Social Work And Health Committee - 21/03/2005

At a MEETING of the SOCIAL WORK COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 21st March 2005.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Bailie Helen WRIGHT, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 21st February 2005 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I SOCIAL WORK COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

There was submitted Report No 185-2005 by the Director of Social Work informing the Committee about the operation and effectiveness of the statutory Social Work Department Complaints Procedure during the calendar year 2004.

The Committee agreed to:-

(i) note and approve the content of the report;

(ii) instruct the Director of Social Work to inform the Scottish Executive Social Work Services Inspectorate of the content; and

(iii) instruct the Director of Social Work to make the contents of the report publicly available.

II A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT AS A HEALTH PROMOTINGORGANISATION

There was submitted Report No 148-2005 by the Director of Social Work informing the Committee of the content of the Strategic Framework for the development of the Social Work Department as a health promoting organisation.

The Committee agreed to:-

(i) note the contents of the report; and

(ii) approve the contents of the Framework and Action Plan.

III EUROPEAN FOUNDATION OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT (EFQM) SELF ASSESSMENT OF DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL SOCIAL WORKDEPARTMENT

There was submitted Report No 186-2005 by the Director of Social Work informing the Committee of the results from a recent EFQM analysis of the Social Work Department and of proposals for improvement actions.

The Committee agreed to:-

(i) note and approve the content of the report;

(ii) instruct the Director of Social Work to develop a set of improvement actions and to ensure that these would be incorporated into the 2005 Review of the Departmental Service Plan; and

(ii) instruct the Director of Social Work to provide a further assessment by mid 2006.

IV CHOOSE LIFE

There was submitted Agenda Note AN119-2005 whereby reference was made to Article II of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 16th February 2004 wherein proposals for the implementation of the Choose Life Strategy were approved. The report detailed Scottish Executive funding allocated specifically for the implementation of Choose Life in Dundee and highlighted that a sub-group of Healthy Dundee had been established to oversee the ongoing development and implementation of the local suicide prevention strategy.

It was reported that the sub-group had now approved three bids for Choose Life funding as follows:

The intention was to release funding for these local groups who would have an important role locally in preventing suicide. The Committee approved the release of the Choose Life funding for the above initiatives, having noted that this would fully commit the first allocation of funding, but that further funding had been made available by the Scottish Executive from 2005/06 onwards for future initiatives.

The Committee resolved under Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 that the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the undernoted item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 8 and 9 of Part I of Schedule 7(A) of the Act.

V PROPOSED RELOCATION OF LOCHEE HOUSING AND SOCIAL WORK OFFICES

There was submitted Report No 151-2005 by the Director of Housing and the Director of Social Work presenting options for the relocation of Lochee Housing and Social Work Offices.

The Committee approved the recommendations detailed in the report.

HELEN WRIGHT, Convener.