Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Tricia Birchley, Alison Bussey,

Rachel Young, Peter Ramcharitar, Charlotte Watts, Freda Roberts, Steve Stych, Claire Paine, Sheila Cascarino, Ken Dorling, Martin Holt, Emma Parry, Angie Blackmore with Liz Gainer attending in her place.

To agree the Minutes of the meeting of the Older People’s Partnership Board on 10 July 2007 as a correct record

The Minutes of the meeting on 10 July 2007 were agreed as a correct record subject to the insertion of the word "not" to the second sentence of paragraph 7 on page 2 of the Minutes clarifying that social care could not simply step in to fill the gap left by the Ambulance Trust no longer lifting frail people who fell unless there was a medical need.

Matters Arising

Neil Comley was not available to provide an update regarding the letter about his role offering to be main point of contact between OPAGs and voluntary sector and transportation. An update for the next OPPB meeting was requested.

Action: Neil Comley

Claire Oaten agreed to contact Sharon Boundy with regard to talking to OPPB about depression in Older People.

Action: Claire Oaten

Kerry Stevens reported that Adult Commissioners had considered the issues around lifting frail people who fell in their own homes. The matter had been referred to the PCT’s Urgent Care Network.

OP Strategy and Action Plan Refresh

Jane Taptiklis would pursue the matter of PCT representation on the Champions Forum and would report back to the OPPB.

Action: Jane Taptiklis

Steve Goldensmith reported that Age Concern provided financial advice to older people. Buckinghamshire County Council offered a pre-retirement course for employees run by an Independent Financial Adviser. This could potentially be extended. The other alternative was for Adult Learning to provide pre-retirement or other financial advice courses for older people. Mike Corns agreed to investigate the possibility of Adult Learning providing this.

Action: Mike Corns

Any other business

Steve Goldensmith and Charlotte Watts had discussed areas of action around crime and fear of crime for inclusion in the older people’s action plan. Steve Goldensmith agreed to bring this to the next meeting of OPPB.

Action: Steve Goldensmith

Jane Taptiklis and Catherine Erbetta

Catherine Erbetta reported that she had done some preliminary investigation into the issues and possible solutions around lifting frail people who fell but did not need conveying to Accident and Emergency. She explained that in many other areas where community alarm systems were operated by the Local Authority, mobile wardens provided a lifting service for people who fell. In other areas a sophisticated partnership arrangement existed with the ambulance service.

In line with the recommendations in the report, the meeting asked Catherine Erbetta to set up multi-agency meeting to clarify the issues identified, discuss the possible solutions further and to draft a full options appraisal with funding streams to be brought back to the January meeting of OPPB.

Action: Catherine Erbetta

Emma Parry

The report on the service redesign framework was noted. Any questions should be addressed to Stuart Townsend or Emma Parry.

Sheila Davies

Sheila Davies informed the board that she had met with Pat Ward, the Economic Development Officer, on 5^th October to discuss issues around the failure of the market to deliver the types and products and services older people want which included:

• Removal of cheques as a method of payment
• Chip and pin
• Telephone handling systems
• Portion sizes
• Easier opening packaging
• Places to rest in town and the community
• The size of writing on products
• Insurance barriers
• Retirement planning
• Age friendly policies
• Single person premiums

A member suggested that Trading Standards might be able to assist. Another member raised the issue of pickpockets in supermarkets and suggested that regular announcements that there were pickpockets operating in the store might act as a deterrent. Members should raise any other related issues with Sheila Davies. Sheila Davies agreed to report back to the October meeting of OPPB with an action plan after meeting with Pat Ward.

Action: Sheila Davies

Martin Holt

The report from Martin Holt was noted. Any questions should be put to Martin Holt.

Report from Muriel Alleaume

Muriel Alleaume reported that she had been tasked with collating information about the ethnicity of service users across organisations. However, there was an inconsistency across the County regarding categories being used. The use of different approaches in different parts of the County combined with inconsistencies in monitoring across the County made mapping of access problematic.

Another issue identified was that organisations seemed to lack the skills and/or resources required to cross more than two data ranges making it difficult to gain accurate data relating to people of a certain age group. It was also difficult to find out facts and figures related to more than one equality strand, (e.g. how many people from a particular ethnic group are over the age of 50 and disabled). 

There was also a high rate of unknown returns in the data collected. Issues around staff training and trust between those requesting the information and the service user needed to be addressed.

As a result, the Officer indicated that it was impossible to draw a conclusion from the data submitted by organisations. She suggested that all organisations should, at least, be using the 2001 census categories. It was noted that someone was being recruited to the County Council to map access in Buckinghamshire and to develop a comprehensive access strategy for the County.

A member requested that further information be provided to services about the number of potential service users from black and ethnic minority backgrounds in Buckinghamshire to inform the establishment of target figures.

Action: Muriel Alleaume

There was some discussion about how to take this forward. The Chairman suggested that a county wide technical group would be appropriate and undertook to identify such a group.

Action: Jane Taptiklis

Ken Dorling

The report from Ken Dorling was noted. Any questions to be posed to Ken Dorling.

Ojalae Jenkins

Ojalae Jenkins gave a very informative presentation on key messages from service users about their views of extra care housing in Buckinghamshire, a copy of which is attached to these Minutes.

A member commented that the County Council backed the extra care strategy in Buckinghamshire but further work needed to be done with District Councils and other partner agencies in order to broaden this out.

Ojalae Jenkins agreed to report back to future meeting on extra care housing in 2008.

Action: Ojalae Jenkins

Jane Taptiklis

The Chairman proposed that the Older People’s strategy needed to be refreshed. As the original strategy was commissioned by the Chief Executive’s group, CADEX, the Chairman undertook to propose a refresh via that forum.

Action: Jane Taptiklis

The action plan was updated and the amended version is attached to these Minutes with actions for OPPB members.

Action: Various OPPB members

Jane Taptiklis to meet with Chris Stanners and Graham Box regarding the Peer Interviews and the future of the Champion’s Forum.

Action: Jane Taptiklis

In response to an issue raised regarding transport and accessibility, it was requested that Neil Comley report back to next OPPB meeting on the Council’s access policy.

Action: Neil Comley

7 November 2007 at 2.30pm in Mezzanine Room 2.

7 November 2007 at 2.30pm in Mezzanine Room 2.