The Committee
received an introductory presentation. The slides
had been circulated ahead of the meeting. Nigel Minns,
Strategic Director for People Group opened,
giving an overview of the Committee, its role and the service areas
it reviewed and scrutinised, including the specific role in
relation to health scrutiny. Slides included:
- The
Committee’s role
- Specific health
scrutiny powers
- The bodies and
providers involved
- Substantial changes in health services
Next an outline
was given on the People Directorate, covering its aim, vision and
roles in commissioning services and providing them. This included a
structure chart showing key officers. It was followed by further
detail from each of the Assistant Directors.
Shade Agboola,
Director of Public Health (DPH) covered the following areas:
- What is Public
health?
- A brief history
on the function
- Mandated
responsibilities
- Non-mandated
functions
- Funding
- The role of the
Director of Public Health
- A structure chart
showing the key personnel
- Current
priorities
- An offer to
circulate the previous statutory DPH annual report
Pete Sidgwick,
Assistant Director for Adult Social Care gave
an overview of Adult Social Care delivery. This covered the
following areas:
- An overview of
Adult Social Care
- Legislative
changes introduced by the Care Act 2014, the Mental Capacity Act
2005 and the implications for the Council
- How we support
individuals
- A graphic showing
key data for the service
- A structure chart
showing the key personnel
- Finances
- Key metrics
Becky Hale
concluded with an overview of People Strategy and Commissioning,
which covered the following areas:
- An overview of
the key roles of this function.
- The structure of
the three service areas Health, well-being and self-care,
integrated and targeted support and all age specialist
provision
- The key functions
to analyse, plan, do and review
- Partnership
working
- Commissioning
principles
- Examples of services
commissioned
- Extracts from the
commissioning plan for the period 2020-22 with slides showing
examples of the areas of work against analyse, plan, do and
review
The Chair thanked
officers for the comprehensive presentation and spoke of the scale
of expenditure involved. She used the example of the consultation
undertaken for the Coventry and Warwickshire stroke service
redesign to demonstrate the committee’s influence, speaking
of the good dialogue with NHS colleagues in considering this
reconfiguration. She invited questions and comments from the
committee:
- Councillor Pam
Redford raised the closure of the clinics where people could
undertake lateral flow tests and asked if the service could be
retained. Shade Agboola responded. With the move to home testing,
there had been a significant reduction in footfall at the sites and
their continuation could not be justified. Covid was likely to
remain into the future. The testing arrangements were dynamic, with
a current focus on certain key groups. One site would be retained
in Nuneaton and discussions were ongoing so some additional fixed
sites may be required, but for now they had been closed.
- Councillor John
Holland praised the clear presentation. He sought further
information regarding enquiries when members were notified of
people needing support. There were concerns about when issues
should be reported against overriding confidentiality aspects. Due
to confidentiality members may not always be able to receive
feedback. Nigel Minns responded, initially about safeguarding
concerns, which should always be referred to the multi-agency
safeguarding hub (MASH) and this would include feedback. There were
a lot of referrals from members for people needing support. The
need for consent to share personal information and presumption of
capacity were raised. People had the right to turn down support
even if it was in their best interests. Referrals were encouraged
and were always followed through. A suggestion to circulate contact
details for all members. Pete Sidgwick added that the MASH website
(https://directory.warwickshire.gov.uk/service/multi-agency-safeguarding-hub-mash)contained
a lot of information, on services for both children and adults. It
was ideal if the person needing support made contact themselves or
gave consent. The telephone number to get in touch is 01926
410410.
- Councillor Mills
asked about personal independence payments. These were administered
by the Department of Work and Pensions.
He sought information about the significant increase in cases of
Covid in Warwick district. Shade
Agboola responded giving an outline of contributing factors to the
recent increases, including an outbreak at Warwick University and
in some hospitality settings. Actions were being taken to respond,
including additional PCR testing and close working between
partners. Most patients were from younger unvaccinated age groups.
There were cases of the delta variant and she outlined the sources
traced, onward transmission at home, and in schools. There had been
a small rise in hospital admissions.
- Councillor
Matecki asked what happened when things went wrong, if there was a
‘lessons learned’ approach and how it was communicated,
to reduce the likelihood of repeat incidents. Nigel Minns explained
the tiered response, starting with a complaints process. For
serious issues, the safeguarding partnership, a multi-agency body,
undertook case reviews locally and there was a national programme
too. A concern that review findings were shared with officers, but
not more widely. This had been remedied by providing public
seven-minute briefings to give a summary which was shared via the
Safeguarding Partnership website and with professionals. Mechanisms
were in place to ensure that agreed actions from the review were
implemented.
The Chair drew the
item to a close, thanking officers for the detailed
presentation.
Resolved
That the Committee
notes the presentations from the People Group.