Agenda and minutes

Due to Council business apologies for absence were received from Councillors G Baxendale and D Flude

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests or members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.

None

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 20 May 2010 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman

To receive the minutes of the meeting of The Cheshire and Wirral Councils’ Joint Scrutiny Committee held on 25 May 2010.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 25 May 2010 be received

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 any 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.

S Dykes, A Kantwell, G Clough and A Cartwright attended the meeting to speak in respect of Age Concerns proposals relating to the future of the day care centres. H Hamilton from the Wishing Well project also attended the meeting to highlight the possibility that some of the day centres could, in the future, be run by Wishing Well.

Ken Clemens, Age Concern Cheshire, will brief the committee on their review of day services.

The following background documents are attached:

      Age Concern Cheshire leaflet – “How we made a difference in Cheshire East”;

      Age Concern Supporting You service report October 2009 – March 2010;

      Briefing note from Phil Lloyd, Head of Adult Services, Cheshire East Council;

      Presentation notes from Phil Lloyd;

      Age Concern Cheshire Service Review;

      Older People’s Services – Health and Social Care Joint Commissioning Plan 2010 -11.

Ken Clemens from Age Concern, Cheshire, attended the meeting to outline the future proposals for day care centres. He highlighted that the trustees, PCT and Local Authority were currently undertaking a review as Age Concern would need to work differently in the future in order to provide the best value for money. This involved mapping out what services are provided and who they are provided to, assessing the possible options and finally developing strategies.  Until this review had been completed no change would be made to the day centres.

Mr Clemens felt that the level of public interest was encouraging and that this needed to be taken into consideration by the local authority, when it assess what services are important to the public.

The Committee noted that a decision would not be made on the future of the centres until the review had been completed by April 2011 at the earliest. However Members expressed concern that this important issue had not been brought to their attention earlier.

Members agreed that as this issue was of significant importance to the public a Task and Finish Group comprising of Councillors C Beard, S Jones, C Andrew, D Bebbington, S Bentley and D Flude be established to investigate the wider issues and Cheshire East Councils involvement in further detail.

RESOLVED

That a Task and Finish Group comprising of Councillors C Beard, S Jones, C Andrew, D Bebbington, S Bentley and D Flude be established to review Cheshire East’s involvement in Age Concern.

To receive a presentation from the North West Ambulance Service on performance and the Quality Account.

The Committee received a presentation by Cath Galaska, Director of Services Delivery, Dave Kitchin, Head of Service for Cheshire and Merseyside and Ian Moses, Head of Service Development from the Ambulance Service, on performance and the Quality Account.

The presentation detailed:

• Care Quality Commission Registration
• Actions undertaken in relation to the Quality Account
• Areas for improvement in 2010/2011
• The national standards for categorising emergency calls
• NWAS performance standards to be achieved across the North West
• The Headline performance data for Central and eastern Cheshire PCT
• Service Developments

With regard to category A response times, it was noted that only 67.47% of cases were reached within 8 minutes and that this would be difficult to address without additional resources.

Members commented on the successful First Responders Pilot Project ran in Nantwich and agreed that, where possible, similar arrangement should be implemented in other parts of the Borough.

In answer to a specific question on staff morale, Dave Kitchin responded that when staff are busy, and may be the only available resource in a large geographic footprint, it was possible that they might be frustrated when called out to cases where the cause of the illness or injury was alcohol related.

NWAS community resuscitation officers were eager to engage with local authorities and others to develop a register of defibrillators held in the community, which NWAS would hold alongside its own register of community based defibrillators, that had put in place through the 'defibrillators in public places' scheme. NWAS was not responsible directly for other agencies defibrillators, though it was willing to work with the agencies and give advice in return for the ability to hold a record of that defibrillator.

RESOLVED

That the presentation be noted.

Andy Ennis, Director of Service Development at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will do a presentation on the Clinical Services Strategy.

The Committee received a presentation by Andy Ennis, Director of Service Development at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on the clinical strategy.

The presentation detailed:

• Mid Cheshire Hospitals vision
• The key challenges
• The key objectives
• The strategic context with regard to the clinical drivers of change
• The political and financial strategic context
• The physical infrastructure
• What services should be provided

With regard to the physical infrastructure, it was reported that, due to funding, it would not now be possible to build a new hospital.

Mr Ennis reported there were three key challenges to local health care.

• Surgical provision
• Moving emergency care into the community
• Obstetric and Paediatric care.

Changes in surgical provision mean that in order to provide a safe service, partnerships with other acute providers would be required which may mean patients would need to travel further for specialised surgery.

For medical services a greater emphasis would be placed in managing patients in the community either preventing admission to hospital or keeping the admission to the minimum. Close partnerships with GP’s, Social Services, community providers and the voluntary sector would be required in order for this to progress.

A similar picture was emerging for Obstetric care, a move to 24 hr consultant cover would mean not all units would be able to maintain local services. This had the potential to effect the provision of neonatal and paediatric services.

No plans existed for services to change in the immediate future, but work continued to understand the impact of national policies on local service provision.

Members suggested that the possibility of general practitioners undertaking minor operations should be revisited, as this would relive some of the pressures from hospitals.

RESOLVED

That the possibility of general practitioners undertaking minor operations be revisited with a view to relieving some of the pressures from hospitals.

To receive a verbal update by Fiona Field, Director of Governance and Strategic Planning at Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust, on the current financial position and any changes to the NHS.

F Field, the Director of Governance and Strategic Planning at Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust reported that, last year the PCT was financially challenged but did deliver a balanced budget at the end of March 2010.  She  highlighted that there would have to be a £1million surplus by the end of the year but there had to be cost reductions to achieve this and difficult decisions have been made. The future remains very challenging especially as locally, non-recurrent savings last year have added to the pressures in 2010/11.

RESOLVED

That the update be noted

To consider the attached report from Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust.

The Committee received an update on swine flu and the preparations being undertaken for possible future outbreaks of pandemic flu. It was reported that the PCT were continuing the national immunisation campaign which targets pregnant women as well as the usual high risk groups – should swine flu return in the autumn, high risk groups will have better protection.  The partnership working had won a leadership award for the Northwest and would now go forward to the national awards.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted

To consider the final report of the Scrutiny Task/Finish Group.

Consideration was given to the draft final report of the Obesity and Diabetes Task and Finish Group, which aimed to address the rise in obesity and diabetes and reduce the health and financial impacts of this rise. 

With regard to paragraph 5, Members felt that the criteria for receiving school meals was unfair and should be reviewed.

RESOLVED

That:

a) the report of the Task and Finish Group be welcomed and supported, noting the progress achieved since the original Reviews were undertaken, but that more remains to be done;

(b) the recommendations of the Group be endorsed, and referred to the relevant Cabinet Members and the Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust for consideration and necessary action, and that they be invited initially to comment on the details of the recommendations;

(c) the responses of the Cabinet Members and the PCT be considered by the Scrutiny Group in due course;

(d) the Scrutiny Panel be requested to develop an action plan and to keep progress under review, and to report further on the implementation of the Report’s recommendations in 12 – 18 months time.

(e) that the criteria for receiving free school meals  be reviewed

(f) the Group be thanked for its hard work.

To consider a report of the Head of Human Resources considered by Cabinet on 14 June 2010, which set in motion the formal process to consult Overview and Scrutiny Committees in accordance with the Budget and Policy Framework procedure rules.  The Committee is asked to consider making observations on the Corporate Plan which will be considered by Cabinet on 19 July 2010. 

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Human Resources enclosing for comment the draft Corporate Plan which was due to be considered by Cabinet on 19 July prior to making a recommendation to Council regarding its formal adoption on 22 July 2010.

With regard to the section relating to Contacts and Further Information, it was highlighted that Poynton was included in the index but had been omitted from the map.

With regard to the section 5 – How We Are Performing, reference was made to an increase in swimming as a result of the Council’s support of the free swimming scheme. Members highlighted that that scheme had now been withdrawn by the Government but felt that Cheshire East Council should continue with the scheme.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet be informed of the comments highlighted above.

To consider the report of the Borough Solicitor.

Consideration was given to the work programme. It was agreed that the Task and Finish Group set up to look at Age Concern should also scrutinise the Dementia Strategy with a view to investigating the full range of services available and who they are provided by.

With regard to Admiral Nurses, it was noted that they were unable to attend this Committee meeting and therefore the presentation should be deferred until a future meeting.

RESOLVED

That the work programme be approved subject to the amendments highlighted above.

It was noted that as J Weeks was due to retire, this would be his last meeting of the Committee. The Chairman, on behalf of the Committee, thanked him for all his hard work.