The Sub-Committee received a presentation in respect of the Care Act easements guidance that:

• Outlined how Tower Hamlets can use the new Care Act easements, created under the Coronavirus Act 2020, to ensure the best possible care for people in our society during the COVID-19 pandemic; and

• Provided further details on the purpose of the Care Act easements and when to use it; and

• Details on steps that Tower Hamlets is taking to ensure there is no need to put in place Care Act easements in the Borough.

The main points of the discussion maybe summarised below:

The Sub-Committee noted that

• It is an absolute priority for LBTH to make sure that those that need support and those that contact the Council received that support in a timely way.
• LBTH work on a risk-based response mechanism and now officers are developing an approach so that the Council have consistency and monitor waiting lists.
• Any issues arising from this process should be drawn to the attention of the relevant officers
• There have been issues regarding apparent delays in assessments by the Occupational Therapy (OT) Team and the impact that this this has had on everyday activities; quality of life and the independence of those affected. In response it was noted that based on current trends, demand for the Service has outpaced the supply of occupational therapists nationally. The Team have accordingly undertaken a recruitment campaign and have been successful in recruiting a number occupational therapists that should help to address the waiting for equipment or adaptations.
• The Team are also having conversations with adult social care and care providers to understand their perspective of the service.
• The Service ensures that they respect and protect their client’s human rights when providing their services and have provided some learning and development session for their workforce on assessing against human rights violations. This has been done in partnership with the Councils legal team and with guidance published on the Councils Adult Social Care internal intranet pages where staff can find a list of resources to access alongside the guidance around human rights violations. Therefore, should LBTH find itself in a circumstance where officers need to undertake an assessment under Care Act easements they would have that information at hand and be able to understand how many people had been assessed as having had a human rights violation.
• The following rights being the most relevant when you receive health or care services (i) article 8 - the right to respect for private and family life; (ii) article 3 - the right not to be tortured or treated in an inhuman or degrading way; and (iii) article 2 - the right to life.
• The Service needs to understand from a case law perspective where the boundary is in terms of whether breaches are evident and obviously they would work very closely with the legal team in those situations where it was more of a challenge to agree a formal decision.  However, what the Service has done  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4

Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses were noted.

DECISION

1.    To endorse and approve the revised Travel Assistance Policy, which can then be implemented fully by the end of 2020.

Action by:

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, HEALTH, ADULTS AND COMMUNITY (D. RADLEY)

(Head of Strategy and Policy – Health, Adults and Communities (J. Starkie)

Councillor Rachel Blake, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing introduced the report on the Council’s Covid-19 winter care plan. She highlighted how important this document was to the Council given the impact the pandemic was having on residents. She thanked all those who had helped put the plan together and everyone who was helping support residents and their services.

She took Cabinet through the different sections of the plan including covering issues such as discharging from hospital, care home action plans and local outbreak plans, providing support to care home staff who were self-isolating, provision of personal protection equipment and support for home visits, day services and respite provision. She also highlighted the training and support being provided to staff.

Finally, she also highlighted the work being undertaken to tackle issues of racism and inequalities and the support being provided to community volunteering.

The Mayor welcomed the report and he noted the Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses. The Mayor proposed the recommendation to Cabinet and it was agreed without dissent. It was:

RESOLVED

1.    To endorse and approve the revised Travel Assistance Policy, which can then be implemented fully by the end of 2020.