A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Council and councillors

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Contact: Joanna Morley  01572 758271

Items
No. Item

1.

APOLOGIES

Minutes:

No apologies were received.

2.

RECORD OF MEETING

To confirm the record of the meeting of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee held on 20 February 2020.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 February 2020, copies of which had been previously circulated, were confirmed.

 

 

 

3.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

 

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

4.

PETITIONS, DEPUTATIONS AND QUESTIONS

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the Virtual Meetings Regulations (s1 2020 392) and the subsequent RCC Procedure Rules agreed at Council on 20 May 2020 and revised by Council on 14 September 2020. (Please see link: Council agenda/revision to Virtual Meetings Protocol)

 

Minutes:

No deputations, petitions or questions had been received.

 

5.

QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE FROM MEMBERS

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No 218 and No 218A.

Minutes:

No questions with notice had been received from Members.

 

6.

NOTICES OF MOTION FROM MEMBERS

To consider any Notices of Motion from Members submitted in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No 219.

Minutes:

No notices of motion had been received from Members.

 

7.

APPOINTMENT OF VICE CHAIR

To appoint a vice-chair of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee.

Minutes:

Nominations were invited for the position of Vice- Chair of the Committee for the municipal year 2020-21. Councillor Waller was proposed by Councillor Cross and seconded by Councillor Powell.  Councillor Fox was proposed by Councillor Harvey and seconded by Councillor Ainsley.

 

Councillor Waller and Councillor Fox both confirmed that they wished to stand for election and gave a short speech to members outlining their suitability for the role.

 

A recorded vote was taken and the votes cast were as follows:

 

There voted for Councillor Waller: Councillors Cross, Powell and Waller

 

There voted for Councillor Fox: Councillors Ainsley, Harvey and Fox

 

Abstained: Councillor Baines

 

As the result was even at three votes each, the Chair, Councillor Harvey had an additional casting vote and voted in favour of Councillor Fox.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That Councillor Fox be appointed Vice-Chair of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee.

8.

ADULT SOCIAL CARE SERVICE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 pdf icon PDF 211 KB

To receive presentations on the following areas affected by the crisis: Care Homes, those shielding (the RISE team) and the Carers Service.

Minutes:

Three short presentations were given as part of this agenda item.

 

Before the presentations, John Morley, Director of Adult Social Services, took the opportunity to say how immensely proud he was of his staff and praised them for supporting and protecting the people of Rutland in these unprecedented times whilst also dealing with their own worries around Covid. Staff had worked exceptionally long hours and were very tired but even so were potentially getting ready to do it all over again.

 

The presentations (appended to the minutes) covered Support for Care Providers during Covid-19, the Rutland Shielding response and Support for Carers during Covid-19 and were delivered by John Morley, Emma-Jane Perkins and Kim Sorsky respectively.

 

During discussion the following points were noted:

 

·       Mr Morley was standing in for Karen Kibblewhite, Head of Commissioning- Health and Wellbeing, who had led on providing support for care homes and care providers.

·       RCC had an excellent relationship with care providers who they considered to be partners. The advance payments that had been made to them to support them during this time had been very well received.

·       The Infection Control Grant had been extended until March 2021.

·       The RISE Team was a group of very adept practitioners who had worked very closely with the 4 GP practices within Rutland to identify and follow-up with patients who may not have been on a national list but who the GPs had concerns about.

·       There were now 3 Rutland Admiral nurses who supported the work of the Primary Care Network.

·       Contingency planning had been done in the event that the Carer, or those in their network, became ill.

·       The Carers Team were working with partners across LLR to introduce a Carers Passport which would give Carers priority to access services and also assist in identifying hidden carers.

·       Councillor Cross thanked staff for their dedication to their work and all that they had done and this sentiment was echoed by the rest of the Committee. Councillor Ainsley asked what was being done by the Council to support staff during this time.  Mr Morley reassured the Committee that the issue of staff wellbeing was very much on the leadership agenda and a staff Health and Wellbeing board had been set up. At these meetings, which Mr Morley chaired and the Leader of the Council, Councillor Hemsley attended, staff were able to talk openly and share problems and ideas which were then fed back into HR.

·       A member of the RISE Team was looking at setting up a peer support group between staff.

·       The new Government announcement on Covid had been a sledgehammer blow for staff who had been expecting to see light at the end of the tunnel but who were now facing an expected second wave over a further six months.

·       Recognition of the pressures that staff were dealing with and Members asking after their welfare had a positive effect on staff morale.

·       On the winter plan just published by the Government, Care Homes would get free  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

EXPERIENCE OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE IN RUTLAND DURING THE COVID 19 LOCKDOWN pdf icon PDF 136 KB

To receive a presentation from Dr Janet Underwood, Chair of Healthwatch Rutland.

Minutes:

A presentation (appended to the minutes) on the survey that was carried out to highlight the experiences of health and social care in Rutland during the Covid-19 lockdown was received from Dr. Janet Underwood, Chair of Healthwatch Rutland.  The full report from Healthwatch Rutland can be found here: HWR Survey- Experience of health and social care in Rutland

 

During discussions the following points were noted:

 

·         The survey had been carried out jointly with Health Watch Leicester and Leicestershire and the CCG.

·         In comparison to Leicester and Leicestershire, Rutland residents were better informed.

·         The survey showed that the 60-75 age group were least likely to need mental health support. Dr. Underwood suggested that this may be because in general they were retired, children had left home and they had less money worries.

·         The Healthwatch Rutland Manager had alerted the Primary Care Network (PCN) to problems patients were having trying to get through to surgeries on the telephone line.

·         The long queues outside pharmacies was greatly disliked and many felt that it was inappropriate to have the elderly waiting outside for 45 minutes to collect their prescriptions; this would be especially so as the weather got worse.

·         The internet had been the most common source of information for Rutland residents.

·         Healthwatch Rutland and Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire would be undertaking a survey with the CGG to uncover the extent of the problem of digital exclusion. Dr. Underwood acknowledged that they faced a conundrum in how to get the survey out to and reach the very people who had experienced digital exclusion, especially as there was an infection control risk with any material that was handled. Advertisements on television, radio and in the local press were all being considered with residents being then able to access telephone answering services.

·         Members reiterated their concerns about the length of time residents were left hanging on before they got to speak to anyone at their GP surgery. Dr Underwood agreed that this was an issue even before the Covid crisis and something that urgently needed addressing. Councillor Walters offered to speak to the surgeries to find out what they were doing to improve their call handling services and would provide the Committee with an update.

·         Dr. Underwood took the opportunity to thank the Council for their efforts and said that it was a testament to their hard work that Rutland had come out so well in the survey.

 

ACTION:

 

Councillor Walters, Portfolio Holder for Safeguarding – Adults, Public Health, Health Commissioning & Community Safety would speak to the Rutland GP surgeries regarding the length of time it took for patients to get through on the telephone line and would update the Committee with their response at the next meeting.

10.

ANY OTHER URGENT BUSINESS

To receive any other items of urgent business which have been previously notified to the person presiding.

Minutes:

No items of urgent business had been previously notified to the Chairman.

 

11.

ANNUAL WORK PLAN 2020-21 pdf icon PDF 203 KB

To discuss substantive items for scrutiny and inclusion in the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee work programme for the municipal year 2020-21.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee discussed items that were provisionally included in the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee work programme for the municipal year 2020-21.

 

During discussion the following points were noted:

 

·           Mr Morley agreed to Councillor Waller’s request that further information on the contracts that were up for renewal be provided to the Committee.

·           Councillor Cross queried why there was nothing specific on the plan about the Rutland Memorial Hospital (RMH). The Chair responded that concerns about RMH had been noted but that currently the consultation on the reconfiguration of UHL was concerned with urgent care and did not include community health and hospitals. When it did, the Committee would keep a very close watch on it.

·           The Joint LLR Health Scrutiny Committee had looked extensively at the consultation document which was due for launch on the 28 September 2020 (Please see link www.betterhospitalsleicester.nhs.uk.). Councillor Waller urged everyone to respond individually to the consultation.

·           Councillor Walters also encouraged people to respond to the consultation and stressed that he had been working with Comms and colleagues in health care to ensure that the message was consistent and reached all residents. The encouragement to respond would not include any indication of how they should respond as it was not the Council’s place to influence opinion.

·           Once the consultation had closed and the responses had been analysed, the various bodies involved would be invited to attend Scrutiny to let the Committee know how Rutland had responded and how this would affect final outcomes. 

·           Councillors Cross and Baines stressed again their concerns about the consultation and any affect this would have on RMH as the services offered there assisted the people of Rutland to live independently for as long as possible.

·           Healthwatch Rutland (HWR) was going to be heavily involved with consulting the public and had already discussed having virtual drop–in cafes to assist with this. They wanted to reach the people who were often underrepresented and would be speaking with for example, the disabled, the elderly, people with dementia and their carers. HWR were also intending to hold an online public meeting for the general public to air their views. If this meeting was oversubscribed an additional meeting would be organised.

·           The pre-consultation business case had stated categorically that there was no dependency of the acute reconfiguration on the community hospitals however in the same document it stated that they were planning for 4,000 outpatient appointments, 600 day cases and 18 hospital and home beds at RMH. There clearly was, therefore, some sort of dependency on there being a community facility in Rutland. Dr Underwood had asked the question about what would happen to all those appointments if RMH was closed and was told that there would still be care closer to home and facilities to accommodate this.

·           Aside from the future of RMH, the other factor that Healthwatch felt would affect most residents was the travel distance because of the plan to close Leicester General and patients therefore having to go to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

12.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Thursday 10 December at 7pm.

 

Minutes:

The next scheduled meeting of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee would be held on Thursday 10 December 2020 at 7pm.

 

Before closing the meeting the Chair took the opportunity to say how proud she was to be a Rutlander and praised the entire Rutland community for the extraordinary support they had provided during the crisis to those in need.

 

 

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The Chair closed the meeting at 9.01pm

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