The public need more information on social care service

More information is needed to be able to fully scrutinise a service launched this year to give people more information on social care services in Powys.

A report on Powys County Council’s (PCC) “Assist Adult Social Care” call centre was discussed at the Health and Care scrutiny committee.

Launched in February, Assist was created to provide “Information, Advice and Assistance” to support people to be both “better informed” and “better able” to “self manage their levels of independence and resilience”.

The report says that the critical CIW (Care Inspectorate Wales) inspection in January pushed PCC to redesign how people access the service with Assist replacing PPD (Powys People Direct).

At the meeting Cllr Jackie Charlton, said: “I was very pleased to see this report, it’s so much easier to understand what it’s about rather than PPD (Powys People Direct).

“The report tells me a lot of what’s going on, but not how it’s measured and whether it’s successful.

“It feels successful, but there’s no actual data that provides us information to scrutinise.”

Head of adult social services, Michael Gray, replied that data from all parts of the service including the “front door,” measuring their performance.

"We can provide you with that information,” said Mr Gray.

Cllr Elwyn Vaughan has in the past criticised PPD for issues with the Welsh language side of the service.

Cllr Vaughan, said: “I have noticed the inability to find a Welsh speaking officer.

“I have suggested this before, but if you’re looking for bilingual skills in this I would suggest you’re more likely to find those skills in Newtown for instance or Ystradgynlais.”

One of the big pluses in the new system according to PCC is to have a social worker as part of the Assist team that screens the calls – before sending them on to be dealt with by the correct team.

Committee chair, Cllr Gwilym Williams, asked: “Having a social worker answer the phone is a good idea, but can the one that covers the whole of Powys cope?”

Contact and safeguarding senior manager, Karen Arthur, replied: “They are not covering all the calls there’s a team of contact officers behind them.

“They do the work, and the social worker scrutinises the referrals before they are passed on.”

“We have a team manager above, it’s a very full role.”

The report will come back to the committee with information on abandoned calls and also how the performance is being monitored.