Issue - meetings

To receive a presentation on the Covid 19 Pandemic – the Council’s response – Care Homes.

The Committee received a presentation on the Council’s response to the Covid 19 pandemic with regards to care homes.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·         Councillor Loyes reminded the Committee that the scrutiny of the Council’s response to the pandemic with regards to care homes, had been delegated by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.  He highlighted possible key lines of enquiry.

·         Graham Ebers, Deputy Chief Executive, emphasised that it was an ever changing and highly intense period.  He expressed sympathy for those who had sadly died and their families.  He indicated that he appreciated the huge amount of work that care homes had undertaken and were still undertaking.  They had worked well with the Council and Adult Social Care.  Graham Ebers went on to state that there had been an early recognition of the need for support to care homes.  Officers had been phoning providers on Good Friday, asking what support they needed.

·         Graham Ebers informed Members that 100 staff across the Council had been redeployed to Adult Social Care to assist in the Council’s response.  The Council had responded as well as it could at the time.

·         The whole system was complex.  The Council did not have direct control over the majority of the care homes and could only offer mutual aid and support. 

·         Supporting the Borough’s care providers were one of the Gold Team’s main goals.

·         Graham Ebers suggested that scrutiny focus more on areas that the Council had greater influence over.

·         Matt Pope, Director Adult Services, provided an overview of the Council’s response thus far regarding care homes.

·         He explained the different type of care homes.  The Borough had 52 care homes.  95% of care homes in the Borough inspected by the Care Quality Commission had been rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding.’  23 of the care homes were Older Peoples Care Home and 28 were smaller care homes for residents with a Learning Disability. 

·         There were 1,352 Care Home Beds in Wokingham.  Approximately 25% of residents were funded by the Council and approximately 75% were self-funded.

·         Members were informed that the majority of care homes in the Borough were run by private or voluntary sector service providers.  Optalis operated one care home, Suffolk Lodge.  There were complexities around the nature of the privatised care home market and how that affected all the various interfaces.  Care Homes were autonomous with their own policies, governance and staff, and varied in size, quality and associated cost.

·         The type and layout of a care home could have an impact on the home’s ability to manage an outbreak and for infection control purposes.

·         Matt Pope took the Committee through a high-level timeline of the Council’s approach.

·         On 19 March, Central Government had issued guidance that hospital discharge be expedited.  At the time, there had been a fear that hospitals would be overwhelmed.  Testing had been an issue.  Routine testing out of the Royal Berkshire Hospital had not begun until 17 April.

·         Members were informed that the Council’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10