Agenda and minutes

County Councillor Christine Henig attended in place of County Councillor Bev Murray for this meeting.

Apologies for absence were presented on behalf of Councillors Brenda Ackers, Fylde Borough Council, Trish Ellis, Burnley Borough Council, Paul Gardner, Lancaster Borough Council, Bridget Hilton, Ribble Valley Borough Council, and Kerry Molineux, Hyndburn Borough Council.

New Member

The Chair welcomed Councillor Helen Jackson, representing Rossendale Borough Council, who was permanently replacing Councillor Liz McInnes following her election as MP for Heywood and Middleton last month.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None disclosed

The Minutes of the Health Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 7 October 2014 were presented and agreed.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the Health Scrutiny Committee held on the 7 October 2014 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

As part of the ongoing scrutiny of the 'Living Well' element of the Health &

Wellbeing Strategy, the Committee was provided with a report which presented an overview of the opportunities to influence the development of healthy environments as a way of improving the health of the local population.

The report included:

• Planning system
• Sustainable development
• Affordable housing
• Licensing
• Current activities and opportunities

The Chair welcomed Clare Platt, Public Health Specialist from the Directorate for Adult Services, Health and Wellbeing.

The Committee received a PowerPoint presentation which reflected the information contained within the report.  The Committee's attention was drawn to the social gradient chart which illustrated the link between socio-economic factors and environmental inequalities. It was emphasised that district councils had a significant role to play especially in terms of the development of their Local Plans. 

It was considered important to carry out health impact assessments earlier in the planning process so that factors which affect health and wellbeing could be influenced.

Regarding housing, it was important to understand that there was a distinction between 'low cost' housing and 'affordable' housing.

It was explained that licencing, a District Council function, presented an opportunity to influence the availability of healthy spaces. The Director of Public Health at the County Council could comment on licencing applications and also contribute to the development of licencing policy.

Members raised a number of comments and questions, the main points of which are summarised below:

·  It was believed that whilst developers would offer to build a percentage of affordable housing in order to secure planning permission, it was often the case that a later viability study would lead to a much smaller percentage of affordable housing actually being provided. It was suggested that there should be a programme of work with developers to ensure that what was agreed at the planning stage was viable and sustainable. It was acknowledged that here would always be a viability issue connected with the provision of affordable housing, but it was important to 'champion' health and wellbeing as an important part of affordable housing provision.

·  The Committee was advised that there was often resistance to high levels of on-site affordable housing and developers would sometimes look at providing off site affordable housing as part of the agreement.

·  It was recognised that the objective of developers was ultimately to make a profit and it was incumbent on all members to address the challenges.

·  It was suggested that Housing Associations would not support social housing where properties were in a mixed complex with private housing owing to possible issues between the two. (Housing associations - also known as 'registered social landlords' - are social housing providers run on a not-for-profit basis.)

·  The appointment of a planning officer to maximise the contribution that planning policy and planning decisions could make to health and wellbeing outcomes was welcomed, however clarification was sought about how the impact of such an appointment could be assessed over time. It was explained that the purpose of the role  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The report explained that the production of the Annual Complaints and Customer Feedback Report was a longstanding statutory requirement. It contained statistical information, analysis and learning for the organisation in relation to adult social care complaints, comments and compliments received from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014.

Angela Esslinger, Strategic Customer Quality Manager, Directorate for Adult Services, Health and Wellbeing, used a PowerPoint presentation to draw out the key points.It identified trends, summarised the headlines and key statistics for the year, and learning from complaints and customer feedback.

It was noted that the only service user group from whom the number of complaints had increased was that of physical disability. The Chair agreed to consider a suggestion that the Committee seek further information about Occupational Therapy services. It was confirmed that OT services were themselves already looking at their own processes and systems; there were long waiting lists in some parts of the county and some capacity issues.

It was acknowledged that advocacy service provision was complicated and for this reason a single point of contact had been introduced through which the caller would be 'triaged' and directed to the most appropriate service. This had been welcomed by the public.

It was noted that one of the recommendations of the Care Complaints Task Group had been that

"the Cabinet Member for Adult & Community Services consider having a 'single point of access' for people who wish to complain as a means of simplifying the procedure."

A further update from the Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services was expected to be received by the Steering Group.

It was confirmed that the data presented was available by district, and pointed out that there was relatively little feedback from the more affluent areas in the county such as parts of the Ribble Valley where people tended to be self-funders. Feedback was more likely from areas where health and social care needs were higher.

Resolved: That,

(i)  the Adult Social Care Complaints and Customer Feedback Annual Report 2013/14 be received and the associated learning from customer feedback for the past year be acknowledged; and

(ii)  it be agreed that the Adult Social Care Complaints and Customer Feedback Annual Report for 2013/14 can be shared as a public document.

Report to follow.

The report was introduced by the Chair of the Committee on behalf of County Councillor Richard Newman-Thompson, Chair of the Task Group, who was unable to attend this meeting.

The Chair emphasised the need to maximise opportunities to take advantage of funding streams coming forward which would lead to more Disabled facilities Grants going to more people.

The Overview and Scrutiny officer referred members to a model of delivery that had been adopted by Norfolk County Council, details of which had previously been circulated to members. More detail about the Norfolk model was to be included in the final task group report.

The Task Group recommended that officers be asked to consider a delivery model similar to that developed in Norfolk in order to achieve a seamless process for the person in receipt of a grant.

The Chair commended the recommendations of the Task Group to the Committee and recommended that they be taken forward in time for the new financial year.

Resolved: That,

i.  The recommendations of the Task Group be supported; and

ii.  The Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services be asked to provide an interim response within two months and a full and final response within six months.

On 5 September the Steering Group met with officers from NHS England, Lancashire Area Team. A summary of the meeting was presented at Appendix A.

On 26 September the Steering Group met with officers from the Care Quality Commission. A summary of the meeting was presented at Appendix B.

On 17 October the Steering Group met with officers from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust and Fylde & Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group. A summary of the meeting was presented at Appendix C.

Resolved: That the report be received.

The Committee's attention was drawn to forthcoming decisions and decisions recently made by the Cabinet and individual Cabinet Members in areas relevant to the remit of the committee, in order that this could inform possible future areas of work.

Recent and forthcoming decisions taken by Cabinet Members or the Cabinet can be accessed here:

http://council.lancashire.gov.uk/mgDelegatedDecisions.aspx?bcr=1

Resolved: That the report be received.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

No urgent business was reported.

The next meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee will be held on Tuesday 13 January 2015 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday 13 January 2015 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.