Agenda item

To provide Scrutiny Members with an overview of the Winter Resilience arrangements for Blackpool Place and an updates on key areas of work.

Ms Samantha Wake, Deputy Team Manager, Ms Lucia Plant, Deputy Team Manager, Ms Zarna Choudhury, Case Assessor, Mr Mark Bairstow, Social Worker and Harrison Mottram, Student Social Worker, all from Adult Social Care gave a progress update following the implementation of the 3 Conversations approach. 

To date they had worked with 343 people, 84% of those were dealt with using conversation one, and 16% had progressed to conversation two.

Ms Choudhury, Mr Bairstow and Mr Mottram provided the Committee with three very different, real life experiences where the 3 Conversations approach had been applied and explained how the impact of the approach had created better outcomes for the individuals.

The team explained that as part of the promotion for the 3 Conversations approach they had attended a number of community events and coffee mornings.  The team advised that as part of the continued promotion of 3 Conversations they would be attending the Blackpool Place Based Partnership 'Spring into Spring' event at the Winter Gardens on Monday 13th March 3-5pm.

Ms Karen Smith, Director of Adult Services, Blackpool Council and Director of Health and Care Integration (Blackpool), Lancashire and South Cumbria (ICB) advised that the 3 Conversations implementation was in the early stages, and evaluation would be a key measure of the success as to whether it would be rolled out to other services.

Members thanked the team and stated that the feedback from the life experiences had been great asset to the presentation.

Ms Smith and Councillor Neal Brookes Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care provided an Adult Services update and focused on the adaptations made by the different services and the impact they had had on workload over the Christmas period.

Work had continued with regards to the Ambulance Diversion Service to reduce the number of patients going to hospital by increasing the treatments within the home and virtual wards.  In addition, the Ambulance Service and Rapid Response Service would continue to develop their offer to enable the right professionals to be available to the patient at the initial stage to prevent the need for them to be admitted to hospital.

The Fylde Coast Health and Social Care Career Academy had provided a positive impact on reducing staff turnover.  The whole recruitment process would be analysed, bringing the social care services together with regards to recruitment events and the application process alongside ongoing work with regards to recruitment and retention of staff across the whole sector.

With regards to budget concerns, the annual budget would be approved at Annual Council on 21 February 2024.  Ms Smith advised that joint working should be a priority to ensure efficiency savings. 

In response to a question, Ms Smith explained that the Integrated Care Board (ICB) had been expected to provide additional income of £1.6m into the Better Care Fund (BCF), however this had not transpired.  Members were reassured that no retrospective funding would be included in future budgets to mitigate this type of shortfall in the future.

The Committee agreed:  To receive a further update from 3 Conversations in 12 months’ time, with specific information on what worked well, what did not work so well, service demand and budget implications.