Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 6 October 2016.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 October 2016 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Councillor Janet Clowes - Adult Care and Integration Portfolio Holder

Mark Palethorpe - Strategic Director of Adult Social Care and Health

Sarah Smith - Corporate Commissioning Manager

Dr Tanya Stanway - CWP

Tim Welch - CWP

Julie Cottier - CWP

Neil Evans  - Eastern Cheshire CCG

Julie Curtis Eastern Cheshire CCG

Tracy Parker Priest – South Cheshire CCG

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 the existence of a 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.

David Wood from Macclesfield referred to respite carer facilities in the borough. He informed the Committee that he had conducted an independent anonymous survey involving a small number of existing users of the service. The results of his survey were in marked contrast to the results outlined in the Council’s own survey contained in the report on today’s agenda. He therefore asked officers to take note of the comments received in his independent survey which he contended were well founded and genuine.

David spoke favourably about the new booking arrangements which were similar to the previous arrangements. However, he expressed concern about the availability of local beds which meant that service users were occasionally having to go outside of their local area. Not all the providers supplied respite services and some users had expressed a preference to not use some providers in future.

He expressed his disappointment that in a time when dementia was on the increase, the Council was proposing to reduce the number of respite beds available by three.

Mr Wood was asked by the Chairman to forward his independent survey onto Sarah Smith Corporate Commissioning Manager.

Jean Bennett also spoke about respite carer facilities. She also contended that experience of service users did not concur with the positive responses reported in the Council document on today’s agenda. She asked for clarification as to the location of the respite bed referred to in paragraph 6.11 of the report which was situated in the north of the borough. She also asked if the Council had carried out an investigation to explain the small usage of respite beds referred to in paragraph 6.20.

Finally, she enquired as to what the Council’s intentions were with regard to the additional savings that would be made if three further beds were closed which would be in addition to the £1.6 million saved as a result of closing permanent respite care facilities.

CWP to provide a presentation.

Dr Tania Stanway, Julia Cottier and Tim Welch attended the meeting and reported on additional detail requested by the Committee in May 2016 when CWP had presented its quality accounts for 2015/16.

The Chairman explained to CWP that when the quality accounts had been presented to the Committee in May, the report lacked specific performance data on outcomes. For instance, the Committee had sought additional information relating to programmes that had been considered to have been  successful, and on specific matters such as suicide reduction, complaints, how Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) was resourced, and Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

RESOLVED – That CWP be invited back to a future meeting of the Committee and in the meantime, the Chairman be requested to have further discussions with representatives of CWP outside of the meeting regarding the level of detail required by the Committee.

Eastern Cheshire and South Cheshire CCGs to update the Committee on new commissioning arrangements across Cheshire and Wirral.

Note: this is a Cheshire & Wirral CCG wide consultation not just that of Eastern Cheshire even though the document does reference and provide links to other documents held on the Eastern Cheshire CCG website. The attached documents have been adopted across all CCGs and have slight amendments to reflect local website links.

Neil Evans and Julie Curtis from Eastern Cheshire CCG and Tracy Parker Priest from South Cheshire CCG attended the meeting and gave a presentation relating to a consultation process to review the Cheshire and Wirral Commissioning Policy. The proposed changes involved six clinical areas covering fifteen conditions in total.

Neil explained that when feedback had been collated following the period of consultation, the matter would be referred to each governing body of the five CCGs covered by the consultation with a view to the publication of a new standard policy across all five CCG areas.

RESOLVED – That the presentation be received and noted

To consider a report of the Strategic Director of Adult Social Care and Health.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Adult Social Care and Health providing an update on Local and Personalised Carer respite for older people in Cheshire East.

The report provided information on usage and feedback concerning the implementation of local and personalised respite in Cheshire East following a competitive tendering exercise for respite carer facilities which had resulted in contracts being awarded to seven care providers for twenty one respite care beds in fifteen care homes located across the borough.

A review of the arrangements had been undertaken which had revealed that the number of respite nights within the current level of provision exceeded the number needed to provide a like for like replacement for the care previously provided at Hollins View and Lincoln House. For that reason, the number of basic residential carer respite beds could be reduced by three beds which would release £83,000 per annum to be allocated on other services for carers.

RESOLVED -

(a)  That the report be received;

(b)  That the Director of Adult Social Care and Health be requested to provide additional information at a future meeting of the Committee on the implications of reducing the number of respite carer beds by three.

To review the current Work Programme

The Committee reviewed its work programme.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and noted.

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

The Committee reviewed the forward plan.

RESOLVED – that the forward plan be received and noted.