Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4 December 2014

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting on 4 December 2014 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.

There were no members of the public present who wished to speak

To consider for approval the Carers Task and Finish Group’s Final Report

Councillor M Simon, Chairman of the Carers Task and Finish Group (the Group), presented the Group’s Final Report to be approved by the Committee before being submitted to the Cabinet for consideration.

Councillor Simon gave an overview of the report and the process that the Group had gone through during its review. The Group’s report contained recommendations to both the Council and health service commissioners and providers.

During discussion about the report the following points arose:

•   One of the main issues carers had with current services was the requirement to repeat information about their case to various agencies/services. Information sharing between services was an important practice that needed to be put in place.

•   A series of carers event had been held during January 2015 as follow up to the Middlewich event which the task group members had originally attended in November 2013. Some of the Group’s recommendations had been tested with carers at these events and had received positive feedback.

•   Carers had enjoyed the events and the social aspect of simply getting carers together to discuss their issues was useful to them. It had been agreed that carers events would become a regular occurrence in future, possibly on a quarterly basis.

•   Some of the Group recommendations were elements of the current integrated care projects which were taking place between the Council and Clinical Commissioning Groups. For instance a pilot system for shared patient/resident records was being tested, this needed to ensure safeguarding of data.

•   Guidance on the Care Act 2014 was being produced on an inconsistent basis however some elements of the Act relating to carers would be in force by April 2015.

•   The Borough needed to consider how it was going to deal with its relative large and growing elderly population which included elderly carers.

•   Identification of carers was difficult however every service that interacted with cared for people should be aware of potential carers and the role they may be playing.

•   It was important to ensure that young carers were provided with the same opportunities for further education as their contemporaries. It was particularly difficult to identify young carers as they often did not wish to be identified for fear of being taken into care or perceived stigma of their caring role.

•   Carers breaks were considered particularly important to support carers in maintaining their caring role, even if only for a few hours a week. The Dementia task and finish group which had reported in 2013 has also identified the role of carers and the importance of carer breaks.

•   Parent carers of children with disabilities also needed to be taken into consideration. It was suggested that the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee might wish to conduct a review specifically about parent carers. Parent carers also existed for adults with disabilities as more people with disabilities were surviving longer due to medical advances. This raised the issue of parent carers reaching old age and their ability to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73.

To consider for approval the Assistive Technology Task and Finish Group’s Final Report

Councillor J Saunders, Chairman of the Assistive Technology Task and Finish Group (the Group), presented the Group’s final report to be approved by the Committee before being submitted to Cabinet for consideration.

Councillor Saunders gave an overview of the report and the recommendations to Cabinet. The Group had given consideration to three policy areas: Effectiveness of Assistive Technology (AT); Universal Accessibility; and Charging.

During the discussion about the report the following points were made:

•      The current charges for AT were not sustainable and the Group believed a new charging structure was required. However concern was expressed that the charges shouldn’t be increase so much that people were discouraged from using the service.

•      The Group believed that using AT in homes can help maintain independence and reduce the demand for residential care.

•      There should be a drive to promote the use of AT to people who currently had low to moderate care needs in the interests of early intervention and prevention.

•      Good marketing was required in order to increase the public’s awareness of AT and the benefits. An increase in promotional activity was required including given people independent access to what was available.

•      The Group second recommendation in relation to ensuring commissioned providers incorporated AT into their services would be an area where the strongest impact could be made.

•      GP surgeries would be a useful place to advertise AT and GPs and other health service providers should be encouraged to promote the use of AT for early intervention and prevention and improving quality of life.

•      It was suggested that AT could help to reduce the needs for other aspects of care, reducing overall costs to the Council.

•      Individuals who were already receiving care should also be encouraged to independently look at additional AT which would help them to improve their quality of life.

•      It was suggested that Extra Care Housing should be considered in the same way as affordable housing as being necessary for development in the Borough.

•      Peterborough Council was given as an example of an authority with a useful adult social care services directory and a similar system would be useful in Cheshire East.

•      The possibility of offering AT services free of charge to over 85s living alone was raised as a potential way of increasing the use of AT and reducing demand for residential care. It was suggested that a recommendation to produce a business case for this option be developed by officers to see if it was viable and would be effective.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the Assistive Technology Task and Finish Group’s Final Report be approved and submitted to Cabinet for consideration.

(b)  That an additional recommendation be added as follows: “6.11 That officers be requested to explore the possibility of providing telecare services free of charge to over 85s who live alone and whether this would be financially sustainable and effective in maintaining independence.”

(c)  That a response to the report from both Cabinet and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

To consider a report on the impact of the Care Act 2014 on Cheshire East Council

(report to follow)

This item was deferred at the request of officers because documents relating to it could not be provided in time for the meeting.

RESOLVED – That the item be deferred and a potential new date for consideration of the item be considered by the Chairman.

To give consideration to the proposed policies following public consultation and submit comments prior to the policies being submitted to Cabinet for approval.

This item was deferred at the request of officers because documents relating to it could not be provided in time for the meeting.

RESOLVED – That the item be deferred and a potential new date for consideration of the item be considered by the Chairman.

To note the forward plan, identify any new items, and to determine whether any further examination of new issues is appropriate.

The Committee gave consideration to the forward plan.

RESOLVED – That the Forward Plan be noted.

To review the current Work Programme

The Committee gave consideration to its work programme. It was noted that the next meeting of the Joint Health Scrutiny Committee with Cheshire West and Chester Council was due to take place on 9 March 2015. The Committee was informed that a workshop to develop an action plan for the Health and Wellbeing Board, following a peer review in November 2014, was to take place this month. A report and action plan would be available to share with the Committee at the April 2015 meeting. It was also noted that feedback from the Health and Housing workshop held by the Committee on 8 January 2015 would be provided at a future meeting.

RESOLVED – That the work programme be noted.