Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda. A list of general personal interests previously declared are attached.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Riches declared a personal interest as a public member of the Board of Governors of York Hospital Trust.

Councillor Doughty requested the following change to his declaration in the list of standing declarations attached to the agenda:

·        Amendment of reference to ‘Our Celebration’ to York and District Mind.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so. The deadline for registering is 5:00 pm on Tuesday 5 July 2011.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Councillor Simpson-Laing, Cabinet Member for Health, Housing and Adult Social Services will be in attendance to report on the year ahead.

[An extract from the Cabinet Members written report to Council on 30 June 2011 is attached for information.]  

The Chief Nurse from York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust and the Associate Director of Public Health and Locality Director from NHS North Yorkshire and York will be in attendance at the meeting to give an update to the Committee.

The Chief Nurse from York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, the Associate Director of Public Health and Locality Director from NHS North Yorkshire and York and the Chair of York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust attended the meeting to update the Committee in relation to the transformation of community services.

Confirmation was received that since April there had been two phases in relation to the transformation of community services, the first involving the transfer of the community element of the PCT and its integration with the Trust directly based on community services. Phase two had taken place 6 months post transfer and had related to the alignment of services including paediatrics involving both sets of staff to get the best fit. Mid July would then see the merger of the elderly and community directorate at which time the level of care both hospital and home based would be identified. It was confirmed that this Authority could assist with improvements to out reach work in community services, end of life care and in services to support those with Parkinson’s disease, as there were large variations in provision.

Points raised following the update included:

·        Need to examine cross system issues and engagement with as many bodies as possible for example in relation to Hospices.

·        Multiple commissioners and cross local authority boundaries, which could cause issues for future priorities.

·        End of life care to improve the dignity of patients and involvement of the community to ensure that informed choices could be made. Future involvement of schools in this area.

·        Consistency of use and difficulties arising from the use of Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) forms.

·        Difficulties with performance statistics/quality standards in different areas of work.

·        Need for qualitive rather than quantitive monitoring of achievement.

·        Social isolation information previously prepared by Age Concern and work carried out by LINks on end of life care.

Members congratulated those in attendance for the work carried out to date and for the update, which would inform their future work planning.

To receive a report which outlines national and local developments in relation to progress on the NHS reforms and the work of the Transition Board.

The Committee considered a briefing paper on the Transition Board and NHS Reforms prepared by the Council’s Corporate Strategy Manager. The paper detailed both national and local developments together with the roles for the Health Scrutiny and Overview Committee.

The Council’s Corporate Strategy Manager detailed the main changes including:

·        Confirmation that the key changes required further consideration.

·        Clinical Commissioning Consortia would be established on the basis of boundaries that would cross local authority boundaries. However York was different but this would require justification. These views would be made known as the clinicians had requested that the consortia should continue using the current boundaries.

·        There would be wider representation on the Boards and lay members would have additional roles.

Members went onto question a number of areas including:

·        the need for consistency with the Nolan principles,

·        education and training in relation to York

·        the continuing role for the scrutiny overview function and

·        the ‘new duty’ of the Health and Wellbeing Boards to involve users and the public.

RESOLVED:That the progress reported on the NHS reforms and the work of the Transition Board be received and noted.

REASON:            To continue to keep the Committee updated on progress to date in these areas.

To consider the Committee’s work plan for 2011/2012.