Agenda and minutes

County Councillor Jennifer Mein was replaced by County Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP for this meeting only.

Apologies were received from County Councillor Julia Berry and County Councillor Sobia Malik.

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.

No interests were declared.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 February 2022 be confirmed as an accurate record.

The Chair welcomed Jackie Moran, Head of Quality Performance and Contracting, NHS West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group to the meeting. Jackie provided the committee with an update on the Shaping Care Together (SCT) Programme.

Members were informed that SCT was run by NHS leaders across West Lancashire, Formby, and Southport, which sought to ‘futureproof’ the NHS by looking at new ways of working and new ways of delivering services.

It was reported that since January 2021, SCT listened to the thoughts, opinions, and ideas from residents, patients, staff, and stakeholders. The programme received more than 2,500 responses through an online questionnaire and hard copy feedback forms, which was followed up by a series of online and face-to-face in-depth discussion groups with local community organisations and delivered electronic newsletters and information videos about the programme. Some of the main themes which emerged from the engagement included:

·  Concerns around the accessibility of primary care services

·  A need to focus more on preventative measures and use community services better to help patients before they present to hospital

·  Some issues around public transport in certain areas

·  Staffing levels and the recruitment and retention of key staff needs to be improved

·  A need to improve patient journeys and support patients to better navigate their own care.

Comments and queries from the committee were as follows:

·  Members queried the statistic '70% favour telephone or video appointments'. It was clarified that the data came from the whole cohort in January 2021. However, there had not been a detailed analysis of the data to provide the committee with more information, but it was expected that it would have differed across age ranges and that it could have been influenced by the transition to digital services since COVID-19. It was noted that a priority for the NHS was to reduce health inequalities and that they were aware by having a solely digital platform could exclude some patients, therefore the offer would not be exclusively digital. There were also concerns that whilst some patients may prefer to have digital appointments for simpler issues, they might have preferred
face-to-face appointments for more complex issues. The SCT Programme helped to progress policy and planning processes which would improve access and focus on primary care settings to also look at their internal processes so these issues could be addressed. The committee suggested the questionnaire to be revisited now that the UK had come out of the pandemic, to see if this response changed.

·  On Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), there were concerns about the length of time it took for an appointment and that patients could not receive primary care from GPs for mental health issues once under the care of CAMHS. It was noted that across Lancashire there was a transformation programme around mental health with particular concern about CAMHS. Significant investment has been put into mental health services to meet legislation standards. The committee commented that the cross-over age for CAMHS to adult services was 16 years  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

County Councillors Ron Woollam and Rupert Swarbrick presented a verbal report giving the committee an update on their rapporteur exercise regarding children seriously injured and killed on Lancashire roads.

The county councillors were still in the process of research and had received a lot of information and explained that they would conclude their findings at the next meeting of Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee on 20 April 2022. 

They explained that their objective was to find out why Lancashire had the highest rate of traffic accidents involving children, for example Preston had a 43% higher rate than any other area in the country. They continued to explain that they were looking at the wider picture, such as if this was near schools, which areas were more involved such as rural areas, or if it could be the road layout in Lancashire, housing configuration, or design and infrastructure. They also reviewed statistics which had been provided by Lancashire Constabulary, for example in Preston there had been 306 pedestrian accidents between 2017-2020, of which 92 were children and 31 were seriously injured.

Comments from the committee were as follows:

·  Members would like to see PCSOs to have the ability to hand out fines for parking in restricted areas where there were road markings near schools, increased visits from parking enforcement officers and police officers, and stricter parking around schools. Enforcement could be supported by providing school-crossing patrols with body cameras and CCTV outside schools.

·  Schools in smaller towns and villages could have staggered finishing times to support congestion in the area.

·  It was noted that in Rossendale there was the 'Safer School Gates' campaign with partners and stakeholders, a program was put together so that families could see what other options were available. This included 'Park and Stride' so that parents could see what car parks were available in their local area. It was recognised that a lot was asked of schools, therefore being mindful of how volunteers could help to support this.

·  Schools could have agreements with local business and organisations to use their car parks for the transitory period at opening/closing times. Similarly, when new schools are built could a 'drop-off point' be considered to reduce parking.

·  Smarter thinking be promoted and education in environment and health benefits for the parents, grandparents, and children i.e. a short walk to school would mean children were more active. Parent engagement was seen as key to this.

·  Where there were issues with visibility due to parked cars, could the speed of drivers be brought down especially around schools.

·  Brake, the road safety charity was mentioned, as they hold local statistics and have a strong representation especially in Preston.

Members were thanked for their contributions.

The committee received a report which provided information on the work programme for the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee.

The topics included in the work programme were identified at the work planning workshop held on 5 July 2021 and at subsequent meetings.

Resolved: That the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2021/22 be noted.

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.

There were no items of urgent business.

The next meeting of the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee will be held on Wednesday 20 April 2022 at 10.30am in Committee Room C – The Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee would take place on Wednesday 20 April 2022 at 10:30am in County Hall, Preston.