Issue - meetings
Younger Adults with Dementia
Meeting: 09/06/2010 - Employment, Learning and Skills, and Community Policy and Performance Board (Item 5)
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Minutes:
The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Adults and Community which proposed a topic brief in order to carry out the following:-
· Review current employment opportunities for people with a learning or physical disability or mental health issues in Halton;
· Develop an understanding of the financial processes around employment for these specific groups;
· Consider best practice and local examples in terms of supporting people into employment;
· Develop an understanding of corporate responsibilities in supporting vulnerable people into employment; and
· Devise a series of recommendations and an accompanying action plan to improve the Authority’s performance in relation to supported employment opportunities.
The Board was advised that as part of a Care Quality Commission Performance Assessment carried out in 2008, it was noted that while Halton had supported more people with learning or physical disability or mental health issues into employment than was predicted, performance was still lower than comparative. Resulting in the formation of an Employment Topic Group. The report also set out the methodology, membership of the Employment Topic Group.
A scrutiny review of employment practices for people with learning or physical disabilities or mental health issues was appended to the report for consideration. The report consisted of an introduction, a brief summary of the methodology, description of current practice and performance, evidence analysis and findings and conclusions with recommendations. Appended to the report were also Topic Brief presentations and an action plan.
The Board
was also informed that Officers from
Arising from consideration of the action plan, Members noted the following:-
· in relation to action no. 23, it was noted that extra care must be given in terms of staff working in a hygienic environment for example, handling food;
· with regard to recommendation 14, the lower rate and higher rate of permitted earnings for people with disabilities was considered;
· as there were many other venues in the Borough carrying out similar schemes already employing people with disabilities or learning difficulties, it was felt that the good news stories should be publicised more widely with a hope to stimulating more people to return to work;
· a short DVD had been produced featuring learning disabilities in work which demonstrated there were examples of people in work and this could be promoted more widely.
· in relation to current performance and, in particular, NI146 Members considered the reported outturn for 2008/09 being 4.12% compared with the North West average of 6.6%;
· linkages between long term employment and depression;
· invest to save and how community Cafes can be enabled to develop business plans, pay wages and encourage staff to move from receiving incapacity benefits in order to work;
· possibility of rolling out models for inside other venues such as independent Community Centres.
The Board wished to thank the team for a ... view the full minutes text for item 5
Meeting: 09/06/2009 - Health Policy and Performance Board (Item 9)
9 Younger Adults with Dementia 
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Additional documents:
Minutes:
Members were advised that dementia was a destructive condition which left a person increasingly disabled. Although there were good measures that could be taken to slow its effects and prolong a good quality of life, there were currently no medical interventions which would cure this condition. The Work Topic heard that, for younger adults (that is, those under the age of 65), there were potentially additional implications and these were set out in detail in the report.
Members were further advised that there were only small numbers of younger adults with dementia – the initial figures suggested between 30 and 35 people, although more work needed to be done on this. There was, however, a considerable amount of social care and health funding attached to these people. It was also clear that there was a planning gap for this group of people, who did not necessarily fall into standard eligibility criteria for services.
It was noted that there were few examples nationally of known good practice against which Halton could benchmark, a number of areas were setting up services but with little effective evaluation. As a result, the Work Topic Group had made a number of recommendations which were less about the specifics of service provision and more about the strategic approach to this problem.
Members were advised that the report addressed and considered some of the recommendations which arose from the National Dementia Strategy, and made proposals for changes or additions to local strategies so as to fully meet the needs of younger adults with dementia. The Topic also specifically addressed issues about the health of Halton residents. It would be beneficial if the Topic Group recommendations and the local Dementia Strategy, planned for completion in the Autumn 2009, be submitted to the Executive Board at the same time.
The Topic Group thanked sufferers, carers, professionals and volunteers for their help and input into the review.
RESOLVED: That the report and recommendations be considered at a future meeting of the Executive Board.