27 January 2021
The Social & Community Development Committee (SCDC) held their monthly meeting on Wednesday, 13 January 2021.
At the request of Samantha Dunn who is on a private visit to the Island, the Committee were briefed about her forthcoming World Café with Young People Project. Ms Dunn is currently completing a Doctorate in Education (EdD) with the University of Winchester. As part of the Project, she will be exploring creative ways of supporting children’s participation in research to understand their lived experiences. Ms Dunn previously worked for the Children & Adults Social Care Directorate, then known as the Safeguarding Directorate.
The Social Policy Planner, Ann Muir, gave an update on the review of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). Workshops to rebase the MIS was held in mid-October 2020 and the Statistics team had been collecting prices for the MIS basket. The MIS is not linked to Social Security but is linked to wages and it is a powerful tool. Therefore, there will be a complete separation of the MIS linked with Income Related Benefits (IRB) which means that a new mechanism will be introduced to calculate IRB and Basic Island Pension (BIP).
Updates from the Director of Children & Adults Social Care, included:
- The Directorate continues to run at full capacity in terms of residential and supported accommodation across the Island
- The complexity of the clients accessing the Community Care Complex (CCC) continuously increases
- Supported accommodation has had to flex in line with the need to provide 24/7 care to people with higher care needs who would ordinarily be accommodated at the CCC
- Community Care continues to grow in line with demand, providing support and day care to 60 plus clients within the community
- Staffing in the Directorate continues to be a challenge therefore recruitment campaigns will continue
Two additional social workers arrived on the recent flight, resulting in a full social work compliment for the first time in over two years.
The Committee also carried out a self-assessment of its work over the past twelve months.
The Public Consultation on the Draft Immigration Policy was completed in December 2020. A report has been compiled and is currently being reviewed by the Working Group.
Ongoing actions including matters relating to legislation along with issues raised by the Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) were reviewed and are being followed through.
StHelena #SCDC #MeetingSummary
SHG
27 January 2021