Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

At this point in the meeting, Members were asked to declare any personal, prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests that they might have had in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Richardson declared a personal interest in the remit of the committee as he was undergoing treatment on his knee at York Hospital.

No other interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 10 June 2015.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the meeting of the Health and Adult Social Care Policy and Scrutiny Committee held on 10 June 2015 be signed and approved by the Chair as a correct record.

In reference to the Direct Payments Terms and Conditions item in the minutes, the Chair presented a paper produced by Councillor Stuart Barnes which suggested guidance, criteria and examples of practice which Members could use to decide which items are  brought to scrutiny.

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 Monday 20 July 2015 at 5:00 pm.

Filming, Recording or Webcasting Meetings

Please note this meeting may be filmed and webcast and that includes any registered public speakers, who have given their permission.  This broadcast can be viewed at: http://www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

Residents are welcome to photograph, film or record Councillors and Officers at all meetings open to the press and public. This includes the use of social media reporting, i.e. tweeting.  Anyone wishing to film, record or take photos at any public meeting should contact the Democracy Officer (whose contact details are at the foot of this agenda) in advance of the meeting.

The Council’s protocol on Webcasting, Filming & Recording of Meetings ensures that these practices are carried out in a manner both respectful to the conduct of the meeting and all those present.  It can be viewed at: https://www.york.gov.uk/downloads/file/6453/protocol_for_webcasting_filming_and_recording_council_meetingspdf

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

The Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care will present a verbal report on her priorities and challenges for 2015/16.

The Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care attended the meeting to present her priorities and challenges for the municipal year.

She informed Members that her priorities included;

·        The promotion of local ward organisations

·        Mental Health (particularly given that the Dementia Friendly City had been just launched)

·        Safeguarding ( given that York now had a statutory Safeguarding Adults Board)

She also wished to record her thanks to the Acting Director of Public Health, Julie Hotchkiss and the Director of Adult Social Care, Guy van Dichele for all their hard work, as it was noted they would be leaving post soon.

Discussion took place on social capital and ward funding. It was reported that Officers were in the process of preparing ward profiles for health issues.

Resolved: That the presentation be noted.

Reason:    In order that the Committee is kept aware of the Executive Member’s priorities.

This update report outlines the actions taken to further improve the arrangements in place to ensure that City of York Council is able to discharge its responsibilities to keep vulnerable adults within the City protected from violence and abuse, whilst maintaining their independence and well-being. It also includes the presentation of the Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2014-2015.

Members received a report which outlined the actions taken to further improve the arrangements in place to ensure that City of York Council was able to discharge its responsibilities to keep vulnerable adults within the City protected from violence and abuse, whilst maintaining their independence and wellbeing.

The Chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board, Kevin McAleese was also in attendance to present the Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2014-15.

Members asked the following questions;

·        Was safeguarding in day care investigated by the Board?

·        Was there a trend in finance being a source of risk in adult safeguarding investigations and was this as a result of austerity?

·        Could safeguarding training be made more available?

The Chair of the Board responded that there was no separate national data collection for day care safeguarding, which was why it had not been included within the report.  In response to the question about financial risks, he gave an example where some younger family members had been regularly accessing their older relative’s bank account without his knowledge.

It was reported that safeguarding training was co-ordinated via the Council’s Workforce Development Unit and personalised training could be provided.

Members suggested that the Chair contact the Head of Civic and Democratic Services to request that they all take the Level 1 Safeguarding training.

The Chair of the Safeguarding Board highlighted that it was important to keep in mind capacity and consistency of practice across all partners that dealt with vulnerable people, in order to make sure that safeguarding was kept personal. For example he highlighted that there was not a protocol between the York Adults Safeguarding Board, Children’s Safeguarding Board and Community Safeguarding Board.

One Member suggested that the second recommendation take into account the comments around capacity and protocol.

The Chair thanked the Chair of the Adults Safeguarding Board for attending the meeting and for answering Members questions.

Resolved:  (i) That the report be noted and the Health and Adult Social Care Policy and Scrutiny Committee take assurance that arrangements for safeguarding adults and the improvements made over the year are satisfactory and effective.

                 (ii) That the Health and Adult Social Care Policy Committee consider the further updates it requires regarding adult safeguarding and that these updates include the consideration of capacity and protocol.

                 (iii) That a request be made to the Head of Civic and Democratic Services for Member Training in Safeguarding.

Reason:        To keep the Committee assured of the arrangements for Adult Safeguarding within the city.

The purpose of this report from Healthwatch is to help understand people’s experiences of using wheelchair services in York. Attached as an annex to the report, is a response from the provider and repair service company of the wheelchair service.

Members received a report from Healthwatch York to help them understand people’s experiences of using wheelchair services in York. Attached as an annex to the report was a response from the provider and repair service company of the wheelchair service.

SiânBalsom, of Healthwatch York, and Robin Hull from Harrogate Foundation Trust, the service provider were in attendance to present the report and answer Members questions.

Robin Hull responded that the commissioners had welcomed the Healthwatch report. He accepted that better communication was needed with individual service users. It was reported that a new service company, Rosscare, had taken over responsibility for wheel chair repairs.

Following on from a query raised by the Chair as to whether the Committee should investigate the topic again, the Director of Adult Social Care reported that Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group were also conducting a review on wheelchair services and it was noted that NHS England would be updating their guidance on wheelchairs.

Resolved: That the recommendations within the report be noted.

Reason:    In order to understand the experiences of wheelchair service users in York.

This report gives a brief background to legal conditions relating to use of the Public Health Grant, and the actual expenditure of the Grant since transition of Public Health into the Council when the Council took on Public Health responsibilities.

Members considered a report which gave them a brief background to legal conditions relating to use of the Public Health Grant, and the actual expenditure of the Grant since transition of Public Health into the Council when it took on Public Health responsibilities.

Following discussions the Committee agreed to proceed with Option 2 of the report;

“To undertake / commission an in-depth scrutiny of expenditure on the Public Health Grant, with benchmarking against other local authorities”.

It was agreed that a Task Group be formed to undertake a scrutiny review into the expenditure of the Public Health Grant.

Resolved:  (i) That the report be noted.

                  (ii) That Option 2 be approved

                 (iii) That a scrutiny task group be established to carry out the review comprising of;

·        Councillor Cannon

·        Councillor Craghill

·        Councillor Cuthbertson

·        Councillor Doughty

Reason:        It is feasible and would provide very useful information to inform resource allocation decisions.

The Committee will receive a verbal update on the progress of changes to Direct Payments.

The Director of Adult Social Care gave a verbal update to the Committee on the progress of changes to Direct Payments.

Reference was made to an email that had been sent to Members of the Committee from York Independent Living Network following the meeting in June.

It was reported that a meeting had taken place between Officers and York Independent Living Network over revised Terms and Conditions. Work was in progress and issues that had been identified regarding the four week float in the Cashplus accounts were currently being sorted. There were still some individuals using the old eight week float.

Resolved: That the update be noted.

Reason:   To ensure that the Committee are kept aware of changes to Direct Payments.

Members are asked to consider the Committee’s work plan for the municipal year.

Members considered the Committee’s Draft Work Plan for the municipal year.

The Chair suggested that due to the amount of business on 16 September that another meeting be added in September. Thursday 10 September was proposed and agreed as the additional meeting date.

The following items would be considered at the original 16 September meeting;

·        CQC Inspection Report- York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

·        Annual Report from the Chief Executive at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

·        Annual Report from the Chief Executive of York Ambulance Service

·        Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Foundation Trust and CCG re: managing the transition of Mental Health and learning disability services from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The remaining items listed on the work plan would be considered at the extra meeting on 10 September.

Councillor Richardson presented a potential scrutiny topic on pain management, in particular back pain injections. The Chair suggested that this be revisited by the Committee, another Member mentioned Healthwatch might look into the topic. Siân Balsom, the Manager of Healthwatch York stated that there had been an historic issue about back pain injections and that she encouraged people to continue to talk to them. It was noted that during the Supporting Older People’s Scrutiny Review it had been identified that the Clinical Commissioning Group had worked with the Pain Management Support Unit. Councillor Cannon requested that this information be circulated to Members.

A comment was made about a future topic into the possible consequences of the Care Cap, it was noted that this had now been delayed until April 2020. However, some Members felt it should still be considered.

Resolved:  That the work plan be noted with the following amendments;

·        An additional meeting on 10 September 2015.

·        The circulation of information from the Supporting Older People’s Scrutiny Review.

·        A six month update from the Health and Wellbeing Board at the 20 October meeting.

Reason:   To ensure that the Committee has a planned programme of work in place.

It was announced that this would be the final meeting for Guy van Dichele and Julie Hotchkiss. The Committee thanked them for all their hard work, and wished them well for the future.