Agenda Item No. 7

 

 

THE VALE OF GLAMORGAN COUNCIL

 

HEALTHY LIVING AND SOCIAL CARE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE: 8 DECEMBER 2016

 

REFERENCE FROM CABINET:  28 NOVEMBER 2016

 

C3376         RESHAPING SERVICES – REVIEW OF MEALS ON WHEELS SERVICE (L&HSCH) (SCRUTINY COMMITTEE – HEALTHY LIVING AND SOCIAL CARE) -

 

Cabinet was updated on the Council’s Meals on Wheels service and a range of options for the future of the service were reviewed.

 

A report was considered by Scrutiny Committee (Social Care and Health) on 1 February, 2016 which gave an update on how the Council’s Meals on Wheels service was being delivered. The report also outlined the rationale for considering alternative ways of meeting the nutritional needs of those who were eligible for care and support from the Social Services Directorate, in response to changing levels of demand for the service.

 

The report made a recommendation that a further report on potential alternative service models was developed for consideration by Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet in due course. It was considered that a more comprehensive review of the service was required to consider how the needs of the population could be best met in the future, including the development of preventative services and the merits of alternative models of provision.

 

The Council’s Meals on Wheels service was a social care service that delivered a hot meal at home to people who were assessed as being unable to undertake the task for themselves.  Meals were purchased from the company ‘Apetito’ in the form of frozen ready meals. These were then heated in the kitchen of Rondel House, Barry by cook/drivers employed by the service. Meals were delivered to clients throughout the Vale of Glamorgan by drivers who were employed by the service.

 

In the Vale of Glamorgan, the number of people who used the Meals on Wheels service had decreased in recent years. The service delivered approximately 45 meals each weekday. This was a significant reduction from the average of 112 meals per day which were provided in 2012. At weekends, a reduced service operated and approximately 23 meals on each weekend day were delivered to customers in the central and eastern areas of the Vale of Glamorgan.

 

A review of the service had been undertaken and a number of options for the future of the service had been evaluated. The first of these options was to continue the service as it currently operated. Options two and three considered ways of making changes to the Council’s existing internal service. The final option was to consider alternative ways of ensuring needs were met by ceasing to operate the Council service and signposting to alternative providers.

 

The report proposed that the Council could work with the Food Shed to begin the provision of services as soon as possible in the western area of the Vale of Glamorgan. This would result in an additional available service to residents in that area in the short term. The Food Shed would seek to expand (via marketing and logistically) across the Vale in parallel with the changes that the Council would make to the Meals on Wheels service. Legally, the Council was under no obligation to enter into a contract with the Food Shed to provide meals to clients, in the same way as there was no commissioned arrangement with other providers, such as Wiltshire Farm Foods.

 

Ceasing to provide a Council run Meals on Wheels service would have implications for the staff currently employed by the service and these were outlined in the relevant section of the report.

 

This was a matter for Executive decision

 

Cabinet, having considered the report and all the issues and implications contained therein

 

RESOLVED –

 

(1)       T H A T the contents of the report be noted.

 

(2)       T H A T the report be referred to the Scrutiny Committee Healthy Living and Social Care for consideration.

 

(3)       T H A T the views of the Scrutiny Committee Healthy Living and Social Care be reported back to Cabinet and the views of the Committee inform the decision on how the provision of hot meal delivery should operate in the future.

 

Reasons for decisions

 

(1)       To note the contents of the Reshaping Services – Review of Meals on Wheels Service report.

 

(2)       To enable the consideration by the Scrutiny Committee Healthy Living and Social Care as part of the review process.

 

(3)       To ensure that the views of the Scrutiny Committee were taken into account when reaching a decision as to how to progress.

 

 

 

Attached as Appendix – Report to Cabinet – 28 NOVEMBER 2016