Meeting documents

An opportunity for the Committee to ask the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and the Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health questions about their portfolios.

Contributors:

Lin Hazell, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing

Noel Brown, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health

Lin Hazell, Cabinet Member for Health & Wellbeing and Mr N Brown, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health attended the meeting to provide updates on their portfolios.

Dr J O’Grady, Director of Public Health and Ms S Norris, Executive Director of Communities, Health and Adult Social Care were also in attendance.

The Executive Summary of the CHASC Business Unit Plan and the Adult Social Care report that were presented to Cabinet on 26 June 2017 had been circulated to the Committee prior to the meeting.

The following areas were raised and discussed:

• Lin Hazell was questioned on the main priorities in her portfolio.  Lin Hazell stated that the service area would be having an in-depth look at whole service delivery with the need to review all care packages.  It was confirmed that a Transformation Board had been set up in order to monitor the delivery of this programme. 
• The Committee discussed the number of care packages at any one time and how the service user would be consulted in these changes.  Lin Hazell responded that there was 6500-7000 care packages at any one time and consultation with service users would be a mix of interviews, focus groups and one to one consultation.
• It was confirmed that due to the ongoing budget pressures a transformation programme was in place, a Programme Manager had been recruited as a secondment for 18 months.  The programme was currently at the evidence gathering stage.
• A Member of the Committee raised a concern around a local residents suffering from dementia and the help they had been offered.  Lin Hazell confirmed that the case being referred to was being looked into.  It was also mentioned that dementia was a growing condition and more work needed to be done around how these services were delivered and the alternatives available.  The Committee discussed the plans for Libraries going forward; the improvements planned for the Aylesbury Library were currently out for consultation.  The innovative approach to libraries was also discussed referring to other businesses within their premises and creating hubs for the community and the opportunities for more libraries to be run by the community which could include public health service.
• The Committee discussed the Sustainability Transformation Partnerships (STPs), clients were going to be reassessed; it was queried whether this would be done based on their needs and not budget pressures.  It was confirmed that while under the Care Act, overall financial resource needs to be considered, service users would still be assessed on their needs.

• The recent Cabinet Member decision reducing the Public Health budget for the Falls Service; it was noted this could have a detrimental effect on individuals feeling safe and wanting to stay in their own homes for longer which would be counterproductive.  Dr O’Grady advised that the aim was to have early intervention to take the pressure off these services and work was being done with the NHS to see how best to do this.  Dr O’Grady confirmed that the County Council would be working with partners to re-profile the service.