Agenda item

To consider a motion referred from council assembly in respect of day centre services in Southwark.

RESOLVED:

Day Centre Services in Southwark

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be agreed:

1.  Council assembly notes:

·  The excellent work which takes place at the Queens Road and Riverside Day Centres, run by the Camden Society, and the life changing importance of these centres for some of Southwark’s most severely disabled residents.

·  That, despite having had largest cuts in government funding to any London council, Southwark Council currently spends more per person with a learning disability and their family carers than any other council in England. The council budget agreed last month ensures that the council will continue to spend more per service user than the average for our comparator boroughs.

·  That there are currently considerable pressures on adult social care budgets and the system of personal budgets in Southwark.

·  That the Care Act 2014, passed when Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb was Minister for Care and Support, removed discretion from councils to provide personal budgets to people with moderate care needs.

·  That, these pressures notwithstanding, personal budgets cannot be spent on day centres which no longer exist. It is therefore important that the council works with service providers, service users and their families to ensure that Southwark has services for people with learning disabilities that are sustainable in the long term given these financial pressures.

·  That council policy since the 1990s has been to let buildings at market rent levels, unless there are exceptional circumstances. The council will always assess the likelihood that a leasee is able to pay the required rent before agreeing a new lease.

·  That the rent-free leases on the Queen’s Road and Riverside Day Centres both ended on 31 January 2017, as originally set out in both leases. In both cases, these rent-free arrangements were always time-limited.

2.  Council assembly welcomes:

·  The borough’s continuing commitment to protect the most vulnerable in the borough as much as is possible from the impacts of government cuts.

·  The agreement by the property department of a tenancy at will arrangement at Queen’s Road Centre to allow for the full assessment of every service user’s needs. This arrangement will run until 30 June 2017, but the property department has indicated that some flexibility on this end-date may be possible to ensure that all the Queen’s Road assessments are completed.

·  A similar tenancy at will agreement will be put in place to allow for assessments of that centre’s users that is currently planned to run until 30 November.

·  The establishment of a working group involving the council, the Camden Society, Southwark Resource Centre and representatives of both service users and their carers to explore future options to provide day care and develop a hub model of service delivery, as has already been established for mental health service users in the borough.

·  That this working group will also consider how to best meet the needs of service users and their carers who fall in the moderate needs category.

3.  Council assembly calls on the cabinet to:

·  Continue in its commitment to protect the most vulnerable in our community despite the severity of government cuts facing our borough.

·  Monitor the work of the working group to ensure that Southwark develops a hub meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities in the borough that is sustainable given the 2014 Care Act and financial pressures.

·  Work to ensure that a hub model ensures that people with learning disabilities who have moderate needs still have those needs met.

·  Ensure that service users and their carers are kept informed of progress of the work of the working group.

It was noted that the cabinet member for adult care and financial inclusion had met with the group and that matters were progressing well.