PAPER A

NOTES OF EVIDENCE

Meeting	Policy Commission for Care Trust Delivery and Health Scrutiny
Ref	He.PC.27/7/05
Date	27 July 2005
Time	18.00hrs
Place	Committee Room 1, County Hall, Newport
Purpose of meeting	Formal public meeting
Attendance	Commission	Cllr E Oulton (Chairman), Cllr G Lumley, Cllr M Miller, Cllr M Webster, Cllr C West, Cllr D Whittaker
	Cabinet	Cllr D Cousins
	Secretariat	Cllr D Pugh, Cllr A Wells
	Officers	Ms S Weller - Acting Director of Social Services / Associate Director Adult and Community Services Ms M Howard - Head of Housing Ms L Biggs - Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Team Mr A Shorkey - O&S Team Ms A West - O&S Team
	Stake holders	Mr P Hann – Chief Executive, Vectis Housing Mr P Pugh – Chairman, Patient and Public Involvement Forum Mr N Ellicott – Patient and Public Involvement Forum Mrs D Drake – Patient and Public Involvement Forum
	Apologies	Cllr W McRobert
Agenda Items
1. Scoping Documents for the Commission’s initial enquiries	The following scoping documents were considered and agreed with the following amendments: Paper A (H2/05) - Isle of Wight Council Integration Planning To note on the proforma that this Policy Development The date of completion was changed to April 2007. Paper B (H3/05) – Joint planning of health and social care services, pending integration To note on the proforma that this is Policy Development The date of completion was changed to 31 November 2005. Paper C (H4/05) – Options for Housing Services To note on the scoping proforma that this is Policy Development The agreed completion date was 31 September 2005. Cllr West and Miller to be lead members on this (rather than Cllr Oulton) Paper D (H5/05 – Care Trust Delivery To note on the scoping proforma that this is Health Scrutiny It was agreed that the proposed date of completion would remain as TBC, pending further information on the progress of the integration project. The project would be re-scheduled to commence in November 2005, whereby a date of completion will be agreed. Paper E (H6/05) – Isle of Wight Health NHS Trust (IWHNHST) financial recovery plan To note on the scoping proforma that this is Health Scrutiny The proposed date of completion was agreed as 1 September 2005, in line with Action 2 below. Section, “proposed outcome of enquiry”, had an addition of ‘to understand and minimise the negative impact of the recovery plan on the Island’ Under ‘Terms of reference’ add ‘outcomes for users’ and ‘the decision-making process’
2. To receive evidence from Ms M Howard on Paper C including a power point presentation (available on the website)	Paper C - Options for Housing Services 1. It was highlighted that this project was not about job cuts, but finding the best fit for all the teams, either within the Council or another organisation. 2. The six main teams within Housing Services are Housing Needs, Pan Neighbourhood Partnership, Housing Renewal, Housing Development, Supporting People and Occupational Therapy 3. The budget for the 04/05 financial year is £11,268,342 and is £11,257, 564 for 05/06 4. The Teams have the following numbers of full time staff: Housing Needs – 12.5 Pan Neighbourhood Partnership – 4 (with 3 new employees to be recruited) Housing Renewal – 6 Housing Development – 1 Supporting People – 6 Occupational Therapy – 26 5. The Housing Needs team could remain in the adult and community services/healthier communities, move to the integrated trust organisation or be outsourced to a Registered Social Landlord (RSL). Outsourcing to an RSL may be difficult owing to the fact that homelessness is a significant issue for the Island, homelessness is a statutory function, there may be possible issues for the Council’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) rating, RSLs may not take on this service with the current budget and levels of performance, there are links to other client groups (e.g. learning disabilities, mental health and older people) and the fact that homelessness has been suggested a priority for Local Area Agreement. 6. The Pan Neighbourhood Partnership Team could stay within its current directorate, move to the integrated trust or be moved to another directorate, e.g. Corporate Services. Issues with this include: The Pan project is run by a Board, the Council’s role limited to line management of staff, supports all aspects of Local Area Agreement and the need to maintain links to Pan Redevelopment, which has moved to Regeneration. 7. The Housing Renewal team could either stay with Adult & Community Services / Healthier Communities, move to Integrated trust or separate functions and move parts to differing locations. Issues with this include: that it is a small team with disparate duties, all Officers have generic roles, the team undertakes statutory functions and there is a need to maintain links with Homelessness. 8. The Housing Development team could either stay with Adult & Community Services / Healthier Communities, move to another Department within the Council, move to Integrated trust. Issues with this include: that this is a once person team, the officer has a key role in Housing Strategy, there are Council links to RSLs and Providers, there is a need to produce mandatory statistics and there is a need for capital decision making to be made.. 9. The Supporting People team have a role to commission services rather than provide them, this could be done in future through the new joint organisation between social care and health or adult and community services. There is a need to dovetail this service with other commissioning roles and to maintain the links made with other teams in terms of user groups. 10. Occupational Therapists are already co-located with the same line management, the team could move to the new integrated trust in future. 11. Pressure areas within housing included homelessness, as there is a need to reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation and in Supporting People - the grant currently provided by central government will no longer be provided.
3. To receive evidence from Mr Hann	12. Mr Hann highlighted the impact that housing can have on health, crime, education and employment. 13. That housing and Housing Services should be a key Council priority and requires good engagement with planning and property services within the council, as well as with and health partners. 14. RSLs are limited by the rents that they are allowed charge, which can limit the development of affordable housing.
Further discussions	The following points were raised in relation to the joint financial recovery plan for the Isle of Wight Primary Care Trust and Isle of Wight Healthcare Trust, as per Paper E (project H6/05) 15. There would be a reduction of approximately 240 posts within the local NHS. 16. There are proposals for the disposal of a number of buildings, including Shackleton House. This could have an impact on older people’s mental health services. 17. There was a need to carry out a full impact assessment on the whole health and social care system - the need for whole systems approach to health planning as this is key to successful future planning of services for the Island. 18. The need to share information between organisations was also highlighted, particularly in light of integration plans.
Actions	1. To arrange a meeting between Cllr Miller and Cllr West and Ms Howard to further discuss and plan project H4/05 (Paper C) on Housing Services 2. To arrange an extra meeting of the Commission in order to discuss the financial recovery plan set out by the two NHS Trusts on the Isle of Wight 3. To write to the Patient and Public Forums to invite two members (one form each forum) to be co-opted members on the Commission. 4. To separate the ‘care trust delivery’ and ‘health scrutiny’ roles of the Commission through having meetings designated to either one or the other role. 5. A forum/protocol to be looked into as a matter of urgency, between the Council and its health partners and a progress report is scheduled for later in the autumn.		Overview and Scrutiny (O&S)Team O&S Team O&S Team O&S Team Cllr Oulton/Ms Weller/O&S Team