Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Dr Peter Skolar, Councillors Jane Hanna and Rose Stratford and Mrs Ann Tomline.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2010 (JHO3) and to note for information any matters arising on them.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2010 were approved and signed subject to an addition into line 5, paragraph 3, page 5 to read as follows: (additional wording in bold italics)

‘Andrew Stevens agreed with Dr McWilliam’s comments on the quality of the Paediatric service in Oxfordshire adding that it was the role of the PCT to decide what was the best service which could be provided for all children across the county.’

Matters Arising

Minute 7/10 – Councillor Lawrie Stratford reported on a meeting he had observed of the The Better Healthcare Programme’s Clinical Review Panel.

There were no speakers or petitioners.

10.10 am

There will be a verbal report on the Oxfordshire LINk activities to date.

The Committee thanked Adrian Chant, Oxfordshire LINk Locality Manager for his oral report on the following LINk activities:

• The first Annual HEARSAY! Service User Event – organised in partnership with Social & Community Services for users of Adult Social Services and their carers, friends and family members;
• The Stewardship Group and the Host service had been invited to work in partnership with the Child Brain Injury Trust to assist in a project currently underway into the quality and consistency of the service for children and their families admitted to Oxfordshire’s Accident & Emergency units. This was a pilot project with the Oxfordshire LINk and if successful, would be rolled out to other counties;
• Project, in association with Oxfordshire Unlimited, a Physical Disability-led organisation, with a view to assisting them to increase their membership;
• Support work with Crisis House project;
• Support work with the Neurological Alliance to assist them with increasing their membership numbers, funding and to provide the appropriate medical channels; and
• Major project work in relation to Self Directed Support, Access to Services in Rural Areas and work around Intermediate Care.

10.20 am

Report by the Director of Public Health on matters of relevance and interest.

Dr McWilliam and Dr Habibula were thanked for their attendance and for reporting on the following matters:

• Killer Diseases – Oxfordshire has achieved 95% towards their immunisation targets and is very well placed nationally;
• Hospital Superbugs – Oxfordshire has met both of the MRSA and CDifficile limits. However the rates are too high nationally and the Government are due to set tighter targets accordingly;
• Preventing Bowel Cancer – screening has begun in the north of the county (at the Horton Hospital)  and will be rolled out shortly to the remainder, accreditation now having been received. This will be based at the at of the John Radcliffe Hospital;
• Alcohol and Social Problems – A good piece of work had been carried out linking Accident & Emergency, Thames Valley Police and all Oxfordshire Local Authorities, particularly Oxford City Council, to identify which geographical areas experienced the most problems and how these could be tackled, for example by the use of plastic beer glasses. Oxfordshire had been the subject of national acclaim for a reduction in the numbers of people assaulted.

Dr McWilliam was also thanked for his very practical paper, which was tabled, on ‘Promoting Healthy Ageing.’

10.40 am

At the last meeting of this Committee the Oxfordshire Local Involvement Network (LINk) made reference to the closure in 2007 of the Oxford Drug Recovery Project (DRP). Members of the OJHOSC were concerned by what they heard from the LINk particularly as it appeared that there had been no consultation when the closure of the DRP had taken place. Furthermore, undertakings had been given to reopen the DRP but , to date, there had been no action.

Members decided to defer full consideration of the report until this meeting so that additional contributors could be invited to enable a rounded picture to be developed.

Richard Lohman and Adrian Chant from the LINk will attend again for this item. In addition the following people will attend the meeting to provide background to the past and future of the DRP:

-           Jo Melling, DAAT Director;

-           Alan Webb, PCT Director of Service Redesign;

-           Darren Worthington, Chief Executive of SMART, a charity working to reduce drug and alcohol use in Oxfordshire;

-           Glenda Daniels, service user involvement coordinator of an independent charity that represents drug and alcohol service users; and

-           Dr Angela Jones who is a GP who worked from 1999 – 2007 in the Luther Street Medical Centre in Oxford providing drug and alcohol services for people experiencing homelessness in Oxford.

A copy of the LINk report from the January meeting is attached at JHO7(a) together with a report from the DAAT (JHO7(b)).

The Committee welcomed Jo Melling, DAAT Director; Alan Webb, Oxfordshire PCT; Darren Worthington, Chief Executive of SMART; Glenda Daniels, service user involvement coordinator of OUT; Dr Angela Jones, GP formerly working at the Luther Street Medical Centre; and Richard Lohman, Steering Group member of Oxfordshire LINk to the meeting;

Alan Webb introduced the item giving a brief resume of the situation to date, stating that the service had been retendered in 2007 as a result of a change in its major funder, which had previously been Housing Services. Since then the major challenge had centred around finding suitable premises. He reported that property had now been found in Iffley Road, Oxford and would be secured in the near future. Mr Webb pointed out that when the PCT as host commissioner had gone out to re-tender, the DAAT had been assured that the service would not be disadvantaged and that funding would be provided from out of county placements if needed.

Jo Melling added that, when re-commissioning the service, the principal aim had been to develop a good, effective local treatment programme which was different from  other services provided in other areas. At the time, practitioners had been consulted on the new service, but the premises issue had been sprung upon them and there had thus been no opportunity to go out to further consultation. Her view was that the clients had not felt disadvantaged by this, citing statistics from an annual user survey. No individual cases of people disadvantaged had been brought to light by service users themselves of by other organisations. In response to a question from the acting Chairman asking if she was sufficiently confident that there had been sufficient consultation, Ms Melling and Glenda Daniels assured the Committee that the service consulted constantly and that they were satisfied with the level of involvement. Some cases had been resolved via advocacy over the last three years and each had been assured that placements could be provided out of county. Moreover the new service was working with SMART to ensure that there was ongoing service user consultation. Users were happy with the service provided.

In response to a question from a member of the Committee asking if all the service users were happy to work with SMART, and if there was a reciprocal consultation arrangement with other counties, Glenda Daniels commented that SMART was a criminal justice focused service and that there had been a cohort of people stating their dissatisfaction with this. She added that much work had been done to rebrand SMART in light of the different nature of services they were to provide and it was her view that a new side to SMART would be experienced when the new drop in centre was established. Darren Worthington added that SMART now provided a range of services for each stage of recovery and indeed provided services across the Thames Valley region, not just to the DAAT. Jo Melling confirmed this, adding that although SMART as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/10

11.40 am

Members will recall the work that was done on the subject of the “demographic challenge” a joint working group comprising members from the HOSC and the Social and Community Services Scrutiny Committee. Their work resulted in a report that contained a number of "red flags" and members would be interested to know what progress has been made in dealing with the concerns raised in the report. The summary of the report that was accepted by the Cabinet in January last year is attached for your information at JHO8(a).

Furthermore, and closely related to the above, the papers "Successful Ageing in Oxfordshire: a high level strategy" JHO8(b) and the associated "Proposal for Integrated Planning and Commissioning Arrangements for Ageing Successfully" are attached at JHO8(c).

The following people will attend for this item in order to provide a report on progress and also to inform the Committee about how they intend to come together in order to contribute to the work on the demographic challenge:

Councillor Jim Couchman, Joint Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Partnership Board;

John Jackson, Director of Social & Community Services;

Alan Webb, PCT Director of Service Redesign;

Marie Seaton, Head of Joint Commissioning (Older People);

Nick Welch, Head of Major Programmes in Social & Community Services; and Jonathan McWilliam, Director of Public Health.

OJHOSC members recalled that previous work had been undertaken by a joint working group comprising members of this Committee and of the former Social & Community Services Scrutiny Committee on the subject of the ‘demographic challenge’. Their work had resulted in a report which had contained a number of ‘red flags’ representing concerns. The summary of the report that was accepted by Cabinet in January 2009 was attached to the agenda for information (JHO8(a)).

In addition to, and closely related to the above, the Committee had before them a paper entitled ‘Successful Ageing in Oxfordshire: a high level strategy’ (JHO8(b)), together with an associated paper entitled ‘Proposal for Integrated Planning & Commissioning Arrangements for Ageing Successfully (JHO8(c)).

The following people attended for this item in order to provide a report on progress and also to inform the Committee about how they intended to join together to contribute to the work on the demographic challenge:

-                      Councillor Jim Couchman, Joint Chairman of the Health & Well-Being Board and Cabinet Member for Adult Services;

-                      John Jackson, Director of Social & Community Services;

-                      Jonathan McWilliam, Director of Public Health;

-                      Marie Seaton, Head of Joint Commissioning (Older People);

-                      Alan Webb, Director for Service Redesign, Oxfordshire PCT.

Alan Webb thanked the Committee for inviting him to participate with this item, pointing out that this was an excellent example of joint working in action in relation to the taking forward the commissioning of services for the Oxfordshire population. He added that Oxfordshire benefited from having a large number of pooled budgets in operation.

Marie Seaton introduced herself stating that she was a joint appointment of Health and Social & Community Services. She added that her key remit was to bring together the appropriate teams and to pull together the ‘Ageing Successfully’ Strategy for the older people of Oxfordshire. Moreover, it was not a community plan, rather a direction of travel to support older people ageing in Oxfordshire. It considered how people might be engaged in following a healthier lifestyle, following a listening exercise when people were asked what they valued for keeping their health as they got older. She added that a better outcome to deal with increased demand had to be a joined up approach with different organisations looking at how they could intervene with different approaches, and funding streams, as people aged. There was a need to reduce the demand on Health and Social Care, although essential components, and to bring in transport, Extra Care Housing etc.

John Jackson cited, as an example of the significant amount of partnership working which had begun to take place as shaped by Marie, the work undertaken to improve the quality of  people’s experience following a stroke. He directed members’ attention to a paper which had been prepared for the forthcoming meeting of the Health & Well Being Partnership Board.

Members of the Committee asked a number of questions from the Panel and some of the responses are included below:

Q         To what extent do you consult with the older  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/10

12.40 pm

At the 21 January meeting this Committee agreed to proceed with this project and to convene a working group to undertake the task. A progress report will be given.

The Committee noted that the working group were due to meet shortly with the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Mental Health Care Foundation Trust to consider in more detail the work to be undertaken. A report would be given to the next meeting on 20 May 2010.

12.45 pm

The Chairman will report on meetings he has attended with representatives from:

-                      Community Health Oxfordshire (CHO);

-                      The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust; and

-                      The Ridgeway Trust.

The Committee noted reports given by the Acting Chairman in relation to meetings he and Mr Edwards had attended with the following Health organisations:

-                      Community Health Oxfordshire (CHO);

-                      The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust; and

-                      The Ridgeway Trust.

12.55 pm

No items have been received to date.

The Committee noted that the next meeting on 20 May 2010 was likely to be an all day meeting.

The meeting closed at 12:52 pm.