Issue - meetings

In February 2015 Cabinet agreed to consult with residents, families and stakeholders on the proposal to deregister Tudor Gardens Residential Care home and re-provide it as supported living accommodation in line with the Department’s objectives to support people to have increased choice and control to live as independently as possible.  The Council has now completed a twelve-week statutory consultation on proposed changes.  This report outlines the responses to that consultation, the potential impact on the residents and resulting recommendations taking into account the feedback that has been received from service users, family members, advocates, staff and unions.

(i)         that the responses received during the consultation meetings over the 90 statutory consultation days between March and June 2015 as amended in the supplementary report, be noted;

(ii)        that approval be given to start the process to de-register Tudor Gardens as a residential care home and the re-provide as supported living accommodation for the reasons detailed in paragraphs 3.7 and 3.8 of the report;

(iii)       that approval be given to the invitation of tenders for the on site care and support services at Tudor Gardens on the basis of the pre-tender considerations set out in paragraph 7.1 of the report;

(iv)       that approval be given to the evaluation of the tenders referred to in (ii) above on the basis of the evaluation criteria set out in paragraph 7.1 of the report.

The report from the Strategic Director, Adults reminded the Cabinet that in February 2015 agreement had been given to consult residents, families and stakeholders on the proposal to deregister Tudor Gardens Residential Care home and re-provide it as supported living accommodation in line with the department’s objectives to support people to have increased choice and control to live as independently as possible.  Following a twelve-week statutory consultation on proposed changes, the report outlined the responses to that consultation, the potential impact on the residents and resulting recommendations taking into account the feedback that had been received from service users, family members, advocates, staff and unions.

With the consent of the Chair, Mr Ken Knight addressed the meeting on behalf of relatives and carers at Tudor Gardens Residential Care Home and spoke against the proposals to move towards more independent living for the residents. Mr Knight contrasted the finding in the Equalities Assessment document produced in February 2015 which stated that the impact of the proposals on the residents would be negative with the EA appended to the report now before members which now stated that the change in policy would have a positive impact on residents. He circulated a document to members which highlighted the changes between the February pre consultation report and that now before members for approval.

Mr Knight felt that all the residents needed 24/7 care and, given their mental age, lacked the capacity to understand what was on offer. He felt residents were not ready for employment and in any event, no assessments had been carried out since the home had opened in 2010. Mr Knight expressed concern that the managers and staff were leaving, claimed that one in three members of staff were on zero hour contracts and that he had no confidence in the TUPE guarantees. He was also not confident that the most successful bidder would necessarily be the best service provider.

Phil Porter (Strategic Director, Adults) in responding to the concerns put forward by Mr Knight, drew attention to an addendum to the report published before the meeting, which sought to correct and clarify perceived anomalies in the original report based on comments from Mr Knight. Regarding the change in the Equalities Assessment, he advised that following consultation, a different conclusion had been reached on the impact on residents, resulting in the change from ‘negative’ to ‘positive’. Phil Porter stated that supported living would give residents more control over the support they received, acknowledged concern over assessments and gave assurance that in the next stage of the process, the assessments would ensure that the new service fully met needs of Tudor Gardens residents.

Members expressed concern and requested clarification on the journey from negative impact to positive, the issue of residents’ capacity and the thoroughness of the consultation exercise. Members heard that it was not uncommon for the result of the Equalities Assessment to change as the result of a consultation process as efforts would have been made to address concerns raised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6