Regional government one step closer?

Members at the quarterly meeting of Social Services North West on Friday 13 December in Wigan considered the Government’s next moves towards elected assemblies in those English regions which express a wish for them.

The Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill was published on 14 November and deals with the holding of referendums on regional governance in England, to take forward the White Paper commitment to provide for directly elected regional assemblies for those regions that want them.

The LGA has argued that coupling the issue of public support for regional assemblies with the requirement to establish a wholly unitary local government system in any referendum is unnecessary and will distract from the overriding objective of improving local public services. 

It was considered inappropriate for SSNW to seek a single view on the merits of an elected North West Regional Assembly, given the variety of authorities and political parties represented.  However, the Bill is devoid of any reference to personal social services, and refers only to the public health function within the spectrum of NHS services. 

As the existing member-level body for social services in the region, Social Services North West can help to ensure that the key issues are given a high profile at regional level.  This means playing a full part in existing regional activity on relevant issues, such as the Economy and Society Key Priority Group of the North West Regional Assembly, and its Health and Social Care Task Group.  For more on this see Page 2

Disability website launches this month

The Valuing People North West website, produced by Social Services North West jointly with the Valuing People Implementation Team and the North West Training and Development Team, will be officially launched on Monday 27 January.  This will take place at a joint meeting of the Regional Valuing People Task Force and Chairs of Learning Disability Partnership Boards, to be held at Burnley Football Club.

The site aims to be as accessible as possible for people with learning disabilities themselves, as well as for their families.  It is designed to be user-friendly, requiring a minimum of computer expertise and a minimum of prior knowledge about learning disability.  However it will also be possible for non-beginners to move on to more detailed material as soon as they are ready to do this. 

You can view the draft version of the Valuing People North West website at  www.vpnw.org.uk  A pop-up box will ask you for your comments, which will all be gratefully received.

The North West Regional Assembly is “committed to promoting equality and recognising diversity, offering opportunity for all, raising the quality of life for socially excluded groups and places, with improvements for everyone, especially those who need it most.  The NWRA actively promotes policies for social inclusion and sustainable communities by pursuing equality of opportunity, eliminating barriers imposed by racial cultural and other forms of discrimination.” 

NWRA Disability Adviser Kate Smyth paid a return visit to SSNW at the December 2002 meeting, two years after the launch of the report “Committed to Inclusion, Accepting the Challenge – the North West and Disability”.

Implementation of the report and its findings commenced in December 2001.  Six Task Groups have been established which reflect the structure of the report launched in 2000, namely housing; economic development and employment; education, skills and training; health and social care; overarching issues; and transport and infrastructure. 

Since then the ‘Health and Social Care Task Group’ has met six times and focussed on a number of key disability issues of particular relevance to social services including: direct payments, fairer charging, social services assessments.  It is also expanding the values highlighted in Valuing People across the range of people with disabilities.  The quality of housing, accessibility of support services and training issues will also be highlighted. 

Questionnaire
A questionnaire is being drawn up to send out to statutory organisations to assess the numbers of people with disabilities employed by social services, housing and education, and accessibility to council offices.  It was also agreed at the Group that Strategic Health Authorities have a clear and vital role in driving the inclusion agenda and that health scrutiny arrangements will also help in keeping the needs of people with disabilities on the agenda.

Minister highlights 2003 as European Union Year of Disabled People

Maria Eagle MP, Minister for Disabled People gave the keynote speech on 28 November at an NWRA conference entitled “Committed to Inclusion, Accepting the Challenge, the North West and Disability”.

She spoke on the Government perspective and the programme for the European Union Year of Disabled People 2003.  The Year is intended to celebrate the achievements of disabled people and promote rights and participation, and successful projects submitted for funding will be announced in early December.  She was very positive in her assessment of the work done by NWRA and associated organisations in relation to disability, and recognised that the region is well ahead of the country generally in this respect.  She went on to stress the importance the Government now attached to inclusion, and said that disability issues were central to making the most of the potential of any population.  Full civil rights for disabled people were essential and had still not been fully achieved, due to the past history of undervaluing the significance of disability issues. The Government intends to achieve a massive extension of civil rights for disabled people between now and 2004, with better access to services and facilities and more employment protection.

Page 3: Government lobbied on delayed discharge

Social Services North West Chair Councillor Cliff Morris (Bolton) has told Health Secretary Alan Milburn of members’ serious reservations about the proposals for ‘fining’ local authorities in relation to delayed discharges.  “The introduction of financial penalties will inhibit rather than develop the true spirit of partnership, which requires all involved to work together to a shared goal rather than work separately to avoid the risk of penalties,” he said. 

The letter went on to state members’ support for the LGA in developing constructive incentives to help reduce delayed transfers of care, framed within a whole systems approach.  The analysis undertaken by the ADSS of the Swedish system was cited in the context of supporting their proposal for an appropriate, alternative English system.  Finally, it was pointed out that the crisis in the private care sector, with the closure of establishments, is adding more pressure to already stretched social services budgets as care homes raise fees.

National concerns
The government’s adoption of reimbursement is also coming under strong challenge at national level.  A statement issued by the LGA, ADSS and the NHS Confederation emphasised their joint commitment to end the suffering caused by delayed discharges, recognising that more needs to be done to provide integrated health and social care services.  They are very concerned indeed that the Government’s proposals do not undermine existing relationships between social services and the NHS, and protect funding for older people’s services.  They went on to stress that the plans to introduce these measures within six months could cause substantial practical difficulties.

LGA members of all political affiliations are concerned.  Sir Jeremy Beecham Chair of the LGA said that “What the Government does not recognise is that there are many reasons for the delays and many solutions to this issue – but fining local councils is not one of them.” 

MP’s briefed as Bill is rushed through

Once it was clear that the Government intended to push this Bill though most of its Parliamentary stages by Christmas 2002, Social Services North West Chair Councillor Cliff Morris decided to write also to all North West MPs to highlight our concerns.

Highlighting the concerns already expressed to Alan Milburn, he also drew attention to a report published on 1st November by the Audit Commission which lent added weight to the objections.  Entitled “Integrated Services for Older People - Building a Whole Systems Approach”, it concludes that better co-ordinated public services, focussing on helping older people stay independent, can only be achieved when different agencies work together as one system.

In its Parliamentary Briefing on the Bill, the LGA had given three key messages: the charging system is a radical and unwelcome departure by central government from promoting partnerships within a whole systems framework; there is a real risk the measures will not work, and could be counterproductive – particularly in terms of costs; and the timescales are unworkable – phased, piloted implementation is needed

They have proposed a better way forward through 

1.         Joint local protocols

2.         Joint duty for the allocation of money

3.         Delayed & piloted implementation

4.         Joint performance management

Page 4: Finance, health, children and other topics

Members and officers from across the North West, gathered at the quarterly meeting of Social Services North West on Friday 13 December in Wigan, examined a number of key issues.  Regional developments, disability issues and the lobbying of Ministers and MPs on delayed discharge have been highlighted in earlier pages, but our regular topics of finance, health and children’s services were also addressed.

On finance, we had written again to Alan Milburn about the unresolved issues around Government support for social services expenditure.  Referring to the letter sent in September from one of Milburn’s officials, Chair Councillor Cliff Morris (Bolton) expressed his disappointment that “it failed to address the other issues raised regarding the severe financial pressures on children’s services, and the rising cost of placements in the independent care sector for older people.” 

Members also noticed the announcement just made by Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford regarding the amount of Revenue Support Grant for next year, in which all English local authorities will receive an increase in Government grant for 2003/2004 that is over and above inflation.  The LGA had welcomed the increase in local government grant, but criticised further increases in specific grants.  LGA Chair Sir Jeremy Beecham said “ Many local authorities will still be facing substantial underlying budget and council tax pressures across many local social services, including education, care for the elderly and children’s services.  These result not only from pay award increases across the public sector, but also from demographic changes and new targets….All this, together with rising expectations of local councils’ ability to deliver ever improving services, adds up to substantial pressures on local budgets and council taxes”

On health issues, members noted the recent meeting with the Region’s Strategic Health Authorities, from which it was clear that they preferred to develop their own links at sub-regional level rather than work closely with SSNW.  Nonetheless we expressed our eagerness to promote quality at the interface between health and social care.  A response had been made to the Government on their Overview and Scrutiny Health Listening Exercise.  We had also pursued with the Strategic Health Authorities the issue raised by Wirral at the last meeting about the overview and scrutiny of health services serving more than one local authority.  They were clearly pursuing this in consultation with the corresponding local authorities.  Deputy Chair Councillor Ken Keith and the Co-ordinator continue to be involved with developing the North West Health Investment Plan: a draft document was being drawn up soon and they would be involved in consultations.

Children
Members were also told of the latest regional developments, including a proposed Children’s Trust event for authorities in the North West, and the Government’s proposals for Sure Start.  Anita Marsland, Chief Executive of Health and Social Care for Knowsley, said that the region is well placed to respond to the children’s agenda and to take a positive lead.  Eight local authorities in the North West are working together on a policy initiative and planned, on 12 February 2003, to share learning and best practice.  There will be an ADSS branch meeting on Children’s issues, including the report on the Climbie tragedy.  There was now a lot of energy and enthusiasm around amongst senior officers, and members’ support was much appreciated.  She believed that there was a good opportunity for LA’s to take the lead in shaping the future of children’s services. 

Co-ordinator
The meeting welcomed Liz Rafferty as the new Co-ordinator for Social Services North West, who will succeed Peter Hewitt on 20 January 2003

Click here to go to the full agenda and papers for the quarterly meeting of Social Services North West on Friday 13 December 2002 at Wigan

Click here to go to the minutes of the quarterly meeting of Social Services North West on Friday 13 December 2002 at Wigan

The full agenda papers and minutes of the 13 December meeting, 
and much more information about Social Services North West, 
are on our website at

www.ssnw.org.uk

updated every Monday morning!