The People Overview and Scrutiny Panel met to appoint a new Chair and Vice-Chair and to discuss bringing the statutory elements of Adult Social Care back in house. The Panel noted the proposals and agreed that a report on the Care Quality Commission's findings should be brought to their September meeting.

The meeting began by confirming the appointments of Councillor Helen Taylor and Councillor Devon Davies as Chair and Vice-Chair.

Adult Social Care Realignment

This was the most significant item on the agenda and concerned the Panel's response to the Cabinet's decision to bring the statutory elements of Adult Social Care back in-house from Optalis Limited.¹

Kevin McDaniel, the Executive Director for Adult Social Care, Health and Communities, explained that the Council had decided to bring the statutory elements of Adult Social Care back in-house because it wanted to improve its offer to social workers.

People employed in Optalis have access to a pension scheme, which is comparable to those working in care agencies and residential homes and is competitive in that field. But it's not competitive with those who are employed by a local authority, particularly in the senior roles...

Mr McDaniel argued that bringing the service back in-house would enable the Council to offer social workers better terms and conditions, and give it greater control over the service. He also said that it would enable the Council to make better use of its new Mosaic case management system, which is due to go live in October 2024.

Councillor Suzanne Cross raised concerns about the risks involved with bringing Adult Social Care back in-house, particularly the financial risks. She was worried that the Council may not have budgeted enough money for the transfer and questioned whether the Council would be able to recruit and retain enough social workers. Mr McDaniel admitted that there were risks, but insisted that he was confident that they could be managed.

The finance team... has been significantly reduced in capacity over recent years... there is a risk that we may discover that when we bring a service over here, the way RBWM requires it to be done might be different to the way it's being done in Optalis at the moment, and we might need to adjust some of the resourcing behind the scenes, hence the caveats in the finance section.

Councillor Carole Da Costa was pleased to see that the Council was taking steps to make the terms and conditions for social workers more competitive, but she was also concerned that it was important to ensure that the transfer went smoothly.

Councillor John Story was concerned about the cost of bringing the pension scheme for transferring Optalis staff into line with the Local Government Pension Scheme.

There's £260,000 of additional cost here, which I'm already saying that includes an uplift to the salaries of social workers...

Mr McDaniel responded by saying that although this was a significant amount of money, it was necessary to ensure that the Council was able to recruit and retain experienced staff.

Work Programme

The Panel then moved on to discuss its work programme for the coming year. The Panel agreed to bring forward a number of items from the Cabinet Forward Plan, including the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy. There was a brief discussion about whether the Panel could visit Heatherwood Hospital, which had recently been rebuilt. Mr McDaniel agreed to investigate the possibility of arranging a visit.