Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 26 September 2014

RESOLVED - That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 September 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

To provide an opportunity for Members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the Agenda

There were no declarations of party whip

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note: in order for officers to undertake and background research, it would be helpful if members of the public notified the Scrutiny Officer listed at the foot of the Agenda at least one working day before the meeting with brief details of the matter to be covered.

Eileen Tolbert, a member of Senior Voice for Macclesfield, spoke about concerns being raised in Macclesfield about the possible closure of Hollins View residential care home. She suggested that Hollins View is a valuable facility to the community with excellent staff that treated people as individuals and met their specific needs, helping patients to socialise and interact with others. She did not want to see Hollins View closed.

Jean Bennett, carer to her father and husband, also spoke about the value of Hollins View which provided respite care. The care provided at Hollins View gave her piece of mind that her relatives were being well looked after enabling her to have breaks which enabled her to continue her caring role. She was concerned about any potential closure of Hollins View as there was no suitable alternative being provided in the area. She suggested that three local private respite centres were unsuitable due to enforcement orders or threat of closure meaning none of them were taking new entrants. There was also a facility in Mobberley however she suggested this was too expensive for many people in Macclesfield.

To examine the progress and performance of the Trust in its first six months of operation and provide comment to contribute to future monitoring of the Council’s contract with the Trust

Mark Wheelton, Commissioning Manager for Leisure and Wellbeing, presented a report on the transfer of leisure centre and sports development services to a recently established charitable trust “Everybody Sport & Recreation” (ESAR). Mark was responsible for monitoring the performance of the Trust to ensure it delivered the outcomes expected by the Council outlined by contractual performance indicators.

Peter Hartwell, Chief Executive of ESAR, attending the meeting to provide an overview of the Trust’s activity since being established in March 2014 and services and staff being formally transferred to the Trust on 1 May 2014.

During questioning by the Committee the following points rose:

·         The Council’s contract with ESAR was for the next ten years with an optional five year extension.

·         The Council paid an annual management fee to the Trust and revenue from fees and charges to customers was used to fund the services. Any surplus was reinvested into services.

·         The Trust bought back some back office services from the Council or some alternative service delivery vehicles, such as ANSA. As the corporate landlord of the leisure and sports assets the Council was paid a management fee.

·         ESAR was responsible for setting fees and charges for services but did so in consultation with the Council.

·         As the commissioner of the service Mark regularly visited leisure centres and held monitoring meetings with centre managers and Peter as the Chief Executive.

·         There had been no change in fees and charges at leisure centres since April 2013.

·         Customer visits and attendance at events had previously not been recorded in a uniform way across facilities. A new uniform system was now being used however it was difficult to compare numbers with previous years to evaluate performance. It was suggested that this year’s figures should be used as a base line for future years comparison.

·         The Trust was developing a system for online booking and payment of exercise classes. It had also introduced a new customer complaints and compliments system and launched an online user survey which would hopefully help the Trust to identify was to improve services.

·         The Trust’s services had an impact on the Council’s strategic outcome 5 (people living well for longer). The Public Health Team monitored the measures for achievement of outcome 5 including the Trust’s contribution to it.

·         The Trust and Public Health needed to consider a strategy for how to get more people using the Trust’s services, and generally taking part in exercise, in order to improve the health and wellbeing of the population.

·         As well as operating from its facilities the Trust was putting staff out in the community to provide services across a wider area and encourage more people to be active.

·         The Trust needed to develop relationships with schools that had joint use agreements on some leisure facilities such as pools. The schools had agreements with the Council but the Trust needed to become a partner in the relationship to ensure facilities were being used in the best possible way, especially when schools were out of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

To consider changes to the Council’s Deferred Payment Policy brought about by new legislation

Alison McCudden provided an overview of the  Deferred Payment Policy (DPP). The policy needed to be updated following changes to the Council’s statutory duties brought about by the Care Act 2014. The policy document attached to the agenda illustrated the changes that needed to be made to the policy.

Most of the changes made to the DPP were not optional. The Council had previously been providing care users with the option to pay for their care through deferred payments on a discretionary basis however this was a statutory requirement. Changes to the law also meant that the Council was now able to apply interest on deferred payments and charge an administrative fee to cover full cost of providing the deferred payment option.

The following points arose from the Committee’s questions:

·         Interest was applied to a service users balance 56 days after their death to allow a grace period where the debt could be settled.

·         Service users had the option to let their house to a tenant in order to fund their care. Advisors explored various potential payment options with services users not just deferred payments.

·         The policy only applied to single people who had been living at home alone, deferred payment could not be arranged against a property where a partner/spouse was still living. Members felt this wasn’t clear in the policy and that amendments should be made to rectify this.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the changes to the Deferred Payment Policy be noted.

(b)  That the Committee supports the Council’s Deferred Payment Policy.

(c)  That the Committees comments during the discussion be submitted to Alison McCudden for consideration.

To consider the latest Forward Plan

The Committee examined the Forward Plan.

RESOLVED – That the Forward Plan be noted.

To review the current Work Programme

The Committee considered its work programme.

It was suggested that in January the Committee should hold a workshop to discuss the role of social and private landlords contribute towards health and wellbeing with the Council’s partners and landlords.

RESOLVED – That the work programme be noted and a workshop in January to discuss landlords’ role in health and wellbeing be arranged.