The Community & Adult Services Scrutiny Committee met to discuss adult services, the care workforce, and antisocial behaviour in Cardiff. The committee agreed to a draft work programme for 2025-26, with amendments to include further scrutiny of physical disability, learning disability, older people's services, community safety, and care home commissioning. The committee will write to Councillor Leonora Thomson, Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Public Health & Equality, and Councillor Thorne, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, to convey their observations and concerns.

Overview of Care Workforce

The committee discussed the challenges facing the care workforce in Cardiff, particularly the reliance on migrant workers and the potential impact of changes to immigration rules.

Angela Bourge, Operational Manager Strategy, Performance and Resources, presented an overview of the care workforce, highlighting the significant number of migrant care workers in the city. According to the presentation, 56% of domiciliary care agencies sponsor staff, with 43% of the overall workforce being migrant workers on sponsorship. The presentation noted that 15 care providers in Cardiff have over 50% of their workforce on sponsorship.

The committee heard that some migrant care workers have been subject to unfair work practices, including discrimination and threats of losing their sponsorship if they do not work additional hours. To address these issues, a regional action plan has been developed, which includes strengthening contract monitoring arrangements, providing training and career support, and developing a migrant care workers app. The council is also working with trade unions to develop a migrant workers charter.

The committee discussed the impact of changes to immigration rules, which include an increase in the hourly rate for care workers to £12.82 and a ban on overseas recruitment from 22 July 2025. These changes are expected to have a significant impact on care providers, particularly those who rely heavily on migrant workers. The Home Office justified the changes by citing concerns about modern slavery and unethical recruitment practices.

The committee expressed concerns about the potential for workforce shortages and the impact on service users. Councillor Ahmed asked if there was a shortage of care workers in Cardiff, and if the council was likely to recruit care workers who do not have a job because of sponsorship issues. Bourge responded that there is a shortage of UK national care workers in Cardiff, but there is currently increased capacity within the domiciliary care sector.

Councillor McGarry raised concerns about the need to recruit from the UK and asked what the Welsh Government is doing to support this. Bourge responded that the Welsh Government is developing plans and that she has made representations to them to request additional funding and a national strategy.

Councillor Lewis asked about the migrant workers' charter and what happens to people on old contracts. Bourge clarified that the charter will apply to new contracts with care agencies, not individual migrant workers.

The committee discussed the challenges of recruiting local workers, including pay and conditions, and the need to register with Social Care Wales¹. Bourge noted that the council has been working with Cardiff Cares Academy to recruit new people into the sector, but the numbers of UK nationals coming forward are very low.

The committee agreed that the situation is concerning and that the council needs to continue to monitor the workforce and work with the Welsh Government to address the challenges.

Update on Enhancing Cardiff's Antisocial Behaviour Service

The committee received an update on the work being done to enhance Cardiff's antisocial behaviour (ASB) service. Sandra Canham, Operational Manager, Tenant Services, presented an overview of the ASB team, its workload, and performance. The team investigates complaints of ASB where one or more parties involved are Cardiff Council housing tenants.

The committee heard that the team deals with a wide range of ASB issues, including assaults, harassment, hate crimes, noise complaints, youth-related disturbances, domestic abuse cases, and drug-related concerns. In 2024-25, the team dealt with 2,110 police-related emails and phone calls and 1,266 support-related emails and phone calls.

Canham explained that the ASB team uses a two-pronged approach to resolving complaints: soft intervention and legal intervention. Soft intervention includes meetings with victims and perpetrators, advisory letters, and acceptable behaviour agreements. Legal intervention includes injunctions and closure orders. In 2024-25, the court granted ten injunctions and one closure order.

The committee also heard about the role of the victim support officer, who provides emotional, practical, and advocacy support to victims of ASB.

Despite the work being done, tenant surveys in 2024-25 revealed key areas for improvement, including a lack of awareness of how to report ASB and dissatisfaction with how ASB is handled. In response, a review of the ASB team was undertaken, and an action plan was developed. The action plan includes enhancing service promotion, developing new communication materials, creating digital reporting tools, providing specialised ASB training for staff, and conducting regular case reviews.

Tegan Griffiths asked what is classed as youth annoyance and how it is handled differently. Neil Benham, Antisocial Behaviour Manager, explained that youth annoyance typically involves rowdy behaviour or drug activity. He said that the team works with the parents of the young people involved and with support agencies.

Griffiths also asked why it is called youth annoyance and whether that is helpful towards the stigma of youth. Canham responded that the council is looking at the categories and may look at different ways of putting it across.

Councillor Lewis raised concerns about delays in getting things resolved, such as cameras and lighting, and the confidentiality of people reporting ASB. Councillor Thorne responded that anonymity is a top priority and that she would raise the issue with the police.

The committee discussed the categories of ASB and noted that communal area issues accounted for a significant number of cases. They asked how these issues are dealt with. Benham explained that the team tries to get to the root cause of the problem and identify the individuals involved.

The committee also discussed the impact of street lighting on ASB. Councillor Lewis suggested that the dim lighting on the streets may be contributing to the problem.

The committee made a recommendation to review street lighting and its effect on ASB in the city and to report back to residents on work that they have highlighted.

Overview of Functions and Budgets - Adult Services

The committee received an overview of the functions and budgets of adult services in Cardiff. Louise Bassett, Operational Manager Complex Needs and Partnerships, and Councillor Thomson were present to answer questions.

Tegan Griffiths asked why neurodiversity is in mental health. Bassett responded that the neurodiversity team sits in the specialist services team, which is under mental health. She said that the team is relatively new and small and that its placement may change as it grows.

The committee asked for a breakdown of the number of social work posts and agency workers in the teams. Bassett responded that there are about 841 full-time equivalent posts in adult services, with about 136 full-time equivalent social workers. She offered to provide a more detailed breakdown.

Councillor Ahmed asked why the council cannot recruit more social workers. Bassett responded that the council has done a lot of drives around recruitment and is doing work around grow your own schemes, where they train existing staff to become social workers.

Councillor Lewis asked how the current budget allocation reflects Cardiff's strategic priorities for adult social care. Bassett responded that the main issue is commissioning care and that the council is overspending in this area due to complexities. She said that the council is focusing on prevention to reduce the pressures on the care budget.

Councillor Lent commented on the challenges of recruiting and retaining qualified social workers. She noted that the same issues were being discussed 25 years ago.

The committee discussed the budget split between commissioned work and internal services. They asked whether the commissioning team is sufficient to support the budget. Bassett responded that the commissioning side is manageable, but the contract monitoring side is more challenging due to the large number of providers.

The committee also discussed the overlap between different teams, such as the hospital social work team and the community social work team. They asked whether there is any duplication of work. Bassett responded that there is a distinction between the teams, but she would double-check and come back with more information.

The committee discussed the level of expenditure for different elements of the service, such as older people's services, learning disability, and mental health. They asked whether the budget is meeting Cardiff's needs. Bassett responded that the budget reflects how it goes at the moment, but more work needs to be done to understand the demographics and plan for the future.

The committee asked about the income that the externals are generating and where that budget lies. Bassett responded that the majority of the income comes from community health care (CHC) packages.

Draft Work Programme 2025/26

Nicola, [role], presented the draft work programme for 2025-26. She noted that the committee had a work programme in forum in July and that the prioritised items had been placed into the calendar. She also noted that the committee needs to stay flexible and that agendas should not be too full.

The committee discussed the key areas of work that had been agreed at the forum, including council house repairs, home adaptations, and a review of the Cardiff and Vale Regional Partnership Board Mental Health Services.

Councillor Molik suggested adding physical disability, learning disability, and older people's services to the work programme. She also suggested adding community safety.

The committee agreed to accept the draft work programme with the addition of physical disability, learning disability, older people's services, and community safety. They also agreed to determine which committee should look at youth engagement and prevention.