Issue - meetings

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Lead Member for Adults Services, Housing and Homelessness, Cllr Sarah Wakefield to introduce the report. Cllr Wakefield highlighted that this was a positive story of transformation and the report was coming to close out the programme after all of the work has been completed, and that the £10m of ongoing savings had been achieved and would be sustainable for the long-term.

Cllr Wakefield proceeded to hand over to Executive Director Adult Services and Housing, Mel Lock, and Emily Faldon (Newton Europe), who explained: that the transformation had saved money and changed lives, improved things for staff and outcomes for people, which resulted in savings and improved quality of life; that the transformation had involved work with reablement, more care act assessments, fewer people admitted to long-term residential care, supporting people to learn new skills and stay independent, assessing people to prepare for adulthood earlier. They provided case studies and examples, the lessons learned and how the learning can be shared with the rest of the organisation.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: the work of the late Cllr Dean Ruddle on this transformation; the assurance that staff are prepared to continue with improvements when Newton withdraw; the importance of preparing for adulthood; whether savings are cumulative or each year; whether transformation is encouraged with our partner organisations; and the importance of being a learning organisation.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and the Committee noted the report.