Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Jackie Wheeler, Simonetta Juniper, Jane Taptiklis and Devora Wolfson.

David Bone, Carers Bucks chaired the meeting in the absence of Devora Wolfson.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 12 April 2012 to be agreed as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 12 April 2012 were agreed as a correct record.

Matters Arising

Page 3

Swift report for monitored Telecare

The comments received about the draft report at the last meeting were passed onto the systems team.  The team has advised that separation of ‘dementia’ from other client categories is possible but is not easy.  The newly recruited Telecare Officer will be asked to look at the report in more detail as he has a statistics background.  Statistics from the Red Cross will also be included in the overarching report.  A highlight version will be presented to the AT Board; however a full version of the report will be available.

Margaret Morgan-Owen said it is very important to be able to separate the categories as this gives a better idea of areas to target.

Margaret Morgan Owen asked if it was possible to receive an update about Bucks New University.  Adam Willison advised that he would provide an update.

Action: Adam Willison

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ADL Smart Care

Board members asked about the possibility of a demonstration of the equipment. 

Adam Willison read out the following update from Andrew Evans

‘a demonstration of the system was not possible at the moment as the contract with ADL Smart Care has not been finalised.  It is hoped that access will be available from May onwards.  The suggestion was made of inviting Professor Gore of ADL Smart Care to a future meeting of the AT Partnership Board to give a demonstration of the system’.

Action: Professor Gore to be invited to a future meeting

Concern was expressed about the following;

• The ability of individuals limited by budget being able to purchase equipment.
• How individuals living alone with a mental impairment and those who do not have access to the internet would be made aware of the system.
• Although the purchasing decision is down to the individual, advice is also needed on the best option for individual needs.

Adam Willison explained that social care surgeries would initially be looked at with links to NHS and GP surgeries.  The possibility of voluntary sector organisations having part of the County Council package to provide consultations and training may also be considered.

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Date of Executive Partnership Board meetings to be emailed to Margaret Morgan-Owen

Action: Sharon Griffin

Paula Brown, Telecare Assessment Worker to be contacted to forward three anonymised AT case studies to Giulia Johnson, Age Concern UK.

Action: Adam Willison

Update on safeguarding and request for service user and carer representatives for DoLS and LIG from Gill Manning-Smith, Service Manager Safeguarding, Adults & Family Wellbeing

Gill Manning-Smith, Service Manager Safeguarding, Adults & Family Wellbeing was welcomed to the meeting.

Gill began her report by explaining that she oversees the following teams;

• Safeguarding Team
• Locality Care Management Team
• Deprivation of Liberties Team
• Mental Capacity Act
• Quality In Care Homes Team (Lead is now in post – recruitment for the team continues)

The Quality in Care Homes Team provide support and education to nursing homes that have fallen below national standards i.e. identifying difficulties and areas to address such as care planning and risk assessment.  This also applies to domiciliary care providers.  A briefing note from Rachel Daly, Team Manager is to be circulated to Assistive Technology Partnership Board members.

Action: Gill Manning-Smith/Sharon Griffin

Rachel Daly is to be invited to a future Board meeting.

Action: Sharon Griffin

During discussion the following questions were raised;

A member said it is important for carers to be included as part of information sharing as they deal with family issues on an everyday basis and are quite often overlooked.  Sensitivity to the needs of the family also needs to be included in staff training.  These issues can be picked up by the Dignity and Care home strand of the team.  Work also takes place with the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Board (BSVAB), a multi agency organisation with links across to a wide range of services across the county.  The BSVAB produce an annual report which includes a section on the Safeguarding Awareness Campaign.  Further details can be found via the following link;

http://www.buckinghamshirepartnership.gov.uk/partnership/sva/bsvab.page

Safeguarding Awareness Campaign is a high-impact campaign which aims to raise awareness of the issues around the protection of vulnerable adults in Buckinghamshire.  Safeguarding is everybody’s business. We all need to be aware of the issues and know what to do and where to go to raise our concerns.

Work is also taking place on the following;

·         Ways of keeping people safe i.e. a Buddy system or working in partnership.

·         The inclusion of service users/carers representatives on the BSVAB

·         Ensuring feedback takes place to and from service user and carer groups

·         Partnership working is taking place with organisations such as Bucks Service User & Carer Organisation (SUCO), Bucks Crossroads Care and Carers Bucks.

A representative from the AT Board is to be identified to link in with SUCO, Crossroads and the BSVAB.

Action: ALL

During the update the following questions were asked and points made;

Margaret Morgan-Owen explained that she is part of the Alzheimer Society Campaign and Media Group for Bucks who have been looking at making it easier for home carers to employ domiciliary care agencies. Most home carers have never been in this situation before and so do not know what to ask for or what to look for.  An information sheet has been compiled for home carers.  The information sheet is currently out for consultation and a copy will be sent to Gill Manning Smith.

Action: Margaret Morgan-Owen

A member asked if membership of the BSVAB included voluntary organisations? BSVAB membership does not currently include  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Report from Adam Willison

Adam Willison advised Board members that the format of the statistics report is currently being worked on and a summarised version would be presented at the next meeting.

Adam gave the following update;

• in Buckinghamshire, the Local Authority (Bucks County Council) also commission functions that are linked with health in areas such as Adult Learning and Adult Social Care.
• The commissioning of some services i.e. Carers Bucks are funded to deliver strategy
• Some services have been identified as more beneficial by being jointly commissioned i.e. Health Care and Social Care.  The aim of the joint commissioning function is to look at the economic base and to improve outcomes.  The County Council have identified Assistive Technology as one of the areas where Health and Social Care are jointly delivered.
• Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (BHCT) and Oxford Health Foundation NHS Trust are the two main providers for healthcare services in Buckinghamshire.  BHCT provides acute hospital services at Stoke Mandeville, Amersham & Wycombe hospitals. O Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of specialist mental health services.
• The Primary Care Trust (PCT) is the primary commissioner for Healthcare Services.
• From the 1 April 2012 the PCT commissioning functions and budgets are being passed to the GP Executives to manage. 
• Some of the commissioning staff from the PCT will go to support GPs.
• There are two GP Consortia in Aylesbury - Chiltern Clinical Commissioning Group in the South and Aylesbury Vale Clinical Commissioning Group in the North.
• Grant funding for health has been agreed (a one off payment)
• A spending plan over £700,000 over three years has also been agreed
• A bid has been made to secure £1.5million in funding

AT Retail Platform

Online self assessment function for equipment has been agreed by the AFW Board.  A retail provider forum was held in early June and the implementation project begins in August.

Telehealth Platform

Work on the four projects (COPD and Heart Failure monitoring and Speech & Language Therapy programme) is being driven forward by monthly strategic and operational group meetings.  The other projects are around smoking cessation and medication management.

Raise AT Awareness with key groups

Phil Prior has been appointed to the post of AT Project Officer and will attend the next meeting of the AT Board.  Individual meetings will be arranged with providers to look at the potential of extending joint working.

AT economic development opportunities

Bucks New University (BNU) has established a Telehealth Centre of Excellence which will look at research and evaluation opportunities for Telehealth within Buckinghamshire. The centre will also have an economic development functions. BNU has agreed to fund the centre for the first year.  Firas Sarhan, Senior Lecturer, BNU, will be leading the project.  A launch event has been planned for September.  The details are to be confirmed.

Plans for the 2012 Paralympics ‘Meet the Buyer’ event at Stoke Mandeville Stadium on September 2012 are underway.

During discussion the following questions were raised and points made;

A member asked if there are any Service Users  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Update from Sarah Gammon, Learning & Development Manager - ASC.

Sarah Gammon, Learning & Development Manager-Adult Social Care, was welcomed to the meeting.

Sarah explained that that she has been asked by Rachael Rothero, Service Director, Adults & Family Wellbeing, to identify if members of the seven Partnership Boards need help and support to carry out their job.

Feedback from the three boards which responded identified the main areas of support needed as being;

• Running effective meetings / the role of the Chairman
• Understanding the environment in which the Boards operate
• An overview of the roles and responsibilities of all agencies involved
• Disability awareness

Members were asked if it would be helpful to arrange a workshop/training sessions to provide updates relevant to this particular Board.

Members agreed that an Induction day for new board members would be very useful, and this should include:

• The role of board members and the expectations of the board on which they serve.
• Clarification of how the Assistive Technology Partnership Board feeds into the Executive Partnership Board and Adult Commissioners and the interdependencies, structure and the reporting line of the Partnership Boards.
• An overview of adult social care services and how they operate in Buckinghamshire.
• Jargon busters
• Disability awareness

Sarah advised that access to training on areas such as communication, chairing meetings, presentations, report writing etc could be made available on an individual or collective basis.

It was agreed that briefing sessions would be useful for board members on areas such as:

• a greater understanding of Local Health Authority involvement, structure, commissioning role and any relevant changes. i.e. Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s)
• new legislation i.e. the White Paper and its potential implications

Adam Willison said that as Assistive Technology is the first Board to indicate and interest in the workshops, could they be part of the overview trial to use as a benchmark to take to the other Partnership Boards to include work being undertaken by the Board, Service User point of view on induction as a Board member and if would they benefit from online/sample meetings.

An outline of an Induction Training day would be drafted for the board to review in September and possibly trial at an agreed future date.

Action: Sarah Gammon

A member asked where it was possible to access training information for Personal Assistants directly involved with personal budgets and information for users/carers who employ their own staff on legal obligations such as manual handling and statutory training including clarification of whether Direct Payments allows funding for statutory and non statutory training.  Sarah suggested contacting the MKB Care Association as they provide training in H&SC related subjects in Buckinghamshire. Full access is available to Personal Assistants.  Some of the training is free, some is chargeable depending on whether the training is Council funded. Further details can be found via the following link;

http://www.mkbcare.org.uk/

In terms of legal obligations and statutory training, details of approved Personal Assistants with safeguarding training and CRB checks etc are included on the Trading Standards as part of the Buy with Confidence Scheme.  Relevant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Adam Willison read out the following email from Diane Rutter
Head of Voluntary Sector Support, Community Impact Bucks’

‘As a potential stakeholder in the Buckinghamshire LINk I would like to inform you that as of 1st April 2012, Community Impact Bucks has become the LINk host support contractor for Buckinghamshire.

We have been appointed for a 12 month transition period to support the LINk during the period leading up to the Local Healthwatch which is currently scheduled to commence in April 2013.

The previous host, HAP, have handed over to us the membership database and we have sent a news bulletin to the LINk membership informing them of changes.
The previous Buckinghamshire LINK steering group was disbanded at the end of March and all previous LINk representation on boards and partnerships ended at that time.

We are in the process of supporting the creation of a new Panel whose main priorities will be to listen to concerns raised by users of health & social care provision, monitor and act as a voice for the views of the public in response to proposed service or policy changes and to decide how to act on projects that it considers would be of value during the transitional period.

Our LINk project manager is Bridget Wythe. You can contact her on 07990756139, on our general enquiry line 08453890389, or by email Bridget.wythe@communityimpactbucks.org.uk.’

After the update the following comment was made;

A member said from previous experience LiNK has been difficult to get hold of for consultation or their opinion. Adam advised that he will bring this up with at the Executive Board.

Action: Adam Willison

Members were advised of the following Partner updates;

The Red Cross

Maklya Greaves gave the following update;

• Calls continue to be received – on average 18 per month
• 23 incidents in April were responded to (14 falls, 9 minor emergencies)
• There was a slight decrease in the number of calls received in May (10 falls, 4 minor emergencies) and June (7 falls, 5 minor emergencies).
• A meeting has recently taken place with volunteers to give a demonstration of the equipment available.
• A visit has taken place to the I-flat in High Wycombe
• A lifting cushion demonstration has taken place
• David Bone has been advised of been incidents with the medication dispenser Pivotelle not opening.  Details to be emailed to Adam Willison.

Action: Makyla Greaves

• Details of confusion with blister packs (one individual) were sent to Nottingham Rehab Supplies (NRS).  This issue has now been resolved.
• All volunteers have been trained by the Local Fire Authority to understand home safety checks i.e. working smoke alarms.  These checks can now be carried out in conjunction with being called out to a fall.  Safety advice can also be given. Two occupational therapists from BCC are also due to go on the training.

After the update, the following questions were asked;

A member said if an individual fails to ring 999, how can they get hold of the Red Cross?  There are alarm pendants and equipment available as part of the Telecare system.  A referral can be made for an individual to recommend that the alarm equipment is installed.  If an individual calls 999 to report a fall, they could possibly wait four hours for a response as this is a non emergency call.

Adam Willison added that the Red Cross is a well established system, with the aim of showing technical links to all support services.  There is the opportunity to look at those who don’t have equipment i.e. a link to South Services Ambulance Control (SCAS).

A member asked how the Red Cross promote their falls response service.  SCAS have recently promoted the amount of falls they are attending which is why the Red Cross are trying to engage with them on partnership working.

A member asked if it was possible to arrange a demonstration of the lifting cushion.  The Red Cross are able to arrange visits to volunteer groups to give a safety talk, demonstration and provide signposting to services.

Carers Bucks

David Bone reported the following;

• David has met with 110 people to discuss AT equipment since the last meeting in June which included a Ladies Asian group and a Chinese group.  The Chinese group have invited him back for another meeting.
• Carers Bucks have had to become quite strict on the loan of equipment which has now been scaled down to needs not wants.
• Julie Kirkwood, Sister at the Day Hospital, Stoke Mandeville has made a request for further talks
• A request for ward alarms came through a while ago – this will be chased up.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Maklya Greaves advised that the Red Cross has produced a new DVD which is being promoted in cinemas at the moment.

The next meeting will take place on Thursday 23 August 2012, 2.00pm, Mezzanine Room 1, NCO.

The next meeting will take place on Thursday 23 August 2012, 2.00pm, Mezzanine Room 1, NCO.