The committee noted the performance position of adult social care services in the financial year 2023/24. They also noted the Adult Social Care Strategy 2024-2027, and were asked to approve the draft scrutiny work programme for 2024/25.

Performance Outturn Report 2023/24

The committee received a report on the performance of the authority's Adult Social Care and Public Health services.

The Director of Public Health, Ruth DuPlessis, explained that there were areas of concern, particularly relating to public health. For example, life expectancy in St. Helens had worsened for both men and women. She went on to say that this was part of a national trend but that St. Helens already had a lower life expectancy than the national average.

...this is unfortunately a trend that's been seen nationally but because St. Helen's already had a lower life expectancy that continues unfortunately in St. Helen's as well.

A number of possible reasons for this were discussed, including: pandemic-related disruption to healthcare; an increase in alcohol-related harm; and the impact of the cost of living crisis on residents' ability to eat healthily. For example, Councillor Bell noted that she had been diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and that since changing her diet to address this, her weekly food bill had doubled. This led to a discussion about the prevalence of food poverty in the borough, and the role of 'food pantries' in alleviating this.

The assistant director for Adult Social Work, Rob Crooks, explained that the picture was more positive for adult social care services. He explained that St. Helens performed well both regionally and nationally on a number of key metrics. He went on to say that the one area of potential concern was the uptake of direct payments.

...from an adult social care perspective it's generally quite a positive report and there's a few measures where we measure well regionally and nationally and the only area for potential well one of the only areas is direct payments which is we've got a review on going at the moment so we're going to look at how we can encourage more people to pick up direct payments.

Councillor Long raised concerns about the number of hospital admissions relating to falls, particularly in the private rented sector. The Director of Public Health explained that this was already being addressed through the retendering of the authority's falls prevention service. She explained that a needs assessment had been conducted, and that the retendered service would include a new multi-agency approach to falls prevention.

There was also a discussion about the number of people with learning disabilities in employment. It was noted that, at 7.1%, St Helens had the fourth highest rate in the North West. However, Councillor Bell requested further information about what steps the council was taking to promote this, both internally and more broadly. She asked how many people with learning difficulties or autism are employed by the council; what opportunities for apprenticeships are available; and how the council's approach to this issue compares to its approach to supporting veterans or care leavers.

The Director of Public Health explained that the council was about to move to the highest level of the Disability Confident scheme. This scheme is run by the Department of Work and Pensions, and is designed to encourage employers to attract, recruit and retain disabled employees. She explained that this would commit the council to a range of actions, and would give it access to a range of support services, designed to help it achieve these aims.

Adult Social Care Strategy 2024 - 2027

The committee noted the Adult Social Care Strategy 2024-2027, which had been developed in consultation with 300 St Helens residents by an agency called Capacity.

Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2024/25

The committee were asked to note their draft work programme for 2024/25. Councillor Bell requested that the task group on suicide prevention, which was to be led by the Director of Public Health, be broadened to include data from other council services, and partner agencies.

Public health is a preventative approach... but actually I'm thinking if we're going to be looking at suicide we have said we wanted to look at some of the reasons why people have committed suicide but also what services have they been involved in or attached to or known from... that's the kind of data that we need to look at

Councillor Massell requested that the task group focus on the work previously done by the committee on suicide prevention, which had proved successful in reducing the number of suicides in the borough. Councillor Stevenson asked if the committee could also receive a copy of the older person's Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.