. She added that the Joint Partnership Board was also closely involved in discussions on parking enforcement more widely as this had been a concern during the pandemic for blue badge holders.

On the Personal Budgets and Assistants section, Charlotte Pomery said that had been particular concerns about the free availability of PPE for personal assistants.

On Food Provision, Charlotte Pomery said that there was a strong food network and so the mechanisms for food delivery were now in place should they need to be expanded again in future. A food strategy would also be developed shortly with partners.

Cllr Connor thanked everyone involved in developing the response and proposed that a further update be provided to the Panel in 2022/23 (potentially at the September 2022 meeting), noting that input from NHS colleagues would also be welcome. (ACTION)