The CPH Adult Social Care and Health Decision Session was scheduled to take place on Monday 22 September 2025. The agenda included discussion of the annual complaints and compliments report, performance reports for public health and adult social care, and a supervised toothbrushing programme. The meeting was scheduled to be held virtually via Microsoft Teams.

Supervised Toothbrushing Programme

The Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Health & Adult Social Care was scheduled to be informed of plans to deliver supervised toothbrushing to schools in wards in Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 1 and 2 in Solihull, as part of the national Supervised Toothbrushing programme. It was noted that ministers announced plans to implement a national targeted supervised toothbrushing programme for children aged 3, 4 and 5 in the most deprived communities nationally on 7 March 2025. A total of £11 million of additional funding has been allocated for the programme, with £44,163 for Solihull in 2025-26.

The report pack stated that Solihull already has an established supervised toothbrushing programme at Fordbridge Community Primary School, and that to achieve the ambitions of the national programme, this approach will be expanded to all schools (and potentially some Early Years settings) in areas categorised as IMD 1 and 2.

The proposed objectives of the programme include:

• Encouraging children to brush their teeth for two minutes twice a day.
• Informing and empowering parents/carers to support toothbrushing.
• Reducing dental decay.
• Reducing oral health inequalities in 3–5-year-olds in the most deprived areas.

From September 2025, 12 schools in IMD 1 and 2 areas were scheduled to be engaged, and agreement sought for training of nursery, reception and potentially year 1 class teachers/teaching assistants and some Early Years settings. Consent will be sought from parents/carers for participation in the toothbrushing in school/setting. The oral health improvement team will deliver training to staff in target schools/settings to enable staff to start daily supervised toothbrushing. Children will have numbered toothbrushes that are assigned to them and kept in a numbered rack. Toothbrushing packs with a brush, paste and advice leaflet will be given to each child to take home. Quality assurance visits will be undertaken every school term to support effectiveness.

The report pack noted that a challenge to rollout includes curriculum capacity and available time in school, which is pressured, and that training for staff will be arranged as a short session preferably at the end of the day or during inset days, so staff are more able to attend, where possible.

The Cabinet Portfolio Holder was invited to comment on and endorse the proposed actions being taken forward and approve the utilisation of the national funding for Solihull of £44,163.

Adult Social Care Performance

The Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Health and Adult Social Care was scheduled to review and comment on the Adult Social Care Performance Progress Report for Quarter 4 2024-25 and the Adult Social Care Performance Progress Report for Quarter 1 2025-26.

Adult Social Care performance in Solihull is assessed in line with the Department of Health and Social Care's (DHSC) national Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF). The report pack stated that in addition to these statutory measures, the Adult Social Care Directorate monitors a suite of locally defined indicators, which are reviewed monthly by the Directorate Leadership Team to support continuous improvement and local accountability.

The Quarter 4 2024-25 report noted several areas of strong performance and improvement, including that, based on provisional year-end outturns, Solihull ranks in either the top quartile or upper middle quartile for all indicators where national benchmarking data is available, and that the Directorate met its ambitious targets for:

• The proportion of people with learning disabilities in paid employment.
• The proportion of annual reviews of care and support arrangements completed.
• Key safeguarding measures.

The Quarter 4 2024-25 report stated that some areas remain challenging and are the focus of ongoing improvement plans, including:

• Reducing the number of care home placements.
• Increasing uptake of direct payments.
• Improving the effectiveness of reablement services.

The Quarter 1 2025-26 report noted several areas of strong performance and improvement, including:

• The proportion of people of working age with learning disabilities in paid employment.
• The proportion of annual reviews of care and support arrangements completed.
• Care home placements of younger adults (only one so far in 2025-26).
• Proportion of people who received short-term services where no further request was made for ongoing support
• Key safeguarding measures.

The Quarter 1 2025-26 report stated that to sustain strong performance and drive further progress, the following areas have been identified for ongoing improvement activity:

• Reducing the number of care home placements for older adults remains a key priority, despite increasing demographic pressures.
• Enabling older adults to live at home or with their own family.
• Average waiting times from request to service commencement remain an area of focus.

Public Health Performance

The Cabinet portfolio holder was scheduled to be updated on Public Health performance progress across a range of local public health performance measures at the end of Quarter 1 2025-26. The report included a progress summary with key actions being undertaken within the programme area and an update on any mitigation undertaken by the team for areas of underperformance.

The report pack stated that of the 13 indicators reported, 11 have targets set against them, of these; 3 indicators are reported as Green, exceeded or achieve the quarterly target, 3 are Amber within a 10% tolerance of the required performance standard and 5 are Red, reported as under-performance.

The Cabinet Portfolio Holder was invited to endorse the contents of the report and actions being taken forward, and to approve a change in the scope of key performance indicator reported to Cabinet Portfolio Holder, with Sexual Health Key Performance Indicators now included for 2025- 26.

Annual Complaints & Compliments Report

The Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Health and Adult Social Care was scheduled to review and endorse the content of the Annual Complaints & Compliments Report – 2024/25 for the Adult Social Care Directorate. The report provided information and analysis of 2024-2025 complaint & compliments activity and related performance data for Solihull's Adult Social Care & Support Services.

The report pack noted a slight increase in complaints across Adult Social Care Services, and included consideration of the learning forms returned and actions taken from the learning issues arising from complaints, and the content of the compliments received.

The report stated that during the 2024/25 financial year, Solihull Council's Adult Social Care Services received 56 new complaints, a slight increase (12%) when compared to the 50 new complaints received in 2023/2024, and that Solihull Adults Social Care Services have an open and responsive complaints and representations process and officers in Adults Social Care proactively signpost service users to this process.

The report pack stated that during 2024/25, Solihull Council's Adult Social Care Services provided a service to 8896 customers (including carers) and hence complaints were received from only 0.6% of these, the same percentage of complainants as in the previous 2 years.

The report pack also included examples of compliments received, including:

Reablement Team

My mom & myself would like to thank you for all your support and guidance since you became our Case Manager. Any questions we had, you answered us and assisted with extra carers when we needed them. Both of us being new to the care side of things, we did not have a clue. We were assigned to you and you have been absolutely brilliant. We cannot thank you enough. All the very best in what you do and thank you again.

Mental Health Team

I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for your encouragement and support during our recent conversation. Your positivity and inspiration have truly helped me stay motivated. Following your visit a few weeks ago, I was feeling exhausted and discouraged, but you gave me the strength to keep moving forward. Thank you for being a source of encouragement and inspiration.

Older Adults Community Team

Thank you for helping me take a break from my caring role for a little while and allowing me to connect with friends and family. I appreciate all you have done for me and my mother and I'm sure for the many others you have on your case load.