Agenda and minutes

Health and Adult Social Care and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Friday, 29th April, 2016 10.30 am, MOVED

Venue: East Committee Room - Municipal Buildings, Earle Street, Crewe, CW1 2BJ. View directions

Contact: James Morley  Scrutiny Officer

Items
No. Item

7.

Minutes of Previous meeting pdf icon PDF 66 KB

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 19 February 2016 (to follow), 3 March 2016, and 11 March 2016.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

(a)  That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2016 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

(b)  That the minutes of the meeting held on 3 March 2016 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

(c)  That the minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2016 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

8.

Declarations of Interest

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

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest

9.

Declaration of Party Whip

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

Minutes:

There were no declarations of party whip

10.

Public Speaking Time/Open Session

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.

 

 

Minutes:

Jean Bennett spoke in relation to respite care, specifically in Macclesfield. She suggested that since the Council’s decision to stop providing respite care from Hollinsview had reduced the availability of respite care for residents in Macclesfield. She had tried to book respite care for her father however had only been offered a bed at homes in other towns because their local home was fully booked. She also raised issues with the quality of service at another home and questioned whether the quality of other care homes being used for respite care was adequate. She wanted to ensure that all carers would be able to book local respite care when they needed it, including at short notice.

 

David Wood, former team manager in adult social care at the Council, made some comments about respite care provision. He informed the Committee that there was a community group in Macclesfield attempting to monitor the impact of the closure of respite care at Hollinsview. He asked why of the 153 carers assessed for support only 78 had taken respite so far. He suggested that the survey which had been carried out by the Council did not enable some key information about people’s needs to be collected. He also asked whether respite care beds which were being under used would be decommissioned.

 

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care offered to respond to questions from both speakers after the meeting and suggested that some points would be raised under Item 7 of the agenda.

 

Mike Harnor informed the Committee that he was present to observe Item 6 in relation to the Committee’s Ambulance Services Review as a Governor of NWAS Governor Board.

 

11.

Ambulance Services Review Final Report pdf icon PDF 66 KB

To consider for approval the final report from the Ambulance Services Review which took place on 19 February 2016 and 24 March 2016.

 

(report to follow)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

James Morley provided an overview of the Committee’s review process and how the final report was developed. The Committee was asked to approve the version contained in the agenda as the final version to be submitted to the bodies whom the Committee had made recommendations to. Members were keen to lobby Government to get changes to the way ambulance services were commissioned and assessed.

 

Jim Britt, representing the Clinical Commissioning Groups in Cheshire, Warrington and Wirral, commented that this type of review had not been carried out before and the CCGs and NWAS would also be using the report as a resource to lobby for changes to the current system as it was not fit for purpose.

 

The Committee was informed that the contract for emergency ambulance services in 2016/17 had been agreed with NWAS. There was a small increase in the funding paid to provide more resources to cope with rising demand however demand was expected to be much higher. CCGs and NWAS would be working together to try to increase see and treat and the amalgamation of 111 and 999 services would also help to improve hear and treat. It was hoped that changes would help to reduce demand and enable NWAS to focus on responding to life threatening calls.

 

RESOLVED – That the ambulance services review report be approved as a final version.

12.

Update on the Implementation of Local and Personalised Carer Respite in Cheshire East pdf icon PDF 219 KB

To consider a report on the progress in relation to the implementation of a decision taken by Cabinet on 30 June 2015 regarding changes to carer respite service in Cheshire East.

Minutes:

Councillor Clowes provided an overview of the report regarding new respite care services following the first quarter. She explained that the time of year was relevant to the figures as January to March was not a busy period for carers looking to book respite care so they could take a break. Up take of respite care beds was expected to be much higher during the summer. She emphasised that the new model of respite care was a work in progress and that further development and updates to the Committee would be required.

 

When the new beds were commissioned additional capacity, above that which was available at previous facilities, was planned to provide a safety net in case to ensure there were sufficient beds available. Emergency beds were also commissioned. It was suggested that carers were using beds in different ways and analysis would be needed to assess whether different types of care facilities should be commissioned to provide appropriate services.

 

Committee Members noted the positive comments of service users during the first quarter. There were concerns about the quality of services at some of the care homes providing respite care following comments from public speakers. Members were satisfied that respite care provision had been mostly positive however wanted to see how the model coped during the busy summer period. The Committee was informed about research the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society in Macclesfield was also undertaking into respite care which the Council and the Committee would be interested in.

 

Members wanted more information about the use of respite by carers of younger adults with learning disabilities, who needed different respite to older social care users. The Committee also requested more quantitative data on feedback from service users and also wanted officers to provide data on how far users where travelling to access the bed that they booked to assess if beds were commissioned in the right places.

 

RESOLVED

 

(a)  That the report be noted

 

(b)  That a six month update report be provided to the Committee in October 2016 with the additional information requested.

13.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 66 KB

To review the current Work Programme

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered its work programme. Members discussed potential items for the new municipal year including: mental health of adults, respite care for younger adults, and public health innovation projects.

 

Members were also informed that there would be two additional meetings of the Committee in May 2016 to review Quality Accounts 2015/16 of the local NHS Trusts.

 

RESOLVED – That the work programme be noted