Agenda item

5:05pm

The Housing Manager and the Careline and Support Service Manager attended to provide a progress report on the implementation of recommendations from the Careline and Support Services Review.

The Careline and Support Service Manager noted that on 9 February, 2016 Cabinet had approved the restructure of the Careline & Support Service in order to mitigate the effects of reductions in Derbyshire County Council (DCC) funding, and to help the service to move towards being financially self-sustaining.

Due to severe budget cuts to Derbyshire County Council’s funding, it had decided, after a consultation process with stakeholders, to withdraw the funding for support for residents in sheltered accommodation from April 2016. This change had consequently resulted in a significant loss of income for Chesterfield Borough Council as a provider of sheltered accommodation and created a situation where continued support offered to residents in sheltered schemes would need to be provided using  funding the council received for its floating support services.

The Careline and Support Service Manager advised that a number of measures had been put into place in order to manage and mitigate the effect of the cut to funding received by the council. The role of Sheltered Scheme Managers had been deleted and the tasks they currently undertook were now being provided either in a different way, or by other means.  A new post of Social Inclusion Officer had also been created, to organise, facilitate and coordinate activities across the schemes, as well as in the outlying community rooms managed by the Housing Service. The Careline and Support Service Manager also provided details of how the cleaning of communal areas and general building checks were being carried out in the absence of a scheme manager.

The Careline and Support Service Manager also provided an update on the new Careline operator roles and their recruitment, the new charges for the Careline service and how the council had taken the opportunity of offering a Careline provision and monitoring service to residents living in the Derbyshire Dales district, following a decision made by Dales Housing to stop providing this service.

Members asked whether all the new Careline Operator roles were permanent jobs and whether agency staff were still being used. The Careline and Support Service Manager advised that all posts with the exception of the fixed term role of Publicity Officer were permanent jobs and that agency staff were only being used as a short term measure until all the new permanent staff had taken up their positions.

Members noted with appreciation the hard work of officers which had resulted in a positive outcome for the Careline and support service evolving and expanding from an initially very difficult situation of budget cuts. The Careline and Support Service Manager noted that the service should be totally self-financing within five years and further steps would be taken to develop the service so that it would become financially sustainable and be able to continue to provide a high level of service to its users.

Members thanked the Housing Manager and the Careline and Support Services Manager for attending and providing the progress update.

RESOLVED –

1.   That the progress report be noted.

2.   That a further progress report be received prior to any further reports on the Careline and Support Services are submitted to Cabinet.