Torbay and South Devon adult social care is changing the way it works to develop a new approach. This means working together with people to find out what they want to achieve and the best way to do this by supporting people to use their strengths and those of their family, friends and community. The aim is to enable people to achieve their goals, reach their full potential and reduce reliance upon traditional services.

That the new Eligibility Policy set out at Appendix 1 to the report be approved to be submitted for public consultation.

To commence the formal six week public consultation.

Alternative options were set out in the submitted report but not discussed at the meeting.

This decision will come into force immediately.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities were given new functions. This was to make sure that people who live in their area:

·         Receive services that prevent their care needs from becoming more serious, or delay the impact of their need.

·         Can get the information and advice they need to make good decisions about care and support.

·         Have a range of provision of high quality, appropriate services to choose from.

The draft Social Care Eligibility Policy proposes a way of delivering adult social care (ASC) for Torbay through changing the eligibility criteria based on principles contained within the Care Act 2014. The approach the Council as commissioners and therefore the Integrated Care Organisation (ICO) as providers intend to adopt is offering people information and advice in the first instance, using an asset based approach which will meet the person’s needs by taking into account the range of support on offer from family, friends, voluntary organisations and charities.

The Council was proposing to consult on the draft Social Care Eligibility Policy for six weeks from 15 December 2017 until 26 January 2018 with the final report being presented to the Elected Mayor for consideration at the Policy Development and Decision Group (Joint Commissioning Team) on 5 March 2018.

The Deputy Mayor considered the recommendations of the Policy Development and Decision Group (Joint Commissioning Team) made on 14 December 2017 and his decision is set out above.

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