National Care Service Proposals
North Lanarkshire Council · 16 February 2023
Back to Audit and Scrutiny Panel — 16 February 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref AG/MF Date 16/02/23 From Alison Gordon, Chief Social Work Officer E-mail gordonal@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 332001 Executive Summary To support the Council in mitigating risks and uncertainty, the Council operates risk management arrangements which identify, evaluate, manage, and control a range of key corporate risks. All risks identified and agreed as meriting inclusion in the corporate risk register are subject to regular monitoring and review by relevant senior management and periodic review/consideration of individual risks by both the CMT and the Audit and Scrutiny Panel (ASP) in line with the Council’s Risk Management Strategy and their respective governance roles. This report focuses on a new risk within the Council’s Corporate Risk Register relating to proposals for a National Care Service as set out within the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill introduced to the Scottish Parliament on the 21st June 2022. The report provides an overview of the current risk environment as set out and assessed within the draft Deep Dive document attached at Appendix 1. Members should note that this document is in development with further work required to full analyse risk impacts and to reflect and develop mitigating actions and controls which may be exercised by the Council. This will form part of the agenda for the newly established NCS Member Officer Group. The level of uncertainty with respect both to the Bill process and lack of detail within the legislation, which is presented as a framework Bill, alongside the scale and complexity of the reorganisation likely to arise from the proposals, is reflected in an indicative inherent and residual risk scoring of 25. Recommendations The Panel is asked to consider the contents of the report and to: (1) Note the draft deep-dive document (at Appendix 1) and indicative risk scoring which reflects both the very high level of uncertainty and potentially high and wide-ranging impacts for the council associated with this risk. (2) Note that this risk documentation remains in development and will be regularly reviewed in keeping with both the high indicative scoring and the fluid risk environment. (3) Note that core structures for the management and mitigation of this risk have been enhanced through the establishment of the NCS Member Officer Group which will meet for the first time in February 2023. Audit and Scrutiny Panel National Care Service Proposals
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The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority All priorities Ambition statement All ambition statements 1. Background 1.1 CMT has previously approved the corporate risk register for 2022-23. 1.2 The definition of a corporate risk is ‘those risks which can impact the Council in achieving its priorities and stated objectives or are more strategic in nature and require corporate oversight. For example, such risks may have the potential to impact many Services, and/or can impact significantly on the Council in terms of financial costs and reputational damage. The Corporate Risk Register will reflect an amalgamated position of Service-level risks and may also include significant Service-level risks which have been escalated for attention at a strategic level.’ 1.3 Risks contained within the register are subject to ongoing monitoring and review throughout the year, with regular risk reporting to CMT and Audit & Scrutiny Panel both on the overall register, and with detail on individual risks being reported by relevant Risk Leads. 2. Report 2.1 ‘Proposals for the National Care Service’ is a new risk incorporated within the Corporate Risk Register for 2022/23. 2.2 The Council response to the consultation on proposals was approved by Policy and Strategy Committee in October 2021. Similarly, the Council also submitted a response to the Call for Views on the published Bill, with this approved by the Policy and Strategy Committee in September 2022. 2.3 The legislation supporting the establishment of a National Care Service (NCS) was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on the 21st June 2022 with a view to facilitating large scale structural reform and to address the recommendations of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care (the Feeley Review) which reported in February 2021. The Bill sets out provisions which would enable the transfer of responsibility for social work and social care functions from local authorities to local care boards reporting to Scottish Ministers, alongside this allowing for the transfer of staff, property and financial resource from local authorities to the NCS. The Bill is essentially a ‘framework’ Bill, and it is proposed that much of the detail of the new NCS will be developed within a process of ‘co-design’ and effectively shaped by secondary legislation/regulation. There is an ambitious timescale to establish the NCS by the end of this parliamentary term. Whilst not in scope of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, the Bill allows for the incorporation of Justice and Children and Family Social Work Services within the NCS however further to the initial NCS consultation planned ‘evidence reviews’ and further public consultation will take place on this. These processes will run in parallel with other preparatory work and the parliamentary process with the Scottish Government due to decide on the position of Children’s and Justice Services in early 2024. In the interim four parliamentary committees have heard evidence at Stage 1 of the Bill process, with the Finance Committee first to publish its report in December 2022. This raised concerns on the adequacy of the accompanying financial memorandum and impact on scrutiny of the reliance on secondary legislation.
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2.4 Initial scoping by council officers has identified that depending on the employment model ultimately adopted up to 2,395 staff currently employed by the council could be transferred via TUPE to the new NCS/local care board should all social work services and associated support functions be incorporated. Similarly, it is estimated that approximately 24% of the council’s revenue budget could transfer to the new organisation. 2.5 Proposals for the NCS equate to the most significant public sector reform within Scotland in many years. In this context the draft Deep Dive has identified three principal categories of risk: • Risks arising from implementation processes. • Risks which impact on operations on an ongoing basis. • Risks which have strategic impact. 2.6 Risks arising from implementation processes: These include organisational change capacity and the quality of planning being stretched both by the complexities and uncertainties within the process and the impact on workforce planning at a time when there are significant existing workforce pressures. Potential centralisation of functions may also cut across existing contracts and supplier relationships due to continue beyond the proposed implementation timescale. In addition there is no certainty around change management liabilities associated with any staff transfer and any resultant redundancy issues. 2.7 Risks which impact on operations on an ongoing basis: These include ongoing impact associated with potential disruption in improvement activity arising from the change process as well as loss of co-ordination in planning and dilution of joint-working arrangements between teams and services transferred to the NCS and wider council services. This may impact across a range of areas but in particular on the current integrated operational model which has been developed within Education and Families. Other risks operationally included the loss of economies of scale within areas including support services as well as loss of local focus or coherence in community engagement within the new organisation impacting on the service provided to individuals and communities. There also remain uncertainties around how specific statutory functions will be exercised within new arrangements including with the respect to the impact on the council’s overarching responsibilities for public protection, the employment of MHOs and the role currently undertaken by the Chief Social Work Officer and whether there will be a loss of the checks and balances within the current system. 2.8 Risks which have strategic impact: In addition to the areas outlined above there are risks to the delivery of the Plan for North Lanarkshire and its associated ambitions through both through the governance changes associated with the proposals and their potential impact on the co- ordination of local planning and existing partnership structures. 2.9 In view of the level of uncertainty which remains around the NCS proposals and their significance not only for services and functions which may transfer but to wider council operations the Corporate Management Team has recognised the need for a range of Chief Officers to support planning in this area. In late September 2022 Policy and Strategy Committee also approved the establishment of a Member Officer Group to guide future engagement with the Bill process and to support future planning with respect to the NCS. This group will meet for the first time in early February 2023. This will support the ongoing risk management and review of this risk in line with the Corporate Risk Strategy with future reporting to Audit and Scrutiny Panel at agreed intervals.
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3. Measures of success 3.1 CMT and ASP are content with, and have an appropriate understanding of, the key risks facing the Council and how these are being managed. 3.2 The corporate risk management team will continue to report quarterly to CMT and the ASP providing an overview of key developments in risk management and updating on progress in respect of planned improvements to the Council’s risk management arrangements. 3.3 The adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s risk management arrangements will be independently and regularly reviewed by Internal Audit, who will report directly on the results of that work to the ASP. 3.4 Effective risk management arrangements assist the Council in achieving planned outcomes and/or help the Council mitigate the impacts of adverse events. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 Appendix 1 – Deep Dive Report - Proposal to Create a National Care Service. Alison Gordon Chief Social Work Officer
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5. Impacts 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact?
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Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? Included in the corporate risk register. Effective risk management arrangements including the identification, assessment, management and oversight of relevant risks will increase the likelihood of the Council achieving its ambitions and plans by more effectively mitigating potential threats to planned outcomes. It also contributes to effective management of risks relating to all service and operational areas 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.
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Jan 13, 2023, 3:28 PM Appendix 1 Deep Dive Report RIS0000604 Risk Title Proposals to create a National Care Service Owner Alison Gordon Risk Context The National Care Service (Scotland) Bill sets out provisions to enable Ministers to transfer certain social care and social work functions from local authorities to a national service. The Bill provides wide-ranging powers to Scottish Ministers for the transfer of local authority social work and social care functions, budgets, staff, property and liabilities to the National Care Service accountable directly to Scottish Ministers or via care boards. The Bill also includes the power to transfer Children’s and Justice Services to a National Care Service through further regulation, but this will be the subject of further public consultation, stakeholder engagement and evidence review prior to a final decision on this being made. Currently, there remains considerable uncertainty over how this policy will be progressed. Neither the Bill nor the accompanying documents currently provide significant detail on the move from the current arrangements to the proposed operating model (including the proposed Care Boards). It is not yet known which employer model will be chosen for staff in scope for NCS. If NCS is the employer, then staff will be expected to TUPE across with the potential transfer of 2,395 FTE Council staff and over £272 million of revenue funding. If a commissioning model is chosen (where the Council remains the employer) then NCS is likely to become responsible for procuring services, training, standards and workforce planning. In budgetary terms, the transfer of the functions (if including Children’s and Justice Services) would account for approximately 24% of the Council’s current revenue budget. The detailed work and timing associated with any Programme of Work requiring to be progressed by the Council to facilitate the implementation of the National Care Service proposals remains unclear but is likely to be significant and require considerable lead time and efforts to ensure a seamless and stable transition and to ensure no detrimental impacts on service users and service delivery. Work is also required to clarify and document the likely wider impacts on the Council of the NCS proposals including planned actions which may now be not required and/or may require to be paused or rescheduled due to the creation of the NCS. The impact of transfer on the council’s short and medium-term financial plans and financial strategy will also require to be worked through, although to date the processes to be used for identifying and agreeing budgets in scope for transfer remains uncertain. The Council will continue to work, through COSLA, to engage with the Scottish Government to obtain more detail of what the NCS proposals mean for local authorities to understand potential impacts and their likely timing more fully. Risk Description There is a risk that the introduction of a National Care Service will have multiple detrimental impacts on service users, staff, service delivery and the Council. As proposals for the National Care Service are still evolving there is currently a high level of ambiguity and uncertainty over much of the detail creating difficulty in being able to precisely identify the resulting risks. As such, this initial risk assessment must be considered as being volatile and can be expected to change substantially as more details of the proposals are advised. These risks can be categorised as follows: Organisation Structure North Lanarkshire Corporate
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Jan 13, 2023, 3:28 PM a) Risks arising from implementation processes • Lack of clarity, ambiguity in proposals and complex issues not addressed with continual changes resulting in increased effort and additional unplanned resources required; • Organisational capacity likely to be stretched across implementation activity at a time when Services are already dealing with significant demands including staffing and financial pressures and the ongoing impacts from the pandemic and cost of living crisis • Potentially very short time to implement resulting in increased risks around poor planning/project management arrangements; • Increased uncertainty may exacerbate existing workforce planning challenges; • Unclear if NCS/CHSCB financial information will be managed centrally or locally and via which management information systems. There are significant information governance risks, including increased risks of possible data breaches, associated with significant volumes of sensitive data being transferred to a new external agency e.g., transfer and storage of sensitive MAPPA data. Any such breaches could have serious physical safety and other consequences on those whose data is released and there is the possible of high level of fines and restrictions by the regulator. • Although there remains considerable uncertainty, there is an indication that the NCS will look to centralise supplier relationships; the Council currently has several contracts with external partners and providers which are scheduled to run several years into the future but there is a lack of clarity on who would be responsible for potential penalty or break clauses should contracts be terminated early and the value of break clauses; • Previous national re-structures have resulted in voluntary or compulsory redundancies for incumbent staff. If this scenario is repeated with the creation of the NCS/CHSCB it is unclear who will be responsible for meeting these redundancy costs as well as any ongoing pension costs. b) Risks which impact operations on an ongoing basis • Reduced co-ordination between teams/functions transferred out of the Council and those remaining within the Council where current service delivery or activity involves staff from both transferred and retained teams; • Loss of inter-connected working between NCS and Council services that impact on the wider health and wellbeing agenda (i.e., housing, employability support, education etc.) which are not included in NCS plans; • Some of the budget of central overhead functions, e.g. Finance, Payroll, Business Solutions and People and Organisational Development will likely transfer to NCS but the remaining costs will require to split across fewer/smaller services resulting in loss of economies of scale. A further resultant issue is whether remaining central functions? services are cost-effective or require to be reviewed and/or delivered in a different manner. This could create additional projects/workloads; • A range of support services e.g., fleet, transport, catering and cleaning currently support the delivery of functions to be transferred to the NCS but have, to date, not been considered in NCS planning. Potential impacts include financial risks to the Council and potential disruption in support services impacting on end users of NCS; • Reduction in resources available to deliver on wider community engagement activities including those associated with the Community Empowerment Act and the legislative framework for local improvements; • Reduced budgets and reduced flexibility in the use of budgets; • Lack of clarity in which organisation crucial role of Mental Health Officer will be based; • Complaint handling transferred to NCS risks adding an additional layer of bureaucracy with complaints taking longer to resolve as will any resulting improvements and an overall detriment in service;
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Jan 13, 2023, 3:28 PM • A lack of clarity over roles and responsibilities and the ability of NLC to adhere with Chief Social Work Officer responsibilities if Chief Social Work Officer post is within NCS; • Lack of local focus may impact service users who are service users of both NCS and NLC and they could experience a lower level or disjointed service; • Different information systems for NLC and NCS creates difficulties and risks on sharing information and impacts on identifying and delivering services to users; • If Justice Social Work transferred, the proposed arrangements may be too large and centralised and unable to reflect local requirements; • Unclear if enforcement powers would be with the regulator and whether they undertake inspections of care providers or will this role will remain with council; • If TUPE transfer is undertaken this will bring significant workload for remaining staff who are already stretched across a range of activities and projects; • The level of uncertainty created and the scale and timing of any proposed implementation will impact staff morale and engagement at a time when all resources are needed to be working at full capacity to deliver services without any disruptions and/or drop in standards; • Transfers to this new team could further exacerbate problems in delivering essential services which remain with NLC c) Risks which have a strategic impact on NLC • Likely to become more difficult or impossible to implement parts of the existing Plan for NL some of which will no longer be fit for purpose and/or will require to be revisited; • NCS plans and activities may not align with, or adequately support, the Council’s wider ambitions for NL; • Remaining structures may no longer be fit for purpose and potential for substantial disruption especially of some remaining E&F functions.; • Increased risks around partnership working with a new body accountable to Scottish Ministers; • Increased risks that resources are diverted from delivering existing national strategies and objectives. This includes ‘The Promise’ that our public services will work for, and with children, young people, and their families; • Greater difficulty in achieving objectives in relation to Community Empowerment Act and to Deliver for Communities and its ability to deliver against the key ambitions and priorities outlined in the Plan for North Lanarkshire and associated Programmes of Work; • Governance of services provided to residents in North Lanarkshire could be centralised within NCS which may result in lack or loss of local focus; and • Human Rights and Equality Issues arise, new commitments do not progress. Corporate Priorities • Improve the health and wellbeing of our communities
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Jan 13, 2023, 3:28 PM Inherent Assessment ASM0003133 Likelihood - 5 Impact - 5 High - 25 Likelihood Reason There currently remains a high degree of uncertainty over much of the detail relating to the creation of a National Care Service. Without detailed planning, the proposals could result in significant disruption to service users and service delivery, have detrimental impacts on staff and on the Council’s financial planning arrangements. There are also real risks surrounding the impact of the proposals on the ability of the Council to progress key areas of The Plan for North Lanarkshire. The high degree of uncertainty means that the Council cannot, at this stage, develop the necessary detailed plans or progress actions to mitigate many of the identified risks. Impact Reason The proposal to create a National Care Service presents considerable operational and strategic risks to the Council which if not properly addressed have the potential to significantly impact on current and future service delivery arrangements, on staff and the Council’s financial sustainability and on the Council’s ability to deliver against a wide range of corporate ambitions. Residual Assessment ASM0003133 Likelihood - 5 Impact - 5 High - 25 Likelihood Reason Residual Likelihood TBA. This is currently rationale and rating for Inherent. There currently remains a high degree of uncertainty over much of the detail relating to the creation of a National Care Service. Without detailed planning, the proposals could result in significant disruption to service users and service delivery, have detrimental impacts on staff and on the Council’s financial planning arrangements. There are also real risks surrounding the impact of the proposals on the ability of the Council to progress key areas of The Plan for North Lanarkshire. The high degree of uncertainty means that the Council cannot, at this stage, develop the necessary detailed plans or progress actions to mitigate many of the identified risks. Impact Reason Residual Rating TBA. This is currently rationale and rating for Inherent. The proposal to create a National Care Service presents considerable operational and strategic risks to the Council which if not properly addressed have the potential to significantly impact on current and future service delivery arrangements, on staff and the Council’s financial sustainability and on the Council’s ability to deliver against a wide range of corporate ambitions.