Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were presented on behalf of County Councillors Alycia James and Margaret Brindle and Councillors Barbara Ashworth (Rossendale), Shirley Green (Fylde) and Julie Robinson (Wyre)

County Councillor Alan Schofield attended in place of County Councillor David Stansfield and Councillor Jean Cronshaw attended in place of Councillor Hasina Khan (Chorley).

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 1 September 2015 were presented and agreed.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the Health Scrutiny Committee held on the 1 September 2015 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

The Chair welcomed officers attending to present the report:

• Jacqui Routledge, Public Health Specialist
• Phyl Chapman, Head of Customer Access Service
• Ranjit Supra, Project Manager

The report provided members with information about:

·  The process for accessing social care services

·  Support for accessing services via the 'Wellbeing Worker Service'

·  Views of citizens from the deaf community on accessing services

It was explained that the Wellbeing Worker Service, which began on 1 September, was aimed at vulnerable adults, particularly those at risk of a health or social care crisis, in order to provide targeted early help, improve resilience and prevent the need for more intensive services. The service had been designed around the successful elements of several other services including Help Direct; Social Prescribing; Health Trainers and Connect 4 Life and Luncheon Club provision.

The service would work at a community level across the 12 districts of Lancashire and would operate in a variety of settings, such as people's homes and within local communities in a variety of community/outreach venues, which would be accessible, as well as being acceptable locations for all adults and communities.

It was explained that the service was not open to general access by the public but could be accessed by referral from a wide range of partners including the County Council's own Customer Access Centre. 

Individuals would receive up to six sessions to enable an assessment of their needs in a holistic way and provide support in self-help and/or accessing appropriate services, for example access to weight loss advice. It was hoped that early intervention would prevent people from falling into more serious care packages.

It was emphasised that the Wellbeing Worker Service was not a clinical/medical service and neither had it been intended to replace, 'like-for-like', Help Direct, which had now ceased. The Customer Access Centre would continue to receive calls which had previously been referred through the Help Direct Service and members were informed that the telephone number remained the same. The Committee was assured that the majority of calls that had previously come through Help Direct required little more than signposting, and that service would continue through the Customer Access Centre.

Members were invited to comment and raise questions and a summary of the main points arising from the discussion is set out below:

·  In response to a question how the service would be evaluated, it was explained that each person accessing the service would receive a wellbeing 'score' by use of the 'Get the Most Out of Life' self-assessment tool, which would be repeated during the process and three months later; consideration would be given to what actions had been taken and what had been effective.

·  In terms of an overall assessment of the effectiveness of the service, it was intended to carry out a comparison of the level of social care usage before and after its introduction.

·  In response to a question about how much the service would cost to provide, the officer did not have details to hand, but undertook to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chair noted that members had said they would like to know more about the work of the Steering Group and he went on to report issues that had recently come to the Steering Group's attention.

The Steering Group had become aware that Trust Board confidential agenda items were not being listed on the agenda front sheet to which there was public access and therefore there was no opportunity to challenge the exclusion of press and public from the meeting or to access those reports. He moved that a letter be sent to the Trust Development Authority to ask that the practice by the NHS of omitting confidential items from the agenda front sheet be reviewed in the interest of openness and transparency. CC Gina Dowding seconded the motion and, on being put to the vote it was agreed that a letter be sent by the Chair as suggested. It was then suggested and agreed that the letter be copied to Clinical Commissioning Groups and Acute Trusts also.

The Chair then referred to a recent meeting of the Steering Group with representatives from the Chorley and South Ribble Clinical Commissioning Group at which there had been some discussion about a proposal to cease a pilot scheme which provided the GP out-of-hours service within the Urgent Care Centre and Accident and Emergency department at Chorley Hospital. The Steering Group had been unable to obtain a satisfactory explanation for this decision and subsequent interim arrangements whilst a permanent solution was sought and the Chair was seeking suggestions from members as to what steps he should now take to pursue this.

It was considered most important to ensure, in the first instance, that any approach taken on behalf of the Committee reflected the views of local people. It was suggested that the Chair might write to one or more of the following: the local Health and Wellbeing Partnership; Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust; Health Watch Lancashire; NHS England.

Members commented that this matter illustrated concerns expressed earlier in the discussion about the need for transparency and openness. It was suggested that the role of Non-Executive Directors was also a matter worth investigating, using this situation as an example.

The report now presented summarised a meeting between the Steering Group and the Chief Executive of Southport & Ormskirk Hospital Trust on 3 August to talk about their post Care Quality Commission inspection Action Plan. A summary of the meeting was at Appendix A to the report now presented.

There was much concern among members about the amount of money currently being spent by the Trust on agency staff, a situation that was replicated across the country and which was unsustainable and unacceptable.

It was recognised that there were many factors that contributed to this situation including: the ability of nurses from overseas to obtain necessary permits; levels of pay; the availability of appropriate training courses; and current policies within relevant partners and agencies. It was suggested that this Committee seek approval to establish a task group  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Appendix A to the report now presented set out a draft work plan for both the Health Scrutiny Committee and its Steering Group, including current Task Group reviews.

It was reported that, in relation to the item on joint working that had been considered at the September meeting, officers were to be invited to provide an update at the January meeting of this Committee.

Resolved: That the work plan, as now amended, be noted.

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 24 November 2015 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday 24 November 2015 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.