Decisions

The amendment by Councillor Liz Brighouse was carried by 43 votes to 16, with 2 abstentions as follows:

Given that:

1.      SODC has not been able to come up with suggestions which would change the previously agreed Local Plan in a way which would honour the promises made to residents when they were elected.

2.      The SODC Local Plan has implications beyond the District. 

3.      The houses proposed in the Plan to be developed in Grenoble Road and the associated opening of the Cowley Branch Line will meet both the desperate need for housing close to Oxford and the need for such a development to by cognisant of the Climate Emergency.

4.      The traffic issues in Didcot need to be addressed urgently:

In the event of the receipt of an invitation by the Secretary of State to prepare or revise the South Oxfordshire Local Plan pursuant to powers under section 27A of, and paragraph 7B of Schedule A1 to, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, Council is RECOMMENDED to accept such an invitation subject to satisfactory assurances being received in relation to the recovery of its costs. 

The procedural amendment moved by Councillor Jane Hanna at the Meeting to withdraw the Motion pending further legal advice was lost by 38 votes to 16, with 5 abstentions.

The substantive motion as amended was carried by 39 votes to 16, with 4 abstentions.

RESOLVED: (39 votes to 16, 4 abstentions)

Given that:

1.      SODC has not been able to come up with suggestions which would change the previously agreed Local Plan in a way which would honour the promises made to residents when they were elected.

2.      The SODC Local Plan has implications beyond the District. 

3.      The houses proposed in the Plan to be developed in Grenoble Road and the associated opening of the Cowley Branch Line will meet both the desperate need for housing close to Oxford and the need for such a development to by cognisant of the Climate Emergency.

4.      The traffic issues in Didcot need to be addressed urgently:

In the event of the receipt of an invitation by the Secretary of State to prepare or revise the South Oxfordshire Local Plan pursuant to powers under section 27A of, and paragraph 7B of Schedule A1 to, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, Council is RECOMMENDED to accept such an invitation subject to satisfactory assurances being received in relation to the recovery of its costs. 

Before the Council was the report and annexes, an Addenda setting out the changes to the Cabinet’s proposed revenue budget for 2020/21 and Medium Term Financial Plan for 2021/22 to 2023/24 arising from information received after the publication of Council papers on 3 February and the Labour and Liberal Democrat Group’s joint amendment and the Leader’s Budget Speech as set out in Annex 2 to the Schedule of Business.

With the consent of Council, Councillor Hudspeth moved his motion, amended at the suggestion of the labour and Liberal Democrat Group as set out in bold italics below:

The Council is RECOMMENDED (in respect of revenue) to approve a budget for 2020/21 and a medium term financial plan for 2020/21 – 2023/24  including the amendment as proposed by the Labour Group & Liberal Democrat Group to approve the allocation of £200k in 2020/21 to develop an up to date assessment of the services young people in Oxfordshire want and need. To identify whether these services are currently being delivered and to investigate future service delivery options to meet that need. This funding will be met from the Budget Priorities Reserve.

The motion as amended was carried by 60 votes to 0, with 1 abstention.

Recommendations Agreed (nem con).

Council received the following Petion and Public Address:

A Petition from Mrs Beverley Darlison, on behalf of the Milton Heights Action Group requesting that the Council take all necessary steps to preserve and maintain the care and support of those at Hft Milton Heights who are threatened with the impending closure of the site.

Public Address – Agenda Item 9

Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council;

Professor Richard Harding, CPRE;

Ms Alice Bragg, A Better South Oxfordshire;

Mr Mark Stevenson, The Clays Organic Market Garden;

Ms Mandy Rigault;

Ms Ian Ashley;

Dr Sue Roberts;

Mr Robin Bennett, Chair of the Green Group SODC;

Mr Peter Emery;

Mr Ian Middleton;

Dr Peter Kirby;

SODC Councillor Leigh Rawlins;

Ms Claire Bird.

Council Noted the appointments set out in the Schedule of Business.

Council welcomed Councillor Pete Sudbury, newly elected County Councillor for Wallingford.

Council received a statement which outlined the latest guidance in relation to the Corona Virus.

Council sent its thoughts and warm wishes to Keith Mitchell and his family.

Council paid tribute and held a minute’s silence in memory of former County Councillor and Chairman of the Council, Ann Spokes Symonds and former County Councillor Phillip (John) Baston.

The Chairman thanked members for their attendance at his Charity Concert which had raised money for the Soldiers of the Museum and the ABF Soldiers’ Charity.  The Chairman thanked Tim Stimpson and Sara Lenihan for their help in making the evening such a success.

Councillors Bartholomew, Gawrysiak, E. Smith, Thompson, Fawcett, Hannaby, Johnston, Webber, Rooke and Roberts, for the sake of transparency,  declared non-pecuniary interests in Agenda Item 9 (Arrangements for SODC Local Plan following Holding Direction by the Secretary of State) on the basis that they were dual hatters.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Sobia Afridi and Councillor Hilary Hibbert-Biles.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 5 November 2019 were approved and signed as an accurate record.

Recommendations agreed, subject to further explanation being added to table 1 in the Pay Policy Statement.

Approved and signed as an accurate record.

Recommendations Agreed.

Councillor Liz Brighouse Elected.

Councillor Ian Hudspeth Elected.

There were none.

Approved and signed as an accurate record.

There was none.

Councillor Kevin Bulmer sent Apologies.

Councillor Liz Leffman in place of Councillor Richard Webber. 

Dr Collison introduced the report (HWB9) which updated the Board on recent developments in forming Primary Care Networks (PCN) in Oxfordshire. Dr Riley gave a presentation which provided an overview of the key points; how the network would be set up in Oxfordshire; and how it would evolve.

Members of the Board were asked to receive the report for information and for their consideration. Comments and input from Board members to steer the direction of travel at this very early stage were invited.

Councillor Andrew McHugh declared an interest on account of his past employment as a GP primary care manager and also in relation to his involvement in setting up a NOxMed network (PML Federation – a collaborative group of GPs in north Oxfordshire). It was his view that contractual arrangements were needed to reduce barriers to GPs working together, for example in delivering services to nursing homes.

Louise Patten stated that each individual GP practice would retain their own contract. Groups of GPs within the PCNs would then hold additional contracts for the network. She added that the result would look almost like the healthy towns concept, with a much wider social cohesion. Dr Collison concurred, adding that the PCN had the potential to be very local in nature and to become a natural community, aligned with local leisure centres, schools, libraries etc. Moreover, patient engagement would be sought and community groups would be empowered to develop their own groups.

Stuart Bell reported that he had attended a workshop that morning on the future of integration of PCNs. The speed of developing PCNs to date had tended to focus attention on contracts, but now the emphasis could be on contributions from as many different organisations as possible, as these may have very valuable contributions to make.  He likened this to the Healthy Abingdon work. Yvonne Rees added that it could also join/link up with Health Place-shaping, and with the Growth Board, taking Oxfordshire as one large locality, with joined-up working. It was her view that proactive conversations needed to take place with members of this Health & Wellbeing Board, who had a significant part to play in this. To this end she proposed that this matter be brought to a future Board workshop.

Professor Smith added HWO’s support to this also, asking however that participants should ensure that it delivered benefits for the patients themselves. He believed that there was a need to understand how social prescribing could be delivered, and how it could be joined up with voluntary organisations, as practically as possible. Professor Smith also suggested that good use of the in-services training between GP and consultant level in the teaching hospital could be made.

Louise Patten responded that, to date there had been a registration process for PCNs, which had been very light touch, to ensure full coverage. She added that there was a need at the present time to concentrate on the delivery of all the outcomes that were currently being required to be delivered.

Val Messenger also reported that the Health Improvement Board was planning a social prescribing workshop, with the aim of learning from best practice.  

Dr Riley was thanked for the presentation.

The Board agreed to move this item to Agenda Item 12 in order to consider it prior to discussion on the reports from the Partnership Boards.

The Vice-Chair welcomed all to the meeting. She thanked Christine Gore for her services to the Board, as she had stood down from her membership. Yvonne Rees was now representing both Oxfordshire County Council and all the District Councils.

The Integrated Care System 5 Year Plan was before the Board for discussion on priorities for Oxfordshire (HWB6).  

Louise Pattern in introducing the report, explained that most work took place within Oxfordshire and would continue to do so, but that there were areas of commonality where it made sense to come together at scale and do work, such as key areas around prevention and significant workforce issues (such as how housing could be influenced or a Oxfordshire weighting).  The plan was very Strategic looking at areas of commonality between places when planning care that would be fit for the 21^st Century.

Ian Hudspeth reported that there had been some concern around the BOB, in particular everything being decided at a very Strategic level.  He asked if Louise could give the Board some assurances around whether there would be three different workings, whether Sovereignty would remain with Oxfordshire, and that, although the timetable appeared to be very tight and driven; whether there would be the ability for everyone to be engaged and have an input?

Louise explained that the aim was to get the local Oxfordshire Place sorted by developing a Partnership Board.  At the moment, there was the ISDB, which needed to change shape to look at a different membership: commissioners, providers and public to start to look at how integration was started.  It would not be a different organisation, but a way to facilitate through system leadership and distributive leadership to get integration going.  At the moment, the current thinking was that they would pick some key areas to look at how services could be integrated and share information about the cost of care versus the money that was available for care to make those resources stretch, including delegated budget for Mental Health and Primary Care and Community Services, with oversight at the Health & Wellbeing Board.

Ian Hudspeth commented that there was a need to be careful that it was not about one area propping up another, but about coming together to provide the best outcome for patients.

Roz Pearce spoke in support of the comments around the need to keep decision making retained at Oxfordshire level.  She pointed out that Healthwatch had not been mentioned in the documentation. She further commented that as the five Health watches were not in agreement, they would not be signing it off at the moment.  She questioned what the long-term impact on the overview roles of Health & Wellbeing Boards and Scrutiny would be and how scrutiny would work at BOB level, together with how strategies could be aligned across the Health & Wellbeing Boards to integrate with BOB.

Louise explained that there was still a commitment to align with the local authority boundries across BOB, as that was where there was shared accountibilty for safeguarding and shared ways of working and overview & scrutiny and that there were no plans to change that.

Roz Pearce expressed concern that there was very little about Social Care in the plan and that it was very focused on Health and therefore did not address many of the issues around integration.

Steven Chandler explained that whilst the document did not explicitly reference inclusion, detailed conversations around inclusion had taken place.  The Wellbeing component was very important and the work being undertaken with communities that placed best focus was crucial.  He would expect to see a much more obvious place for social care and broader wellbeing in the next draft.

Louise Upton expressed the importance of recognising the work of groups such as the Archway Foundation (which carried out a lot of work with lonely or isolated people) and queried whether there could be any sessions with them, together with some funding to support them and in relation to value for money whether they could consider getting rid of the internal market?

In relation to the procurement of services such as cleaners or careworkers, she requested that officers made sure that it was taken into consideration, that if they were paid such low wages that the district councils were having to pay benefits to them, then they may not be best value for money.

Louise responded that they needed to get more organised about how they worked with voluntary organisations and that was the whole idea of having integration in Oxfordshire rather than up in the integrated care system.  Integration was about a cost base model where people were open and honest about what was available and what it was being spent on.  Officers would make it clear that they would weight any provider that was willing to integrate with our local services. Procurement and low wages would be monitored very carefully.

Lawrie Stratford felt that prevention and communications with the public was missing from the report, and that it was very important to get the public involved and behind the strategy.

Dr Kiren Collinson welcomed the report and commented that the Primary Care Network would be where a lot of our comments would go and where we would see most work being done on the ground.  She didn’t want people to view the integrated care system as a big unwieldly system but the best way to share resources and that the H&WBB focus should be what was happening at the Oxfordshire level.

Louise thanked everyone for their comments and undertook to take back the points made.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 13 June 2019 were approved and signed as an accurate record of the Meeting.

The Chairman welcomed all to the Meeting and in particular Stephen Chandler, the Director for Adult Services and Ansaf Azhar, the Director for Public Health.