Agenda and minutes

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Venue: Cabinet Room 'C' - The Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston

Contact: Gary Halsall  Email:  gary.halsall@lancashire.gov.uk, Tel: 01772 536989

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Items
No. Item

County Councillors C Edwards, A Schofield and B Dawson replaced County Councillors J Shedwick, E Pope and N Hennessey respectively.

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from County Councillor S Morris and Councillor D Howarth.

2.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

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.

Minutes:

No interests were declared.

3.

Minutes of the Meeting Held on 24 September 2019 pdf icon PDF 224 KB

Minutes:

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

5.

Terms of Reference for the proposed Joint Health Scrutiny Committee for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received the Terms of Reference for the proposed Joint Health Scrutiny Committee for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System.

 

During discussion, Committee members made the following comments:

 

Concern was raised that as Lancashire was the largest geographical area covered by the proposed joint committee, Lancashire residents would not be proportionately represented if Lancashire only had three seats. It was suggested that three additional seats with voting rights be allocated to Lancashire's district council members.

 

Concern was raised that appointing strictly on the basis of two members of the administration and one member from the largest opposition group would not adequately represent the wider political makeup of the Lancashire and South Cumbria area.

 

It was suggested that the wording on page one of the Terms of Reference under the membership heading be amended to read "Each local authority to appoint on the basis of two members from the administration and one opposition member." Upon being put to the vote it was;

 

Resolved: That;

 

1.  The Health Scrutiny Steering Group in collaboration with the other relevant authorities give consideration to:

 

  i.  Amend the terms of reference under membership to read "Each local authority to appoint on the basis of two members from the administration and one opposition member."

 

  ii.  Allocate three additional seats with voting rights for Lancashire's district councils.

 

2.  The Health Scrutiny Committee receive the minutes of the meetings of the Joint Health Scrutiny Committee for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System.

4.

Impact of recruitment of additional Occupational Therapists pdf icon PDF 92 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Sue Lott, Head of Social Care Service, Adult Social Care and Val Knight, County Occupational Therapy Manager, who presented a report detailing the development of the Occupational Therapy Service within Adult Social Care at Lancashire County Council.

 

It was noted that significant improvements had been made in timeliness of assessments and the increase in Disabled Facilities Grants recommendations since 2014, and that all Occupational Therapy posts had been recruited to.

 

Members requested clarification on a number of issues as detailed below:

 

·  The report stated that eight districts were now using discretionary grants, and concern was raised regarding the other four and the potential for inequity of provision across Lancashire. It was explained that this was due to historical carry forward of funding, which was higher in some districts than in others.

 

It was requested that a further report on the differing allocations of Disabled Facilities Grants to each district council and the challenges and opportunities this offered in terms of discretionary grants and potential inequity for the people of Lancashire be presented to a future meeting.

 

·  It was clarified that the target date to achieve 100% of people referred for an Occupational Therapy assessment within 28 days was April 2020.

 

·  It was commented that Occupational Therapists were trusted intermediaries in people's homes and therefore could have a wider responsibility for service users' welfare; for example, around gas and fire safety. In response to a question around training it was clarified that the Occupational Therapists were trained to have a preventative mindset and would refer issues to other organisations such as home improvement agencies or the Fire Service where appropriate. Also, Telecare technicians would be receiving training to be able to identify and action low level issues.

 

·  Responding to a question about hospital discharge arrangements, it was clarified that the acute social work team identified patients who would likely need major or urgent adaptations to allow them to return home, and worked with the Occupational Therapists to facilitate the adaptations, although it was not always possible to complete this before the patient returned home. However, hospital Occupational Therapists were now equipped to take some people home and would undertake any immediate small adaptations to ensure the patient was safe, for example, by moving furniture.

 

·  In response to a question around the return and recycling of equipment, it was clarified that any equipment loaned by MedEquip would be collected by that company once the user no longer needed it, and this could range from a few days to a few weeks. It was commented that decontaminating and recycling equipment was expensive, and could cost more than double the price of new equipment. There was no specific service in place to collect and recycle equipment, but letters were sent to service users advising them that many charity shops would accept second hand equipment.

 

Resolved: That:

 

  i.  The report be noted.

 

  ii.  The improvements seen in the performance of the Lancashire County Council Occupational Therapy Service be welcomed.

 

  iii.  A further  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

6.

Report of the Health Scrutiny Committee Steering Group pdf icon PDF 159 KB

Minutes:

The report presented provided an overview of matters considered by the Health Scrutiny Steering Group at its meeting held on 16 October 2019.

 

Resolved: That the report of the Steering Group be received

7.

Health Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 20 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Work Programmes for both the Health Scrutiny Committee and its steering group were presented to the Committee.

 

Resolved: That the report be noted.

8.

Urgent Business

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.

 

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

9.

Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee will be held on Tuesday, 3 December 2019 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.

Minutes:

It was noted that the meeting scheduled for 3 December 2019 had been cancelled.

 

The next meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee will be held on Tuesday 4 February 2020 at 10.30am in Cabinet Room C – the Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston.