Adult, Community Services and Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel
Tuesday 13 July 2010
UADULT, COMMUNITY SERVICES AND HEALTH OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY PANEL
13 JULY 2010
PRESENT: Councillors Mrs Endacott (Chairman), Mrs Evans (Vice-Chairman), Baskerville, Lenton and Mrs Yong.
Non-Members: Councillor Dudley
Also Present: Carolyn Finlay (Berkshire East Primary Care Trust); Sheila Holmes (WAM LINk);
Officers: Mr Abrahamson, Mr A Scott, Mrs Shawcross, Mr Skerman, Mr Taylor and Mr Thomas
Upart i
13/10 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs Kemp, Majeed, Mrs Napier and Mrs Proctor.
14/10 DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTU
Councillor Lenton declared a Personal Interest in agenda item 5 – Provision of Medical Services to Wraysbury – as a Member of Wraysbury Parish Council and a patient of the Datchet practice.
Councillor Lenton declared a Personal Interest in agenda item 7 – Adult Social Care: Service Provider Review – as a Director of a company with a subsidiary that supplied care services.
15/10 MINUTESU
- RESOLVED: That the Part I minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 14 June 2010 be approved as a correct record.
16/10 URGENT CARE CENTRE, ST MARKS HOSPITAL, MAIDENHEAD
Members received an update on the establishment of an Urgent Care Centre (UCC) at St Marks Hospital. The UCC had been commissioned from the East Berkshire Primary Care Services Out Of Hours Service from 1 April 2010 and delivered an out patient community based nurse led service for patients with minor ailments and minor conditions which were all under 48 hours old. Members were advised of the services being provided at the UCC, which were aimed at averting hospital admissions for minor ailment or minor injury and preventing inappropriate attendance at A & E.
Members were advised that the service had been well received by the public, was proving to be a valuable community service and the links with the Out Of Hours GP appointments had been well used. It was noted that the UCC dealt with an average of 32 patients per day, with the average waiting time being 26 minutes, and that 98% of patients were being seen within ½ hour of arrival, which was within the local stretch target of 95% patients being treated within 1 hour of arrival.
Members were advised that quarterly review meetings were being held and that a report would be submitted to the September meeting of the PCT Board reviewing the outcomes and efficiencies of the Unit. Members were advised that the PCT had been requested to re-issue the patient survey that had been undertaken in 2009 to seek the views of people visiting the Minor Injuries Unit. The Panel requested that, if the survey was re-issued, the results be reported to a future meeting of the Panel.
17/10 PROVISION OF MEDICAL SERVICES TO WRAYSBURY
The Panel received a report from the Berkshire East Primary Care Trust that provided an update on progress with the provision of a GP surgery in Wraysbury. It was noted that after a full evaluation, the partners of the Datchet practice had decided not to pursue the proposal to provide a branch surgery facility at Wraysbury Village Hall as they did not consider that it would have been in the best interests of their patient population as a whole or the viability of Datchet Health Centre.
Members were advised that those patients registered at the Datchet Health Centre that had originated from the Dr Hassan’s would be surveyed to seek views on their patient experience and services provided at the Datchet practice in order to determine patient satisfaction with the current service provision and to identify any unmet health provision in that particular group of patients that would then be reviewed.
Councillor Lenton referred to the facilities and services that could be provided from a branch surgery at Wraysbury Village Hall, which he claimed would have been far better than those that were currently provided from a similar facility in Old Windsor. He also commented upon transport arrangements to the Datchet surgery for Wraysbury residents and referred to alternative sites within Wraysbury that could be converted for use as a GP surgery. He advised that he would pursue those sites further with the PCT, Parish Council and the Datchet practice.
In response to a number of questions, Members were advised that the PCT would continue to provide transport to the Datchet surgery only for those vulnerable people that had previously been registered with the Dr Hassan’s practice in Wraysbury as it would not be financially viable to extend it to all vulnerable people in Wraysbury.
- RESOLVED: That a further update be submitted to the Panel at the next meeting.
18/10 ADULT SOCIAL CARE – RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Members considered the report due to be submitted to Cabinet on 29 July 2010 on the proposed Resource Allocation System (RAS) for the Council. It was noted that the Department of Health’s policy of “Putting People First” required local authorities to introduce Self Directed Support and Personal Budgets on a universal basis by 2011/12. Local authorities had been encouraged to adopt a transparent methodology for calculating a “Personal Budget”, the methodology generally known as a RAS. The Cabinet report described the components of the Royal Borough’s proposed RAS and set out how the methodology would work.
Members were advised that over 100 residents had been assessed under the RAS following the introduction of Self Directed Support in February 2010 and that the process and approach had been well received, with people appearing to find the Self Assessment Questionnaire easy to complete and user friendly. Members were advised that the impact of the RAS would be reviewed later in the year, when a significant number of existing service users had been assessed, in order to evaluate whether any changes may be necessary for the following financial year.
RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinet be advised that Panel endorses the proposed Resource Allocation System for Adult Social Care.
19/10 ADULT SOCIAL CARE – SERVICE PROVIDER REVIEW
Members considered the report due to be submitted to Cabinet on 29 July 2010 on the strategic options for the future procurement and provision of adult social care services. It was proposed that a phased approach to the externalisation of services be undertaken commencing with all Homecare and the Shared Lives Service with a view to awarding contracts from the end of March 2011. The remaining in-house social care services would continue to be run by the Council but would be reviewed in 12 months once the new market conditions for those services had been evaluated in the light of personalisation of social care and support.
In response to a number of questions, the officers commented upon the cost of day centres and referred to the desire from younger people for more services to be provided that were not day centre based, although it was stressed that the Council would continue to support day centres. Further information was provided on the cost of the contract with PA Consulting and Members were advised that, although some savings could be introduced to reduce the cost of the in house homecare service, those savings would still be insufficient to enable the service to compete with independent providers.
Arising from the discussion, the need for a Member training session on Transforming Social Care was highlighted. It was also suggested that there be clarification of the feedback to stakeholders involved in the consultation and that amendments be made to the wording in the Outline Business Case to clarify the role of the Head of Adult Services and risk evaluation.
- RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That, Cabinet be advised that the Panel endorses the strategy as proposed in the report, subject to the comments as outlined above.
Members noted the items that had been identified for submission to the next meeting.
21/10 ULOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 – EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC
- RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on items 10 - 11 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.