Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Stephen Archibald, Dr Maggie Murphy, Tony Upward, Michael Quinlan and Paul Rogerson.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 31 January 2013 were agreed as a correct record subject to the following amendments;

Paul Bootle to be added to the attendance list

Page 6 - Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards

The MCA is now part of legislation/law which came into effect in 2005.

Matters arising

Page 2 - Dignity in Care

The Delivering Dignity Action Plan was discussed at the Adults and Family Wellbeing Board in February.  Board members advised that the Action Plan needs to be more streamlined.  At the moment the Action Plan sits with the Safeguarding Board.  Ways of strengthening the profile and promoting Dignity in Care are being looked into such as the creation of a strategy group to be responsible for the Dignity in Care agenda.

Page 18 – Action Plan

The Action Plan has been updated and will be circulated with the minutes of the meeting.

Workability

The future of the Workability website is being pursued.  The background, set-up and reason for the demise of the website are being looked into.

Members were advised that the website was initially started at the Head Injury Unit in Camborne by Martin Hillier.  It appears that the funding may have run out.

Action: Chris Reid

Update from Ted Piker and Councillor Brian Pollock.

Councillor Brian Pollock and Ted Piker, Scrutiny Support Officer, Wycombe District Council, were welcomed to the meeting.

Councillor Pollock began by explaining that the update will be split into three parts; how the Task and Finish Group came about; to discuss the recommendations which came out of the review and to respond to any questions or comments that Board members would like to make.

Background
In 2011 after the District Council elections, the Improvement and Review Commission agreed to set up a Task and Finish Group to look at the issue of disability, how disability is dealt with and what improvements would be made within Wycombe district.  The Task & Finish Group was formed (with myself as Chairman) and started meeting officially in February 2012.  The Task & Finish Group consisted of a group of councillors, 2 external experts (Ian Cormack to represent carers and Alison Lewis).  The Task & Finish Group met on a number of occasions and visits took place to the Northampton Centre for Independent Learning and Broxtowe Council in Nottinghamshire.  Public meetings were also held in Marlow.  A set of recommendations was formed and was presented to the Task and Finish Group in early September 2012 which were all agreed.  The recommendations were then sent to the Wycombe District Council Improvement and Review Commission and then to Cabinet at Wycombe where they were also agreed. The next step is for the recommendations to be acted upon and reported back to the Improvement and Review Commission followed by Cabinet in September

A copy of the Action Plan has been included in the agenda pack.

The following recommendations were discussed;

Accessible Housing

Recommendation 1

This was particularly about the ability of people who had disabilities to access appropriate forms of housing or to access funding to make their housing more accessible. 

The first recommendation is linked to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which is the Government's guide to Local Councils about how they should resolve planning applications and planning issues.  There were only two areas in the policy framework where the word ‘disabled’ or ‘disability’ was specifically mentioned (section 35-Transport and section 50-Housing).  What the government are saying in that is that local councillors should have a view to take the needs of people with disabilities into account when they are looking at planning processes, setting up local plans and planning applications.  One of the recommendations to Wycombe District Council is that their local plan review should include reference to disability in relation to housing.  The aim is when a planning application comes in, it is an appropriate size and appropriate place and it meets the criteria for disabled access and for provision of a number of homes that might be disabled friendly.  If the planning application does not meet the criteria, the application could possibly be turned down. 

Recommendation 2 - Bringing homes up to appropriate standard for disabled access for disabled living

The Disabled Facilities Grant is a sum of money which the Council has in conjunction with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Update from Ms Tehmeena Ajmal, Reconfiguration Programme Manager, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

The Chairmen welcomed Tehmeena Ajmal, Reconfiguration Programme Manager, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust to the meeting.

Ms Ajmal began by explaining that she became involved in the Better Healthcare in Bucks programme in April 2012.  In November 2011 a large public consultation was initiated across Buckinghamshire to discuss with patients, carers, relatives etc what the proposals were, to get feedback on the proposals and feedback any issues they wanted to flag up.  The discussions were initiated by Commissioners working with the hospital.  Clinicians wanted make sure that the best A&E services possible were in place for the county as well as the best support for patients who had medical needs and required an in- patient stay.  The proposal was to build on the existing model for stroke services of a single hub in one place which over a period of time was demonstrated to deliver better outcomes to patients. 

Meetings were arranged to discuss how the proposed changes would affect how the ambulance service is working and Heatherwood & Wexham Park Hospitals.

The intention was to try to make sure that services could be consolidated in a single place where possible because evidence suggests that this delivers much better care for patients.  The two main issues that emerged from the consultation were concern from patients living in the Wycombe area about how their care needs were to be managed and how people would get from one place to another. 

The three main principles were as follows;

• Comprehensive and expanded community services are available to support more patients closer to, or within, their homes where possible
• That a full range of general acute services (such as outpatient clinics, diagnostic testing and day case procedures) continue to be provided  from Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals
• That all specialist acute services are provided from dedicated centres within one of the two acute hospital sites to enable patients to access expert staff and facilities when they really need it.

At Wycombe there are three services to support patients in the Wycombe area - a minor injuries and illness unit (MIIU), a dedicated cardiac unit and a multi-disciplinary day assessment unit for older people.  The MIIU is a 24/7 primary care-led service provided by Buckinghamshire Urgent Care (a combination of GPs, emergency care practitioners and some advanced care practitioner nurses).  The MIIU went live on the 1 October 2012.  There are very clear clinical path ways about patients who present who need ongoing care or treatment which cannot be provided from the unit.  Treatment is carried out for minor injuries, minor illnesses and injuries which might require some sort of same day intervention.  There is also access to radiology services.  If the issue cannot be resolved within the unit or more specialist care or provision to manage injury or illness is required, the appropriate referral will be made.  Information and advice is also given about where patients can access healthcare advice and services in the future.  The number of patients going to the MIU is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Report from Nadiya Ashraf

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

Elaine Norris gave the following update on National Benefits;

• At the January meeting the DWP was about to launch personal independence payment (PIP) on the DWP web site. 
• The pilot scheme in the north-west of England is on schedule to start on 8 April.  From June 2013 any new claims will be for PIP as oppose to Disability Living Allowance (DLA).  From October it will only be rising 16s who will be reassessed on PIP and then anybody who reports a change in condition and after that will be a rolling basis.  If an individual is claiming DLA before they are 65 prior to the 8 April 2013, DLA will be retained.
• All current DLA claimants will have received some information about PIP in their up-rating notices.  Feedback received was that the letter was too lengthy.  The basic information is that claimants who are currently receiving DLA will be contacted well in advance when they’ll be reviewed for PIP.  
  The assessment criteria and the guidance being used is available on the DWP web site. A link to be can be circulated with the minutes.

Action: Sharon Griffin

Personal Independence Payment assessment guide for assessment providers - Publications - Inside Government - GOV.UK

• Universal Credit is the next big change that will take place.  The tool kit has just been launched and is also on the DWP website.  The toolkit is not as in depth as the PIP one but there is a lot of information on who it is going to affect, how it affects people with children, people with disabilities and how housing will be paid etc.

https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit-toolkit-for-partner-organisations

• The DWP publish a monthly magazine (Touch Base) which can be subscribed to
• The DWP have taken the feedback from the consultation into account; hence the regulations are still in draft form, pending the controlled start. 
  
  

During the update the following questions were raised;

Will there be a gradual changeover to Universal Credit? 
Universal Credit will be introduced on a roll out basis, but by area rather than criteria.  There will be a controlled start in a small area, where the most basic customer journey will be looked at.  There is also a communications tool kit which covers all of the welfare reforms until 2017 in presentation form (i.e. benefit cap, housing benefits, child maintenance etc). 

Is there a minimum income that the Government says benefits are made up to?  There is a pension credit which gives you a minimum.  There will also be a benefit cap.  Short-term it is affecting people who live in London.  In the longer term it will be national benefit cap of around £500 per couple (this includes all benefits and entitlements).

The County Council has set up a Working Group to look at responding to the impact of the welfare benefits reform.  What is their involvement in the process?  Debi Game advised that Steve GoldenSmith took the lead on Working Group.  A leaflet was produced which clarified ‘jargon’ etc.  A copy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Christopher Reid gave the following update on Dignity In Care;

It was National Dignity Day on the 1 February 2013. To coincide with this the County Council organised a local Dignity in Care event which was held at the Clare Foundation.  There was a good turn out of care providers and a number of excellent presentations were given about the importance of dignity in practice.  Care organisations were asked to nominate members of staff or their organisation against several categories for example the best Dignity in Care Champion and to produce video clips of their examples of Dignity in Care.  The event ended with the presentation of awards from Patricia Birchley, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing

The action plan is going back to the Adult and Family Wellbeing Board for approval.

The Action Plan will be circulated with the minutes.

Action: Chris Reid/Sharon Griffin 

Sue Brooks explained that there are currently a lot of reforms taking place in the field of special educational needs, children and young people. 

As part of the reforms the Local Authority has to publish a local offer – a directory of all the services available for young people with disabilities (education, health, social care).  Some of the items discussed today such as sports provision and the community transport hub should potentially go into a local offer as they would be relevant for 18-25 year olds.

Amy Moore is to be contacted to clarify whether the person who is responsible for the development and publication of the local offer links in with the PSDPB in terms of any information required from the Board to make sure relevant services are included in the local offer.   

 Action: Sue Brooks

The next meeting of the Board will take place on Thursday 30 May 2013, 10.30am, Seminar Room 1, Green Park, Aston Clinton.

Dates of future meetings for 2013;

25 July

26 September

28 November

The next meeting of the Board will take place on Thursday 30 May 2013, 10.30am, Seminar Room 1, Green Park, Aston Clinton.