Rhondda Cynon Taf Council - Scrutiny Blog

COVID-19 has impacted hugely on every part of the health and social care sector in responding to the national crisis. The Council’s response to Covid-19 from Adult services, including its provider partners has been scrutinised by the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee at regular intervals through its forward work programme. By means of detailed updates delivered by the Director of Adult Services, we have reviewed how the service has prioritised its services and adapted to new ways of working at every changing stage of the restrictions.

We requested further information on the range of support packages to carers during the pandemic to ensure that they were being well supported and respite services continued to be offered. Earlier this year and following a detailed update we reviewed a number of schemes and grants in place to help support the growing needs of our adult carers.

With the Committee’s remit also extending to the Council’s Public Protection Services, we scrutinised this service area and its huge priorities during the pandemic. The Regulatory Services, including Environmental Health, Trading Standards, Licensing and Community Safety, were all challenged with assimilating new laws and guidance to ensure they could support businesses and provide consumers and residents with the assurance that the measures required were being implemented across the County Borough. In addition, officers from within these sectors were also heavily involved with the Regional Contact Tracing Service and in August 2020 RCT became the host organisation for Cwm Taf Morgannwg.

We requested an update on the Homelessness Strategy 2018-2022 due to the significant impact of COVID-19 on the homelessness service. As the Strategy will shortly enter its final year, we reviewed the actions which have been achieved since 2018 and Committee will continue to receive updates on the Homelessness Strategy 2018/2022 and the action plan that supports it to ensure it remains on target.

We have continued to scrutinise and evaluate the impact of the transfer of the Council’s kennelling facility to Hope Rescue and more recently we reviewed the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between Hope Rescue and the Council which was due for renewal, to ensure it remains fit for purpose. It was evident that the SLA had strengthened the service provision of dealing with stray dogs and therefore we endorsed the proposal to renew the Service Level Agreement.

Scrutiny of the recovery measures for both service areas and the health and wellbeing of the workforces will continue to be a priority for our committee as we move into the next municipal year. We look ahead to focussing on the crucial services that sit within this committee’s remit and the key issues as defined by its terms of reference.