Agenda and minutes

None.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25 June 2018.

It was agreed that minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 25 June 2018 be confirmed as a correct record.

Councillor Julie Robinson, Wyre Council’s co-opted representative on Lancashire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee, has submitted a report about the committee’s work during 2017/18.

Councillors will have an opportunity to comment and ask questions.

Councillor Julie Robinson presented a report to advise the committee about the work of Lancashire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee during 2017/18.

Councillor Robinson, Wyre Council’s co-opted member of the committee, drew councillors’ attention to Lancashire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme 2018/19 which detailed the dates and topics to be scrutinised through the year. She asked that all members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee be sent details of the Work Programme in case they wished to ask any questions, which they could do through her.

It was agreed that the report be noted.

The Service Director Performance and Innovation (Marianne Hesketh) has submitted a report updating the committee about the progress of the 2018/19 O&S Work Programme.

The Service Director Performance and Innovation submitted a report updating the committee about the delivery of the 2018/19 Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme.

Additional information was presented to the committee on a number of other matters:

(i)            The Corporate Management Team had considered proposing some amendments to the policy on Corporate Complaints but, following best practice advice from the Ombudsman’s Office no significant changes would be made.

(ii)          The Neighbourhood Services and Community Safety Portfolio Holder, Councillor Roger Berry, provided a written note about the new arrangements for Neighbourhood Policing that were proposed to come into effect in the autumn, as follows:

1.    Fleetwood and Garstang Police Stations will be retained. It is planned to use rooms at the Civic as a base to replace the Bungalow which has been vacated.

2.    There will be 6 Community Safety Police Officers, 1 based at Garstang, 1 possibly 2 based at Poulton and the rest at Fleetwood. They will be supported by Police Response Teams consisting of 2 Sergeants and 17 PCs based at Fleetwood and 2 PCs based on Garstang .In addition there will be some 15 PCSOs but it has not yet been decided where they will be assigned to. There will be 2 Early Action Officers who will work with various agencies including our Community Safety Team and hopefully they will be based at the Civic Centre.

The Response Teams will mostly work from cars and vans and from my prospective we will have to monitor how this works out for the areas around Preesall and Knott End which are some distance from the bases and the same can be said to some extent for Poulton certainly until the Civic base is reopened.

Members of the committee commented that there was a lack of information provided so it was not possible to come to a firm view about whether the proposals were favourable or not. It would have been more helpful had more detailed figures and trends been provided. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the figures quoted indicated an increase in the number of officers but it was not known whether this would translate into more officers on the ground.

It was agreed that the matter should be investigated in more depth by the committee once the new arrangements had been in place for twelve months. A report on the implementation of the arrangements and their impact would be requested for autumn 2019.

(iii)         Blackpool Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme 2018-2019 was circulated to members for their information.

(iv)         The Corporate Management Team had recently agreed to scrap the capital bids process, which would be replaced with the submission of ad hoc business cases. It was acknowledged that capital bids had not routinely been presented to the committee for several years.

The question was posed as to whether the ad hoc bids would routinely be submitted to the Committee, but it was agreed instead that members would individually keep a close eye on the Schedule  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Dr Tony Naughton, Clinical Chief Officer, Fylde and Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group, will make a presentation updating the committee about current and forthcoming developments in health and social care, and how these will impact upon Wyre’s residents.

Councillors will have an opportunity to comment and ask questions.

Dr Tony Naughton, Clinical Chief Officer, Fylde and Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), made a presentation to update the committee on local health and care developments. He was accompanied by Mark Britton, Communications Manager, Fylde and Wyre CCG. Dr Naughton’s Powerpoint presentation is attached to these minutes.

In response to a question Dr Naughton said that, despite the best efforts, it was impossible to provide GP appointments in evenings and at weekends in all practices – there simply were not the staff to provide such a service. There were only a limited number of GPs who were willing to do that, although out-of-hours was provided in three locations within the CCG’s area, with the possibility of one or two others starting in the near future.

Social isolation remained a challenge, although the CCG’s section in the council’s Life in Wyre survey did assist in identifying some isolated individuals. The ‘Just Good Friends’ scheme was working well in Fylde and Dr Naughton was also made aware of the work of the 60+ Community Centre in Queensway, Poulton-le-Fylde, which had proved very successful.

When asked about the mid- to long-term staffing of the NHS, a situation likely to be made more difficult by Brexit, Dr Naughton confirmed that there had never been a national workforce plan. The NHS relied on bringing in many doctors and nurses from across the world, and there was a general trend to lose full time staff to be replaced by part-time staff, which made the situation still more challenging. In addition, 20% of nurses successfully trained in the UK did not go on to take up a post. 

A questions was posed about the integration of health and social care in Lancashire. Dr Naughton expressed concern about the scale of the county and said that, in his opinion, dividing it into smaller geographical areas would make it easier to protect health and social care funding in the more rural parts of the county, like Wyre. He anticipated that the demands of Blackpool and parts of the east of the county would be very strong indeed. This was something that the committee should monitor closely.

Dr Naughton informed the committee that there were plans for the Fylde and Wyre CCG and the Blackpool CCG to be jointly managed in the near future. Dr Naughton’s post would not be replaced and Dr Amanda Doyle would then take on similar responsibility for both CCGs.

The Chairman, Councillor John Ibison, thanked Dr Naughton and Mr Britton for attending the meeting and for their very informative presentation.

Councillor Howard Ballard, Chair of the MyHomeChoice task group presented the task group’s report and recommendations.

Concerns were expressed about the very limited scope of the task group’s review and the fact that it restricted the impact of scrutiny. Relatively little statistical information had been presented and it would have been more helpful to members of the task group to have received comparative information that showed trends in the demand, supply and availability of social housing.

The task group had identified four recommendations during their meeting, two of which were suitable for submission to the Cabinet for their consideration, namely,

(a)  That the proposed changes to the arrangements for the allocation and letting of social housing in Wyre via My Home Choice Fylde be supported, and

(b)  That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee receive a report on the implementation of the revised allocation and letting arrangements once they have been in place for twelve months (September 2019)

Eight members of the committee supported the task group’s recommendations and three members abstained in a vote.

It was agreed

(i)            That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee endorses the draft recommendations of the MyHomeChoice task group, and

(ii)          That the recommendations of the MyHomeChoice task group be submitted to the Cabinet