Meeting documents

Cabinet is asked to agree:

1.    The proposal to release £3.5 million of capital to invest in a new residential short breaks service in Aylesbury, and move the service from the current location at Seeley’s House in Beaconsfield

2.    The building and reconfiguration of the Aylesbury Opportunity Centre to provide day opportunities and a 12 bedded integrated health and social care residential short breaks service

3.    The temporary relocation of current Aylesbury Opportunity Centre service users to suitable, alternative support options until the build and reconfiguration of the new provision is complete.

Mr Shaw highlighted that there had been a number of public representations submitted for Cabinet to consider when making their decision.  These had all been circulated to all Cabinet Members and had also been responded to directly.  Mr Shaw thanked all those that had taken part in the consultation.

Ms G Quinton, Executive Director for Communities, Health and Adult Social and Ms J Bowie, Service Director for Integrated Commissioning attended the meeting to answer Member’s questions.

Lin Hazell, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing introduced the report which was to seek approval following a consultation process, of the proposed transfer of the residential short breaks service on to the present site of the Aylesbury Opportunity Centre (AOC); to jointly commission with Buckinghamshire CCG an integrated residential short breaks service and to the temporary relocation of current AOC service users to suitable, alternative support options.  Lin highlighted the following recommendations in the report:

1. The proposal to release £3.5 million of capital to invest in a new residential short breaks service in Aylesbury, and move the service from the current location at Seeley’s House in Beaconsfield.
2. The building and reconfiguration of the Aylesbury Opportunity Centre to provide day opportunities and a 12 bedded integrated health and social care residential short breaks service.
3. The temporary relocation of current Aylesbury Opportunity Centre service users to suitable, alternative support options until the build and reconfiguration of the new provision is complete.

Lin Hazell stated that  planning permission could not be applied for until this decision was made

Ms Quinton commented that Buckinghamshire County Council was in an enviable position to be able to invest a significant amount of money to create a state of the art facility for people with disabilities across the county.  Ms Quinton referred to the representations that had been made from residents passionate about services on the Seeley’s site at Beaconsfield; however highlighted that the building and its location was no longer fit for purpose and there was a desire to provide a better service for users.

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

• Following a question from Mr Shaw, Ms Bowie confirmed that the day centre at Seeley’s would not close, the report only related to the respite service.  Ms Quinton confirmed that if the new site were to be agreed, there would be a long lead in time until it opened and this would be managed with service users.
• Ms Glover highlighted that Buckinghamshire County Council were the only council in the country with an offer to upgrade the service to offer state of the art facilities.
• Mrs Cranmer, as local member for Beaconsfield had been involved in responses submitted and commended officers for listening to those and adjusting.  Mrs Cranmer also thanked officers for the information that had been shared in order to make the proposal clearer to residents.
• Mr Brown stated that he accepted that the current building was no longer suitable but was concerned about the numbers of beds available.  The report mentioned an increase in beds however the new facility had the same number of beds as the existing one (12).  He also asked that as they would move forward jointly with Health would 12 beds still be sufficient.  Ms Bowie stated that they had looked at the CCG modelling for their needs as well as BCC current usage and were happy that they had adequate numbers.  The new facility would also offer a wider capacity of usage, in terms of clients that could be supported.  Ms Quinton later confirmed that the current provision of 12 beds were not fully utilised, as it was not safe to use them due to the configuration of the building and recruitment of staff.  Occupancy was currently at 50% and it was hoped that maximum capacity would be achieved at the new centre.
• Mr Chapple commended Lin Hazell and officers for the hard work.  Mr Chapple highlighted the reasons for the change on page 158 of the report and stated that Aylesbury was at the centre of the county.
• Mr Bagge commented that it was good to see £3.5m of public money being put into the new facility and welcomed the detailed analysis provided in the report.  This was significant investment across the county for service users and their carers.

Mr Shaw read out the recommendations as above and advised that deputies were not allowed to vote.

RESOLVED:  Cabinet AGREED the recommendations.