Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 9 May 2013

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting on 9 May 2013 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest

There were no declarations of party whip

There were no members of the public wishing to speak

To examine the Quality Accounts for 2012/13 of the North West Ambulance Service and provide comment.

Tim Butcher, Assistant Director of Performance and Improvement at North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS), attended the meeting to present an overview of the NWAS Quality Account for 2012/13. In his summary of the quality account Tim Butcher highlighted the following points:

·         NWAS’s focus was on quality of service. This was a change from focusing on how quickly ambulances responded to emergencies towards providing assurance of high quality care.

·         The Trust was in the final stages of its application to become a Foundation Trust and was confident of being successful due to its commitment to identifying and improving the quality of service.

·         One of the aims was to provide the right care at the right time in the right place. There was an increased expectation on staff to ensure patients with specific issues (e.g. diabetes) received the precise care they needed.

·         The Trust had met all national operational response time targets for the year.

·         The Trust had an extremely positive inspection report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

·         An extensive and effective programme of engagement with patients had shown very high levels of satisfaction with both Emergency and Patient Transport services.

The Committee asked questions and the following points arose:

·         In 2011 the CQC had criticised NWAS for the poor quality of cleanliness in the Trust’s Vehicles (i.e. Ambulances) however as a result of this analysis the Trust had made improvements within 3 months. Since then an effective structure of monthly cleaning for each vehicle and independent infection audits meant that cleanliness was under control.

·         Members were concerned whether high demand and long waiting times at A&E departments had a knock on effect on patient turnover from ambulances. Turnover of patients had been decreasing and response time targets were being achieved however it was not always possible to guarantee that ambulances would not be held up by slow turnover during particularly busy periods for A&E departments.

·         The Committee wanted reference to the relationship between NWAS, Air Ambulance and St John’s Ambulance to be referred to in the report.

·         The Trust had a list of initiatives for improving care for patients with mental health issues. Some of these were already in place and others were set to be implemented in the coming year. The results of this initiative would be reported in next year’s quality accounts.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That Tim Butcher be thanked for attending the meeting.

(b)  That the draft Quality Account be noted.

(c)  That the Committee’s comments be formally submitted to North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust and requested to include in its final Quality Account for 2012/13.

To consider the Ageing Well Programme Annual Report and provide comment and recommendations to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Ageing Well Programme Board presents its first annual report of the 5 year programme aimed at making Cheshire East a good place to grow old. The report summarises the work to date, the achievements in 2012/13, and the plans for 2013/14.

Bernadette Bailey attended the meeting to present the Ageing Well Programme Annual Report for 2012/13. This was the first annual report after the Ageing Well Programme had been established in 2012. The programme was seeking to make the Borough a good place to grow old. It was based on seven work streams which reflected the issues that older people had highlighted were most important to them. Bernadette mentioned some of the Programme’s highlights over 2012/13 including:

·         Be Steady, Be Safe exercise classes to help reduce risk of falls.

·         Improving access to information on specialist housing options.

·         Awareness raising campaign about home safety issues and preventing falls.

·         Developing lists of reliable trades people to whom people could be signposted.

·         Establishing the Income and Employment work stream from many diverse areas involved in promoting income, employment and preparing for later life.

The Cheshire Living Well, Dying Well Partnership had been established and aimed to improve health and wellbeing by normalising death and dying in society and supporting a change in attitudes and behaviours to encourage people to discuss and plan for the end of their lives. Plans for the second year of the Ageing Well Programme included:

·         Future development of schemes such as Street Safe and Falls Awareness E-Learning.

·         Reducing social isolation.

·         Tackling fuel poverty.

·         Developing community transport grants.

·         Improving links with other programme to encourage closer working and ensure there are no gaps in services.

The Committee asked questions and the following points were made:

·         The Committee wished to see more intergenerational networking between over 50s and schools, particularly involving computer training for old people delivered by school pupils.

·         Social Isolation initiatives needed to consider how people with mobility issues would be targeted as these people would struggle to leave home to attend events.

·         People were being encouraged to be proactive about planning for retirement and their end of life. The Good Retirement Show would educate people about what to expect in retirement and support people in making decisions for their later life.

·         Parish Councils could use local information to identify the needs of people in their area and plan actions to address those needs. The Programme would engage with Cheshire Association of Local Councils (ChALC) to see how parishes could contribute to coordinating services and community efforts more locally.

·         Some health and wellbeing issues related to stress caused by financial problems. The Programme could engage other sectors, besides health and social care, such as banking and commerce whose services had an indirect contribution to health and good living to publicise what help and support they are able to offer people to improve their wellbeing (e.g. mortgage advice).

RESOLVED:

(a)  That Bernadette Bailey be thanked for attending.

(b)  That the Ageing Well Programme Annual report 2012/13 be noted.

(c)  That the Committee’s comments be shared with the Ageing Well Programme Board.

The Committee considered the work programme. No suggestions for changes or additions to the work programme were made.

RESOLVED – That the work programme be noted.

To receive an update on the Health and Wellbeing Board

Councillor Janet Clowes, the Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Board gave an oral update of the Board’s recent activity. Councillor Clowes informed the Committee that the Board held monthly meetings alternating between formal public and informal private meetings each month. At its most recent meeting the Board had considered the health elements of the Local Plan and the introduction of Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) into the planning process. Councillor Clowes informed the Committee that the Health and Adult Social Care Policy Development Group was developing a policy and toolkits for HIAs. She suggested that in the future the Committee would be able to assess effectiveness of the policy and toolkits in ensuring housing and other developments had a positive impact on health.

Councillor Clowes also presented the Committee with a diagram illustrating the major projects in the Health & Adult Social Care, Sports & Leisure Portfolio. Projects included: creating a leisure charitable trust; supported housing strategy; adult social care funding reform; Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JSNA & JHWS); and the Director of Public Health Annual Report.

RESOLVED – That the update be noted.

Before closing the meeting the Councillor Baxendale announced that he was stepping down as Chairman and retiring from the Committee with immediate effect. He thanked the Committee for their cooperation during his time as Chairman and stated that he was looking for a challenge in a new area after many years involvement in health.

RESOLVED – That the thanks of the Committee be extended to Councillor Baxendale for his commitment and hard work during his time as Chairman and wish him well for the future.