Cabinet Meeting on Tuesday 11 February 2020

Adult Social Care

Draft Day Opportunities Strategy 2019

Cabinet Meeting on Tuesday 11 February 2020

Councillor Paulette Hamilton, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care

Our Day Opportunities consultation concluded on the 4 August 2019, and I would like to thank everyone who took part.

We carried out an extensive consultation which enabled people to have their say in a number of different ways including consultation meetings, holding stalls at events to encourage people to get involved, meetings in our internal and some external day centres, and of course through our Day Opportunities questionnaires.

In total, we held 75 consultation events across the city and 960 questionnaires were completed.

The feedback we have received indicates that there is support for most of the principles of the Strategy and for the Day Service Model. Further details of what people have said can be found in Appendix 2 – Consultation Findings – Questionnaire Analysis.

Summary of findings

• Draft Strategy proposals – a high percentage of those who completed the standard questionnaire were in agreement with the proposals (62% agreed and 18% disagreed), whilst a higher percentage of those who completed the easy read questionnaires were not in agreement with the proposals (41% disagreed and 36% agreed).The overall level of support for the proposals was 47.7 %.
• Six key aspirations - the majority of all respondents were in agreement of the key aspirations of the draft Strategy, with the exception of the principle to maximise the opportunity to use personal budgets and direct payments to access support or activities of the citizens choice.  A high percentage of those completing standard questionnaires disagreed with this principle, whilst a high percentage of easy read agreed with the principle. Overall, 42% agreed with this principle.
• Day Service Model - In relation to the proposed day service model, a high percentage of those completing standard and easy read questionnaires were in agreement.  When asked about the impact the draft service model would have on them and or their family, it was felt that the model would have a positive impact.

The most common comments made include:

• Day centre closures - encouraging people to access services in the community is seen as a means to reducing the number of day centres in future i.e. day centre closures
• Friendships – people who attend day centres value the friendships that they build and this should be taken into account
• Safety, transport, accessibility and the attitude towards people with learning disabilities and physical disabilities is of particular concern if day opportunities are to be community based
• Carers value the importance of day care as a means of support/respite for carers needs to be considered
• Young people - there is a need to consider the needs and aspirations of young people as well as citizens with autism and those growing old with learning disability and dementia
• Draft day service model - people would like more explanation as to how it would work in practice, considering people have different complexity of needs.  This should not be a “one size fits all” approach as people have different support needs some of which are very complex.
• Funding – people want to know how day opportunities will be funded in future
• People want to know how the draft strategy would be implemented and how it would work in practice
• Some concerns were expressed in relation to the aspiration to maximise the use of personal budgets and direct payments, that there may not be enough provision in the community.

The council for the following reasons recommends that the strategy is approved by cabinet, acknowledging the comments and concerns raised by citizens:

• Historically day service provision has been neglected and has not been sufficiently developed by the council to fully meet the needs of citizens
• The ongoing uncertainty of the future of day opportunities provision has created concerns for citizens and carers. A Strategy would clarify the future intentions of the council regards day opportunities provision.
• There are concerns that the current provision does not adequately cater for young adults transitioning from children’s services. This concern also applies to the needs of different and emerging user groups including those growing old with a learning disability and people with dementia.

Key Recommendations

The Cabinet approves: -

• The draft Birmingham City Council Day Opportunities Strategy and the Draft Day Service Model, Appendix A.
• The development, in co-production with citizens, of a draft Implementation Plan to support the proposed delivery of the Strategy.

List of Appendices to the Cabinet Report:

Appendix A - Adult Social Care Draft Day Opportunities Strategy 2019

Appendix B - Equality Impact Assessment

Appendix C - Day Opportunities Consultation 2019 Report

Appendix C is supported by the following additional appendices:

Appendix 1 – Easy Read Executive Summary

Appendix 2 – Consultation Findings – Questionnaire Analysis

Appendix 3 – Stakeholder Analysis

Appendix 4 – Consultation Findings - Common Themes from Comments and Questions

Appendix 5- Frequently Asked Questions and Responses Themed

Appendix 6 – Comments Themed (raw)

Appendix 7 – Consultation Events Data

Appendix 8 – Google Analytics Day Opps Webpage Traffic

Appendix 9 – Consultation Communication Documents

Appendix 10 – Glossary of Terms

All of the Cabinet reports and supporting appendices listed above will be published on CMIS from Monday, 3 February 2020, no later than 5:00pm.

Committee Management Information System (CMIS) Cabinet meeting 11/02/2020. Item number 10.

The document set listed below will be made available to support the Cabinet meeting process and can be viewed from Tuesday 4 February – Monday 10 February 2020 at the Council House Reception between the hours of 09.00 – 16.30.

• Appendix 5 – Frequently Asked Questions and Responses Themed (This document includes the questions that were asked at different Day Opportunities Consultation 2019 events and the responses provided via the consultation website).
• Appendix 6 – Comments Themed (raw) (This document includes comments that were recorded at different Day Opportunities Consultation 2019 events and taken from the questionnaire responses completed by people.  The comments recorded at events are already published on the consultation web site).

• Completed Questionnaires (fully anonymised)
• Consultation Correspondence
• A range of e-briefings
• Easy read / Standard consultation pack
• Stage 1 Day Opportunities Engagement Report
• Stage 2 Co-production Final Report
• NDTi report
• Adult Social Care Vision
• A List of Day Centres
• A Report of Population and Demographics
• Webpage updates
• Consultation on the Draft Day Opportunities Strategy Document (pre amendment)

In addition the set of documents will be available on Tuesday 11 February at Council House from 09.00am – 12.00pm

If you require any additional assistance, please contact us:

• By email at dayopportunitiesconsultation2019@birmingham.gov.uk
• By Telephone: 0121 303 5012

If you have a speech impairment, are deaf or hard of hearing you can contact Birmingham City Council by Next Generation Text (also known as Text Relay and TypeTalk).

• By Minicom: 18001 0121 303 1119