Agenda and minutes

The Chair and Vice Chair shall be elected by the Joint Committee from among the Committee's voting membership (excluding Cumbria representatives if present) on the basis of the elected Chair and Vice Chair being members of different local authorities.

Appointment of Chair

It was moved and seconded that County Councillor Keith Bailey be appointed Chair of the Committee for the 2012/13 municipal year.

Resolved:  That County Councillor Keith Bailey be appointed Chair of the Committee for the 2012/13 municipal year.

Appointment of Deputy Chair

It was moved and seconded that Councillor R O'Keeffe be appointed Deputy Chair of the Committee for the 2012/13 municipal year.

Resolved:  That Councillor R O'Keeffe be appointed Deputy Chair of the Committee for 2012/13 municipal year.

A report was presented on the Constitution, Membership and Terms of Reference of the Committee.

It was reported that the membership of the Committee as confirmed by the relevant authorities was:

Lancashire County Council:

County Councillor K Bailey

County Councillor R Bailey

County Councillor M Brindle

County Councillor F Craig-Wilson

County Councillor C Evans

County Councillor M Iqbal

County Councillor P Malpas

County Councillor J Mein

County Councillor M Welsh

Blackburn with Darwen Council:

Councillor R O'Keeffe

Councillor P Riley

One further name yet to be notified

Blackpool Council:

Councillor J Jones

Councillor A Matthews

Councillor A Stansfield

Non-voting co-opted members:

Councillor B Foster (Burnley)

Councillor J Robinson (Wyre)

Councillor D Wilson (Preston)

Resolved:  That the Membership and Terms of Reference of the Committee, as now reported, be noted.

County Councillor Fabian Craig-Wilson disclosed a personal, non-prejudicial interest in item 4 (Mental Health Inpatient Reconfiguration) on the grounds that her husband suffered from dementia, however his care was not provided by Lancashire County Council.

The minutes of the Joint Lancashire Health Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 25 January 2012 were presented and agreed.

Resolved: That the minutes of the Joint Lancashire Health Scrutiny Committee held on the 25 January 2012 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

The Chair welcomed Alex Walker, Associate Director for Adult and Older Adult Services and Paul Hopley, Head of Programmes, both from Lancashire Mental Health Commissioning Network Team, and also Emma Foster, Assistant Network Director for Adult Mental Health, Lancashire Care Foundation Trust.

The report explained that at the meeting of the Joint Health Committee on 25 January 2012 members were presented with assurances that the first phase of transition had been achieved and they were informed of the future transitional arrangements. This included details of the phase two plan until October 2013.

Lancashire Care Foundation Trust would be in the process of transition for the next four years until 2016. This involved the de-commissioning of existing mental health inpatient facilities, which were being replaced with alternative community provision and a superior standard of accommodation to be provided from four specialist sites across Lancashire. In making the presentation it was acknowledged that dementia care was a very important part of mental health care.

It was agreed that further updates would be brought to the Joint Health Committee for scrutiny and comment. The report presented to this meeting focussed particularly on the Lancashire Dementia Workstream which was attached at Appendix A to the report now presented. It set out:

• the background including projected number of people likely to have dementia by 2025 and the 'Case for Change' organised around four key priority areas;
• progress to date including work to reduce the use of anti-psychotic drugs and an increase in memory assessment services;
• work leading to a public consultation on dementia services; and
• next steps.

Councillors were invited to ask questions and raise any comments in relation to the report, a summary of which is provided below:

·  The Committee was assured that the dementia consultation, due to begin October 2012, would be extensive and would include: at least 15 public meetings held at various times of the day/evening; presentations to any group to which the NHS were invited (they had met with 90 groups during the last consultation); questionnaires would be sent to all health centres; advertisements in libraries; air time on local radio; and letters to nursing homes. Suggestions about others who should be included in the consultation would be welcomed. The University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) would independently collate the results into a report following the consultation.

·  It was confirmed that any cost saving achieved by reducing the use of anti psychotic drugs would be more than off-set by the increased provision of alternative methods of supporting people with dementia.

·  Members were most concerned about the burden on carers and the need to ensure that they were properly supported. It was felt that the Committee needed much more detail about what was actually being done to address this issue. Assurances were given that there were a variety of different support services including dementia advisers (provided by the Alzheimer's Society and paid for by the NHS), community mental health teams, intermediate support teams, and care home liaison. A significant amount of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

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.

To be arranged

A further meeting of the Joint health Scrutiny Committee would be arranged as and when required.