Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence had been received from Jane Scattergood, Katrina Stephens and Councillors Hughes, Atkinson and Simpkins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies for absence had been received from Jane Scattergood, Katrina Stephens and Councillors Hughes, Atkinson and Simpkins.

To note the Terms of Reference and receive details of any changes in membership.

The terms of reference for the Health and Adults Scrutiny Committee were noted.

To receive declarations of interest by members of any interests on respect of items on this agenda, and to consider any dispensations.

 

Members may however, also decide, in the interests of clarity and transparency, to declare at this point in the meeting, any such disclosable pecuniary interests which they have already declared in the Register, as well as any other registerable or other interests.  

There were no declarations of interest made on this occasion.

To consider whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any item on the agenda.

RESOLVED: - that the press and public be not excluded during consideration of any items on the agenda today.

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting held on 7th March, 2024 (copy enclosed).

Councillor Hanley proposed an amendment to minute No. 47, he advised that the paragraph stating that none of the current GP surgeries had facilities large enough to carry out effective training was incorrect and Jane Scattergood had actually advised that there were fewer community health centres.

 

It was moved by Councillor Edwards and seconded by Councillor Hanley and;

 

RESOLVED: - That the minutes of the previous meeting be agreed, with the above amendment.

To provide an update on the Council’s approach to supporting unpaid carers.

The Service Manager for Adult Social Care, Colin Phipps presented an update on the Council’s approach for supporting unpaid Carers.

 

He advised that Under the Care Act 2014 and the Childrens and Families Act 2014, the Council was obliged to provide to eligible carers of Westmorland and Furness access to support and services which may include and assessment, information advice and guidance and in some cases direct payments or funding to support identified needs.

 

The Council met these statutory obligations through a variety of ways, including direct support from operational Adult Social Care and Children teams, and the commissioning of a range of carers services which included an all age carers contract delivered by local carer organisations under an consortium umbrella.

 

The presentation focused on the adult carers of adults (obligations that were covered by the Care Act 2014) but didn’t reference the approach across all carers as Children’s, Adult Social Care and Commissioning teams looked to deliver a consistent all age approach to supporting unpaid carers in Westmorland and Furness.

 

The presentation highlighted the number of carers across Westmorland and Furness, current range of service, details of the principle all age cares contract, feedback from carers, current challenges/areas of focus and the approach to future arrangements.

 

Councillor Murray questioned the average age stated as 67 on the presentation.

 

Colin Phipps advised that this was an error and the varied ages started at 67.

 

The Chair asked if there was an all age carers strategy and what the timeframe would be for the strategy.

 

Colin Phipps stated that the presentation only focused on Adults and there was not a specified timeframe.

 

Cath Whalley advised that they didn’t want to rush the strategy through and they were required to do an Adult return, when they produce an all age strategy they wanted the support of young people as well as adults. There was no timeline as they wanted to make sure the engagement was correct.

 

The Chair asked if the process of producing the strategy could be reported back to the committee.

 

RESOLVED: - To note the report.

 

 

The report presents the Draft Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Vicky Hepworth-Putt, Consultant in Public Health and Eleeisha Kilgallon, Public Health registrar presented the draft Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

 

They advised that the process had been overseen by a steering group with representation from all Health and Wellbeing Board organisations. The content of the strategy had been developed from an analysis of the existing strategic context, a new summary Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) providing an overall assessment of health needs in Westmorland and Furness and community engagement. The content had then iteratively been developed and refined through a series of stakeholder engagement meetings and workshops between January and May 2024. The engagement process included a presentation and report to the Health and Adults Scrutiny Committee in March 2024.

 

The strategy set out a blueprint to describe how members of the Health and Wellbeing Board would work together to meet the current and future health needs of their residents and represented the single unified strategy for health and wellbeing for the Westmorland and Furness footprint.

 

Work to develop a two year action plan and outcomes framework to support the strategy implementation was in progress and would be presented at the September meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

 

They added that there had been an amendment on pages 9 and 10 in the Health inequality section and this was be reflected in a future draft.

 

Councillor Hanley referred to the plan to prevent deaths from suicide, he stated that a fair amount of work had already been done on this in the past however there was no mention of GP’s or the psychiatric teams.

 

He also mentioned families smoking prevention during pregnancies.

 

A lot of infrastructure to improve this has withered over the years and he asked whether the infrastructure was important to achieve the aim.

 

Eleesia Kilgallon agreed that the infrastructure was important and added that more detail would be covered within the action plan.

 

Councillor Murray stated that the local plan was being reviewed and stated that Public Health officers should liaise with Planning officers regarding housing.

 

The Chair asked when the draft action plan would be available.

 

Eleesia Kilgallon advised that a draft would be available in September.

 

The committee agreed that a session would be held to review the draft after it had been reported to Health and Wellbeing Board.

 

 

RESOLVED: - That;

 

      i.        The Draft strategy be noted;

 

    ii.        A session to review the review the draft after Health and Wellbeing Board in September, 2024 be arranged.

 

 

To receive an update on the Performance of Works for the reform of Adult Social Care in Westmorland and Furness and an update on progress in the preparation for the Care Quality Commission’s Assurance Framework.

Keith Cheesman, Assistant Director Quality, Resources and Transformation and Cath Whalley, Director Adult Social Care provided a presentation on the Promoting Independence and Wellbeing Programme.

 

The presentation set out some context and detail for the programme of work underway for the reform of Adult Social Care in Westmorland and Furness and also provided an update on progress in the preparation for the Care Quality Commission’s Assurance Framework.

 

A list of what they were setting out to achieve was provided, this included improving their intermediate care offer, improving the quality of data and reshaping their workforce to maximise efficiency.

 

It was stated that they wanted to be rated good by the CQC within 3 years and excellent in 5 years, however it was possible that they could still get an inadequate rating.

 

The delivery framework and draft operating model were presented.

 

The committee were informed that the case management systems had been desegregated and there were no issues.

 

The Chair commented that there was much to do. However, to do it steady rather than a rushed manner was the best approach long term. She also gave her thanks to the expedience by ICT disaggregating these systems ahead of target and recognising the level of work required to do this successfully.

 

Councillor Hanley asked if DOLS were still an issue in residential care homes.

 

Keith Cheesman advised that there was some improvement, they had 3 assessors and a new team manager, however the numbers were increasing quicker than they could process.

 

Council Hanley referred to page 3 of the presentation that mentioned reducing the amount of written off debt and asked if there was a large amount of debt.

 

Keith Cheesman stated that the debt figure was high due to various reasons.

 

Councillor Hanley asked when the CQC would be coming.

 

Keith Cheesman advised that they had a 2 year timeline and they didn’t know when.

 

Councillor Bell stated that Adult Social Care wouldn’t be successful unless other services played their part.

 

The chair asked if it would benefit members if they were closer to the conversations being held.

 

It was agreed this would be discussed away from the meeting.

 

RESOLVED: - To note the report.

To receive a report from the Strategic Policy and Scrutiny Advisor on the Forward Plan, Work Programme and Feedback from Scrutiny Workshops.   

David Stephens, Strategic Policy and Scrutiny Supervisor presented the forward plan and work programme update.

 

Members were asked to consider the excerpts from the Forward Plan identified as relevant for the Health & Adults Overview and Scrutiny Committee and decide whether they should be reflected in the Committee’s work programme.

 

The relevant items from the current Forward Plan of Key Decisions 1 March 2024 to 30 June 2024 had been attached as an appendix to the report, Future iterations of the Forward Plan could be used to identify potential areas for scrutiny activity or where further information sharing was required.

 

A series of workshops had been held in April and May involving Executive, Non-Executive Members and Senior Officers, feedback on the Health and Adults Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme was included as an appendix.

 

David Stephens advised there had been a lot of items scheduled for the September meeting and stated these needed to be prioritised and some of the items scheduled for a later meeting, he asked if members had any preferences.

 

There had been 2 additional areas which that were suggested to look in to, the first being the transition from Children’s into Adult’s services and the second was looking into the performance of the Health Child Programme.

 

Hanley also asked if approved social workers could be looked in to.

 

Cath Whalley advised that these were currently still employees of Cumberland council so it would be too early to look in to this. 

 

David Stephens advised that this could be added to the work programme once the desegregation took place.

 

Councillor Edwards stated he thought the transition into Adult Social Services would be important to look at.

 

It was agreed that these 2 items would be added to the draft work programme.

 

RESOLVED: -

 

      i.        To note the Forward Plan

 

    ii.        To note the work programme

 

   iii.        That the transition into Adult Social Care and Approved Social Workers be added to the draft work programme