Cllr das Neves,
Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Well-being, introduced
this item with an update on some key issues:
- The
Canning Crescent Mental Health Centre was due to open in June/July
with more bed space for people in crisis, a community café
and the safe haven run by Mind all in an accessible
location.
- On
Covid, a lot of the government
financial support would be dropping away and that, in this new
phase, the Council would be looking at the learning from the
pandemic and how to further develop outreach to increase
vaccination rates.
- There had been a lot of work on health and care
integration with new legislation and guidance and changes to the
Borough Partnership (including co-production) with Integrated Care
Systems expected to begin in July.
- The
work on place-based hubs was progressing, starting with
Northumberland Park, and bringing the Council’s presence into
the community was vital, particularly following years of austerity
cuts.
- The
prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) was a
significant priority and there had been a commitment to increase
funding in recognition of the scale of the issue, including the
rise in domestic abuse during the pandemic. There were also new
measures expected on lighting and surveillance, including in
Finsbury Park.
- New
efforts were being made to improve work on aid and adaptations,
particularly on communications and on resourcing in areas such as
occupational therapists and surveyors (though this was a wider
regional and national problem).
- The
ongoing integration work with Homes for Haringey (HfH) would include the links between health and
care and HfH services such as sheltered
housing.
- There was a large capital programme which
including a project to support women experiencing
homelessness/rough sleeping and women experiencing domestic abuse.
The capital programme also included Osborne Grove Nursing Home
where the co-production had been of a high standard. 57 White Hart
Lane was a project with the NHS to provide care and support for
young people with complex needs and this was in the early stage of
development.
Cllr
das Neves and
senior officers then responded to questions from the
Panel:
-
Asked by Cllr Culverwell
for her view on priorities for scrutiny, Cllr das Neves responded that tracking the data on a regular
basis, as previously mentioned, would be her
suggestion.
-
Asked by Ali Amasyali
whether services were back to normal operation yet after
Covid, Cllr das Neves said that a lot of services had functioned
throughout the pandemic. However, some residents were still
reluctant to engage with services face-to-face, there was still
some backlog in certain areas and there were also now higher levels
of demand in some areas.
-
Ali Amasyali asked for
statistics on the typical timescales for aids and adaptations to be
implemented after an application. Beverley Tarka responded that
pre-Covid it could typically take 12
months for a standard adaptation to be completed. An additional
challenge since then included supply and demand issues which were
causing delays and this was unfortunately likely to remain the case
for some time to come. The Council recognised that communication
with residents about progress on their application was particularly
important in such circumstances. Cllr Blake asked about the use of
suppliers and contractors and suggested that data on how the delays
in this area had changed over the last few years could be brought
to a future meeting. (ACTION) Beverley Tarka added that the
Council used the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) to obtain
contractors. Charlotte Pomery said that local suppliers were used
in some circumstances but this would often depend on specialisms
and the scale of the work required. Asked by Cllr Blake whether
there was any collaboration with other Boroughs on suppliers,
Charlotte Pomery commented that there was some work with other
London Boroughs on specialised equipment to bring down costs.
Additional costs had resulted from the impact of Brexit, increases in demand and rises in
inflation.
-
Cllr Connor asked about the decrease in the base
Adults budget in 2022/23 as had been observed during the recent
budget scrutiny exercise. Cllr das Neves said that £6m of additional funding had
been provided in recognition of the increased need that was
anticipated. She added that a written response would be provided to
the Panel on the specific figures that Cllr Connor raised from the
budget scrutiny. (ACTION)
-
Asked by Cllr Connor about funding for VAWG
initiatives in schools, Cllr das Neves
acknowledged that the budgets were an issue and so was the ability
for schools to manage new initiatives given their recent focus on
recovering from the pandemic. There was also some ongoing work with
young people on a VAWG campaign with videos to challenge
victim-blaming attitudes.
-
Cllr Connor noted that Panel Members had visited
sheltered housing schemes in the Borough recently and had expressed
concerns that people with very high needs were placed with older
residents. Cllr das Neves said that she
was aware of these concerns and agreed about the importance of
sheltered housing residents feeling safe. She committed to an
additional written response on this issue. (ACTION)
Charlotte Pomery observed that there may be further work to do to
consider particular designation of schemes for particular needs.
Cllr Blake added that he had picked up concerns from residents that
the criteria for admissions to sheltered housing appeared to have
changed towards residents with high needs rather than those who
were mainly independent but needed some limited
support.
-
Cllr Connor reiterated her concerns from earlier in
the meeting about funding for mental
health support for young people in schools so that this was
provided across the whole of the borough. Cllr das
Neves agreed that this was a concern
and said that she would raise this with Cllr Zena Brabazon, Cabinet
Member for Children, Schools and Families and would provide a
written response to the Panel. (ACTION)