Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Cosgrove and Toor.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no items of urgent business.

There were no public questions received.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee held on 13^th October 2020 are attached for approval.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee held on 13^th October 2020 be approved as a correct record.

To note the minutes of the joint meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees held on 24^th September 2020.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the joint meeting of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees held on 24^th September 2020 be noted.

To note the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Scrutiny Panel for Pennine Acute NHS Trust held on 15^th September 2020.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Scrutiny Panel for Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust held on 15^th September 2020 be noted.

To note the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Scrutiny Panel for Pennine Care NHS Trust held on 22^nd September 2020.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Scrutiny Panel for Pennine Care NHS trust held on 22^nd September 2020 be noted.

To receive a presentation from Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group presenting a review of Primary Care in Oldham.

Mike Barker, Joint Strategic Director/Chief Operating Officer and Nicola Hepburn, Director of Commissioning and Operations, Oldham CCG delivered a presentation setting out a vision and ambition for primary care services in Oldham.  The drafted Primary Care Strategy had been written in the context and framework of the Oldham CCG Vision and Objectives and described how primary care services will work with partners and the contribution they will make to the following strategic objectives –

·         Clinical leadership – to improve the population’s health and drive better wellbeing outcomes;

·         Nursing and quality improvement – to ensure that services become the highest quality and safest in the region;

·         Commissioning operations – to deliver an effective and strategic approach to commissioning that focuses on tackling health inequalities;

·         Finance – to ensure that local health and care services are sustainable for future generations;

·         Strategy and support – to lead partnership working and collaboration across a sustainable health and care system; and

·         Transformation – to create a place-based health and care system that is closer to people’s homes.

It was noted that Primary Care, like many parts of the health service, was under increasing pressure and struggling to deliver ever more complex services.  In developing the strategy the CCG had identified a number of challenges in primary care which needed to be addressed, leading to a number of Primary Care Strategic Priorities being identified and which were presented under collective headings of Restoration of Primary Care Services and strengthening the foundations of Primary Care; Partnership working to reduce inequalities and improve health and social care outcomes; and Delivering Integrated Health and Social Care.

To deliver the strategy, Primary Care Networks (PCNs) would become the primary vehicle for the delivery of integrated primary and community care, with resources increasingly organised to respond to the needs and priorities of the people that live in each locality.  A key objective for PCNs would be to shift the pattern of care and services to be more preventative, proactive and local for people of all ages, working with other system partners to deliver more care at home and in the community, with people being supported to remain independent in their own home for as long as possible.  A number of measures that would be reviewed over time to measure outcomes were further considered and presented under headings of reducing health inequalities, access to clinical services, and workforce.

The Committee was reminded that Oldham, like all other Greater Manchester authorities, operated a Locality Plan that set out the health and social care priorities for five years.  The Primary Care Strategy followed the same principles for tackling health inequalities and also reflected the national context of developing PCNs, collections of GP practices aligned to local authority boundaries, to deliver primary care.  The health inequality challenge in Oldham could be represented by the expected 5-10% incidence of complex issues being as high as 40% in certain areas, pointing to the fact that a ‘one size fits all’ approach was inappropriate.  The CCG had a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Committee received an update on the implementation of the Greater Manchester Learning Disability (GMLD) Strategy which set out some of the challenges and successes in implementing the strategy, particularly in light of the Covid 19 situation.

The GMLD Strategy had been in place for over a year.  The following ten themes had been identified within the strategy, with Covid being added as an eleventh theme as it cross-cut all themes within the strategy –

·           strategic leadership;

·           advocacy;

·           belonging;

·           bespoke commissioning;

·           good health;

·           homes for people;

·           employment;

·           workforce;

·           early support for children and young people;

·           criminal justice; and

·           Covid-19.

Reports on progress were considered at the GM level on a bi-monthly basis for scrutiny and challenge. 

The update presented to Members included a summary of the progress to date across the themes, including an update on Covid impact and measures that had been put in place.  Particular attention was drawn to the ongoing review of accommodation for people with a learning disability; the implementation of alternative methods of working to support people; that while acknowledging the impact of Covid, work had been able to continue and, in particular, there had been some successes in the health theme in the supporting of annual health checks; and that despite many of the individuals with a learning disability finding the Covid disruption difficult to deal with, there had been good resilience within the cohort with people coping with the help of the support they had received.

In response to a query as to any themes emerging from the review of accommodation, Members were advised that key lines of enquiry had been into single occupancy and where service users had been in a particular accommodation for a lengthy period to consider whether there was a need to move or whether other options might be explored. There was an ageing population of people with learning disabilities who might need to move into alternate provision and a pilot exercise was being undertaken with a provider to see how an alternate set-up might operate in terms of care packages, costs and outcomes for individuals. 

With regard to training, education and employment, a piece of work had been undertaken prior to Covid to try and capture information about the people the service worked with and the employment offers, including apprenticeships, internships, funded schemes etc.  During the Covid period a spike in digital offers had been noted.  While college or remaining in education was an option in day services, a greater demand for jobs was being seen as service users sought normality in the Covid period.  Work was therefore ongoing with colleagues to bring this consideration into transition and to look at options for supported work, training etc and related funding. 

Further to a query concerning care leavers with autism and other disabilities transferring over to Adult Services, the Committee was informed that this was a significant area of work.  While this was currently dealt with on a case-by-case basis, the Service was working with colleagues to better  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Further to Minute 9 of the meeting held on 13^th October 2020, the Committee gave further consideration to a proposed amendment to the Committee’s report submitted to the Council meeting on 9^th September 2020 and which had been referred by the Council to the Committee for consideration.  The Committee was advised that, further to the submitted report, no suggested names for inclusion in the amendment had been received from political groups in response to correspondence forwarded.

A Member noted that the Committee’s report considering the Council’s actions related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals had been under consideration for several months prior to the submission of the report to the Council and that the issues raised in the amendment had not been raised in that time.

RESOLVED that the inclusion of the Amendment to the report be not agreed or commended to Council.

Note: The Chair requested that the minutes record that Councillors Byrne and Hamblett were not present in the meeting at the time the vote was taken.

The Committee was reminded that, at a meeting of the Council held on 9^th September 2020, the Council had referred a Motion “Not Every Disability is Visible” to ‘Overview and Scrutiny’ for consideration.  The Health Scrutiny Committee had been determined as the appropriate overview and scrutiny body to consider the referral and the Committee received a report presenting an initial consideration of the issues raised in the Council Motion.

The report considered the background to the Crohn’s and Colitis UK campaign ‘Not every disability is visible’ and the campaign objective of revised signage for accessible toilets to indicate that not every disability is visible, and the nature and local availability of ‘Changing Places’ toilets together with the requirements to be introduced in 2021 for new public buildings and those undergoing major refurbishment to have Changing Places toilet facilities.

The Committee further received a briefing paper from Sarah Hollobone, Campaigns Manager, Crohn’s and Colitis UK, who addressed the Committee highlighting why accessible toilets are so important to people with Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, the benefits for people in Oldham of the Council getting involved, and what Crohn’s and Colitis UK could do to support the Council.  In response to a concern expressed that signs alone would not change anything, it was noted that signage made people more comfortable in their use of accessible toilets and the signs acted as a visual resource to point to and give individuals confidence.  

The Chair thanked Sarah Hollobone for raising the issue with the Committee and suggested this was a matter that the Council should take forward and give encouragement to other groups in the Borough to take forward also.  Further reference was made to the provision of Changing Places toilets and the potential for such a facility to be provided on the Spindles Shopping Centre.

RESOLVED that

1.            the issue of signage of accessible toilets as suggested by the Crohn’s and Colitis ‘Not every disability is visible’ campaign be forwarded to the relevant Cabinet Member and Officers to look at and cost up the necessary changes and to report further to this Committee to enable the Committee to prepare a report on this matter;

2.            the provision of a Changing Places toilet facility at the Spindles Shopping Centre be referred to the relevant Portfolio Holder and Officers to look at and cost up to consider whether this could be provided, to apply for relevant grants and progress if the funding is forthcoming, and to report back to this Committee.

The Committee gave consideration to the proposed Health Scrutiny Committee Work Programme for 2020/21, outlining those issues which would be considered by the Committee during the municipal year.  

The Committee’s attention was drawn specifically to the outcomes from Members’ consideration on 10^th November 2020 of anonymised safeguarding cases, of actions taken in respect of a referral from Council related to a Council Motion concerning Chatty Checkouts and Cafes, and to the intended submission of a report to the Committee in January 2021 of a report detailing work to address digital inclusion that had been commissioned following concerns expressed by Members at earlier meetings.

RESOLVED that the Health Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2020/21, as presented, be noted.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee was scheduled to be held on Tuesday, 26^th January 2021 at 6pm.