Agenda

(time limit 20 minutes)

There are no petitions to note.

(time limit 20 minutes)

There is no Youth Council Business to consider.

(time limit 30 Minutes)

(time limit 30 minutes)

(time limit 15 minutes)

19^th June 2023

17^th July 2023

24^th July 2023

(time limit 30 minutes)

Motion 1

Councillor Shah to MOVE and Councillor Brownridge to SECOND:

Fragility of the Social Care Sector

The Social Care sector is in crisis. The market is failing residents who need society’s care and support the most.

Oldham Council recently announced that it would be acquiring Chadderton Total Care Unit to prevent the nursing home from closing and creating over two-hundred redundancies and create continuity of care issues for over a hundred vulnerable residents.

The social care system is not fit for purpose and is failing the people who rely on it, despite the incredible efforts made by those who work in it.

Long-term problems, including high levels of unmet need and care providers struggling to deliver the quality of care that older and disabled people deserve, are compounded by rising demand, backlogs caused by Covid-19 and a workforce crisis.  Pressures in the NHS compound these challenges even further and can sometimes lead to ‘bed blocking’.

We need reform now – government cannot wait any longer to act.

This Council notes:

• That there are no quick and easy fixes to the crisis in social care, but this cannot be ignored.
• That the fragility of the care sector market is putting Oldhamers’ health, quality of life and livelihoods at risk
• The council continues to receive an increased number of complaints linked to unaffordability of financial contributions and linked to the cost-of-living crisis.

This Council further notes:

• The decision to acquire the Total Care Unit in Chadderton was not one taken lightly but allowing the second biggest care-home in the Borough to close would’ve been cruel. 
• The acquisition of the Total Care Unit has protected over 100 vulnerable residents from being moved out of borough and ensured that 200 hardworking social care staff did not lose their jobs.
• That the nursing sector in particular is facing huge challenges in recruiting staff, that agencies are driving up the cost and making it difficult for the NHS to compete and offer parity.

This Council resolves to:

• Use the newly created Oldham Total Care to combat bed blocking at the Royal Oldham Hospital, relieve some pressure in the social care sector and provide the support Oldhamers need in Oldham.
• Write to the Department for Health and Social Care to urge them to urgently adopt the delayed reforms to care sector funding and eligibility.
• Write to the Department of Health and Social Care to ask them to urgently commission a review on market volatility in the Care and Nursing Home Sectors.
• Work with the Integrated Care System across Greater Manchester and the North West, as well as the Association of Directors of Adults Social Services to raise awareness and address issues of care home market fragility, and lobby for reform to create a care system that meets resident’s needs, accepts that a greater personalisation of services is required, and increases the availability of care services.

Motion 2

Councillor Goodwin to MOVE and Councillor Taylor to SECOND:

No More Profit  ...  view the full agenda text for item 9.

(time limit 30 minutes)

Motion 1

Councillor Woodvine to MOVE and Councillor Sheldon to SECOND:

A State of the Art Health Centre for Saddleworth

The Civil Parish of Saddleworth is the only District in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham to have not had the provision of a Health Centre planned for despite the overwhelming public support for one.

While the current Centre, situated in Uppermill, has given care to many people over the years, the modern medical needs of the population of Saddleworth are not met by the current site. Many people living in Saddleworth’s village communities have to travel to central Oldham for basic treatment – to Glodwick, Littlemoor, Moorside, or the Integrated Care Centre.

The provision of a state-of-the-art Health Centre of all of Saddleworth is the single biggest issue and this was made clear to The Council Leader, Councillor Arooj Shah, when she visited us in 2022 at her ‘Meet the Leader’ event in Saddleworth Civic Hall. Despite her warm words, no action has been taken.

The content of this Motion has an electoral mandate - in recent Elections, all successful Candidates in Saddleworth have been nominally or actively in favour of a Health Centre.

Increased pressure is being placed on the already stretched healthcare provisions in Saddleworth resulting from the increased house building, including the 78 dwellings on Huddersfield Road, Diggle, with the prospect of more developments to come at Knowls Lane, Birks Quarry, Bailey Mill, Fletcher’s Mill and possibly Stonebreaks in years to come.

The Member of Parliament for Oldham East & Saddleworth hosted an event too to discuss the prospect of developing a new Health Centre, but she did not invite the Councillors for the area and we have never seen any outcomes from this discussion, at which there were senior Officers of the Council.

The Integrated Care System for Greater Manchester has stated in the past that funding is not necessarily the problem in preventing progress, but the options for siting a Health Centre in Saddleworth is the stumbling block. However, a strategic site has opened up in a central, accessible location in Uppermill with the demolition of Saddleworth School and this is in the ownership of the Council.

Therefore, this Council commits:

-          To prioritise the provision of a state-of-the-art Health Centre for all of Saddleworth.

-          To commit to making the site of the old Saddleworth School mixed-use, and ear marking some space for a state-of-the-art Health Centre.

-          To improve the pitches and playing fields on the old Saddleworth School site for the use of local people, and for increased sporting provisions.

-          To consider ways to increase capacity at the Delph site in the meantime, whilst a new Health Centre is established, as it is a source of local commentary that this service is underutilised.

-          To schedule a meeting with all stakeholders, including the Leader of the Council, the Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care and the Saddleworth North, South, and West & Lees Councillors, to discuss our  ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.