Agenda and minutes

Councillor Pickstone declared a personal interest in any item relating to the NHS as his partner was employed by the NHS locally.

The Minutes of the last meeting held on 18 June 2014 are attached

It was agreed:

That the Minutes of the Last Meeting held on 18 June 2014 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

1.     Councillor Bury referred to Minute HSC.47 – Healthier Together Update and explained that a lot of information had been sent to Members of the Committee in relation to a number of consultation events that were due to take place across Greater Manchester. Councillor Bury also explained that the next meeting of the Committee due to be held on 11 September 2014 would be focussing on the Healthier Together Consultation and he suggested that all Councillors should be invited to this meeting as the proposals and reconfiguration would affect all Bury residents.

2.     Councillor Walker asked if any progress had been made to arrange the sub group which would look at dentistry issues.

It was explained that Public Health England had been contacted in relation to this but as yet no information on who to contact had been received. This would be followed up.

3.     Councillor Fitzwalter referred to minute HSC.47 and the question raised about ambulance response times. Councillor Fitzwalter asked if an answer had been received.

It was stated that this would be followed up.

There were no members of the public present at the meeting to ask questions under this item.

A presentation will be given at the meeting.

Lesley Jones, Interim Director of Public Health and Councillor Andrea Simpson updated Members on the Infection Prevention Control Service that the Council was required to provide.

It was explained that the Infection Prevention Control Service had been commissioned through Pennine Care up until the end of June 2014 when the contract had come to end. Following a review of the provision it had been decided that it would be possible to bring the Infection Prevention Control Service in house and place it within the Health and Environmental Protection Unit which was  also the responsibility of Public Health.

It was reported that work had started on producing a model, preparing job descriptions in order to recruit staff and training the current Environmental Protection Team in relation to Infection Prevention Control. It was anticipated that this process would be completed within six months when the in house service would be established.

The service was being provided currently by IntraHealth who had been commissioned to provide the service in the interim whilst the in house service was being established.

Lesley explained that IntraHealth were the providers that the Council commissioned for the school flu inoculations and they had a good track record in relation to the provision of clinical services.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:

·                     Councillor Bury asked for how long IntraHealth had been commissioned to provide the service.

Lesley reported that IntraHealth had been commissioned for six months.

·                     Councillor Walker asked how the service would be funded.

Lesley explained that the money for the service was within the Public Health grant that had transferred when the Public Health function had.

·                     Councillor Walker asked whether there was any cross authority relationships in the area of infection control.

Lesley explained that Public Health England would have the lead role if there were ever any public outbreaks of infection and they would link with the local teams in such an instance. There was however a network of the 10 authorities who met regularly to share thoughts on policy and best practice and to offer support.

It was agreed

1.     That Lesley Jones and Councillor Simpson be thanked for their presentation.

2.     That an update on the Infection Prevention Control Service would be brought to this Committee after it had been established in house for at  least six months.

A presentation/update will be given at the meeting.

Sharon Martin, Deputy Chief Officer and Director of Commissioning at Bury CCG attended the meeting to update Members on the work that was being undertaken and policies that had been implemented by the CCG and partners following the Winterbourne, Francis and Keogh reviews.

It was explained that the CCG's Executive Nurse had wanted to attend the meeting but had been unable to due to work commitments. It was anticipated that she would attend a future meeting to present the CCG Quality Strategy.

Sharon explained that the Winterbourne View Review had been carried out following issues raised relating to standards of care of patients with a mental health need or learning disability.

Bury CCG had reviewed all patients which fell into that category and mapped them on a register.

The CCG's review had ensured that all patients had:

·                     A personalised care plan which was produced and reviewed with input from the patients' families

·                     Discussions about whether there was a need to move them to a more appropriate local setting by a specific date.

·                     A named care co-ordinator

·                     An identifies lead to support them in the CCG

Sharon explained that there were currently nine patients from Bury placed in in-patient settings. Three funded by the CCG and the remaining six by Specialised Commissioning.

The patients funded by the CCG had a named worker that visits every four months to carry out a care plan review.

One of the patients was on active discharge, another had a discharge plan in progress and the remaining patient was in a clinically appropriate setting.

The CCG also provides quarterly updates to NHS England  on the status of the patients within these settings.

Following the review a concordat: A Programme of Actions,  had been produced by the Department of Health which required a Local Action Plan for Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviour to be produced.

A joint action plan had been developed with the Local Authority outlining how the two organisations and key partners will respond to the immediate requirements of the Winterbourne View Concordat.

The plan was separated into:

·                     Operational actions which focus on ensuring care services are appropriate, that people are safe from harm, and that effective monitoring processes are in place.

·                     Strategic actions to be considered as part of the refresh of the Learning Disability Strategy which is scheduled for 2014-2015. It was explained that the refresh will ensure that the Strategy is an all age strategy covering health, education and social care needs of all people with low, moderate and complex learning disabilities in Bury.

It was explained that the CCG would be working with the Local Authority to develop the Learning Disability Strategy.

Sharon went on to explain the implications following the Keogh review into hospital mortality rates and the Francis Review which had been carried out following serious concerns of standards of care at Mid Staffordshire Hospital. The Francis report had been published in 2013 and contained 290 recommendations which were split into the following categories:-

·                     Prevention

·                     Detection

·                     Taking prompt  ...  view the full minutes text for item HSC.176

The Adult Social Care Services Annual Complaints Report is attached.

Appendices 1 – 3 are attached.

Sharon Wells, Customer Services Manager and Linda Jackson, Assistant Director of Communities and Wellbeing presented the Annual Complaints report - Adult Social Care Services.

It was explained that it was a statutory requirement to produce an annual complaints report.

The report updated Members and provided current information in respect of complaints relating to Adult Social Care Services between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014.

The report set out statistical data in relation to complaints received and provided information in relation to the numbers of complaints received, the nature, time taken to resolve, team concerned, concerns raised by local Councillors an MPs and the number of compliments received.

The report also included evidence of learning and improvements made as a result of complaints.

It was reported that the number of complaints had decreased by 12% when compared to the previous year and 17% when compared to 2011/2012 from 89 complaints in 2011/2012 to 74 during the same timeframe in 2013/2014.

Members of the Committee were invited to ask questions and the following points were raised:-

·                     Councillor Mallon asked whether statistics showed how many of the complaints were from the same complainant.

Sharon explained that there were very few repeat complaints received but some people did complain on more than one occasion and records were kept regarding this.

·                     Councillor Fitzwalter asked what the difference was between a complaint and a concern.

It was explained that a complaint was an official complaint that had been submitted which was then logged and referenced and responded to. A concern could be where a person makes contact to report an incident or ask for assistance. There were differences between complaints, concerns and signposting issues.

·                     Councillor Fitzwalter asked if it would be possible to provide some analysis relating to concerns raised by Councillors as this may highlight issues in signposting.

·                     Councillor Pickstone asked if there were other mechanisms in place to monitor the standards of services provided as 74 wasn't a large number when considering the number of service users.

Linda Jackson explained that every service user had an annual review where they were given the opportunity to raise any concerns that they may have.

The new Electronic Care Service was also a tool that could be used to extract information and highlight any areas of concern.

·                     Councillor Walker referred to the need to gain consent from a person when complaining on their behalf and explained that he had produced a consent for that he used in such situations.

Sharon explained that this was standard practice and something that Adult Care Services expected from an advocate. There was a standard for available that she would ensure all Members were in receipt of.

It was agreed:

1.     That the contents of the report be noted

2.     That Sharon and Linda be thanked for their attendance.

The new Health Scrutiny Guidance published by the Department of Health – June 2014 is attached for information.

The Committee were presented with the new Health Scrutiny Guidance that had recently been published by the Department of Health.

Members were asked to forward their comments to Democratic Services which would be collated and reviewed and fed into the Committee's Terms of Reference.

Councillor Bury suggested that an independent review of the Health Scrutiny Committee be requested to be undertaken.