The Chairman’s introduction.

The Chair welcomed the members of the new Health, Housing and Adult Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee to the inaugural meeting and members introduced themselves.

The Chair looked forward to the good work that the Committee would hopefully achieve during the coming years.

In accordance with the Members' Code of Conduct, Members are requested to declare any interests at the start of the meeting and again immediately before consideration of the matter. Members are reminded to specify the agenda item number to which it refers and whether the interest is of a personal or prejudicial nature.

No declarations of interest were received.

To consider and approve the minutes of the Health, Housing and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 16 March 2010 – attached.

The minutes of the last meeting of the Health, Housing and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee which has now been replaced with this committee were put forward for consideration and approval by the Committee.  Although members present had not served on the previous committee Councillor Urquhart was in attendance (previous Chairman) and confirmed that she had seen the draft minutes as had the previous Vice Chairman and that they both agreed that they were an accurate record.  On this basis the committee approved the minutes as a correct record and the Chairman was authorised to sign them. 

The Committee is asked to note the terms of reference for the new Committee.

It was RESOLVED that the Terms of Reference for the Health, Housing and Adult Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee as approved by Council at its meeting of 25 May 2010 be noted.

Presentations by the Director of Adult and Community Services, Strategic Cabinet Member for Adult Services and the Chief Executive of NHS Richmond introducing the work of the Directorate, the priorities of the new administration and the current position of NHS Richmond respectively.  

The Committee received presentations from Cathy Kerr, Director of Adult and Community Services at LBRuT, Councillor Nicola Urquhart, Cabinet member for Adult Services, Health & Housing and Joan Mager, Chief Executive of NHS Richmond.

The Director of Adult and Community Services described the duties of the Directorate which fell under the following areas:

FRONTLINE SERVICES

• Social Care
  
  
• Safeguarding
  
  
• Housing
  
  
• Accessible Transport

CORPORATE DUTIES

• Performance Quality Assessment and Service Development
  
  
• Community Planning / Safety & Engagement
  
  
• Performance Management

The Committee would be concerned with the Overview and Scrutiny of work and policies relating to the Frontline duties. Ms Kerr also explained the staffing structure to the Committee and highlighted those staff that they would be likely to see at the Committee.  The Committee heard that the Directorate had:

• 612 Staff
  
  
• 73.1 million budget
  
  
• 4130 users
  
  
• 1496 Personal Budget users

In recent times the Directorate had:

• Introduced personalisation of budgets and was a leader in London in this area
  
  
• Improved Services for homeless families
  
  
• Balanced the Budget
  
  
• Continued to protect vulnerable adults
  
  
• Captured 18.5 million of external investment 

Priorities for the future included:

• Increased efficiencies and budget management
  
  
• Development of the market for those spending a personalised budget
  
  
• A review of Transport Services
  
  
• Greater joined up working with NHS Richmond
  
  
• Smarter Commissioning of Services and getting more from the Council’s contracts

Next, the Cabinet Lead Member for Adult Services, Health and Housing, Councillor Urquhart addressed the Committee.  She described the new Conservative administrations priorities for the future, these were:

• Safeguarding
  This was the Councils highest priority, Councillor Urquhart stressed the importance of maintaining the good work currently taking place and also how things might be improved.  One measure was to set up (?) a Safeguarding Board with and Independent Chairman.
  
  
• Reablement
  As yet the projected savings of the introduction of reablement work had not been seen, it was important that the cost benefits were realised this year.
  
  
• Preventative Services
  Timely and effective preventative intervention especially in families having difficulties can not only help families but save the council money.

She also mentioned the importance of maintaining and improving adult health in the older generation of Richmond Borough residents by encouraging vaccination.

Finally the Chief Executive of NHS Richmond, Joan Mager addressed the Committee.  She provided a background to NHS Richmond and then referred to the following points:

• Recent Achievements including:
  
  The Development of a strategic plan
  
  Putting in place the building blocks to more Out of Hospital Care
  
  Whole system transformation regarding Commissioning
  
  Improved performance
  
  Innovated a response in Partnership with Hounslow to the Strategy Plan for Community Health Services
  
  
• Community Health Services and the current situation regarding a recommendation to NHS London on the future of the Community health Services.
  
  
• The structures and Partnerships surrounding the PCT
  
  
• Improvement Strategy
  
  
• Out of Hospital Care
  
  
• Improving Financial Sustainability
  
  
• The Coalition Government Strategy and possible new structures
  
  
• Future Funding and Operating Framework
  
  

In conclusion she informed the committee that the White Paper from Government that would make the future clearer for Health Services in Britain and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

An opportunity for Committee Members to ask questions on the presentations received under Item 3.

The Floor was opened to questions from Members to the speakers from item 5.

Following questions from Members, Officers gave the Committee the following information:

• That proposals for Borough Based Commissioning of Community Services had been put on hold in light of the changes that may be taking place with Richmond Council’s key partner, NHS Richmond.  GP’s may now become the main Commissioners of Services but Richmond would continue to seek to join up jobs and working where it was possible without changing the structures of either partner.
  
  
• That the affect on services should the Whitton Polyclinic proposals not go ahead would primarily relate the provision of sufficient primary care services for people in hospital
  
  
• That plans were in place to build a more comprehensive list of services for those people on personalised budgets to spend their allowances on and that this would include helping voluntary sector services to grow.
  
  
• That the reablement agenda would continue to improve and specialist providers would be sought in order to strengthen the programme.
  
  
• That the rapid response programme had increased the availability of intermediate care for residents of the borough to much later in to the evening than GPs had provided.
  
  
• That a breakdown of spending for the 18.5m grant secured for the purposes of Social Housing in the Borough be circulated to members.
  
  
• That the homeless population in Richmond Borough was 500 – 600 people.  With 200 hundred households in temporary accommodation.  There was only a small use of B&B accommodation in the Borough with most temporary accommodation being units rented from private landlords by the Council.
  
  
• That the Committee would be kept up to date on any national and local developments as a result of the awaited White paper and that a member of NHS Richmond would attend every meeting of the Committee.

This report outlines progress that has been made towards the introduction of Borough Based Commissioning since 2010.

The Committee received a joint report of the Directors of Adult and Community Services and Education, Children’s and Cultural Services and the Chief Executive of NHS Richmond the purpose of which was to update the Committee on the progress made on Borough Based commissioning since 16 March 2010.

Since 16 March:

• Cabinet and the PCT had agreed:
  
  guiding principles for joint working
  
  two jointly funded posts of Directors of Community Commissioning
  
  The Establishment of a joint PCT Board to Over joint working

Discussion followed regarding the processes that were in place or being put in place to deal with GP Commissioning if and when it did arrive.  The Committee heard that experiences were being drawn from fund holding times as well new ideas being floated on how the system might look after any change was implemented.  Officers were happy that as much preparation as possible was taking place and ain as joined up a way as possible.

The Committee asked that it be updated regularly on progress in this area.

The Committee also felt that it would be helpful to hear the views of a GP on the possible changes.

It was RESOLVED

1.      That at all meetings of the Committee an update on the progress of Borough Based Commissioning be RECEIVED

2.      That Dr Marilyn Plant be INVITED to the next meeting of the Committee

3.      That the progress to date on developing robust arrangements to strengthen borough based commissioning of community services be NOTED

This report will update the Committee on the measures undertaken since the Southwark fire to enhance safety in the Borough’s Social Housing.

The Committee received a report of the Assistant Director of Community Services Operations, Adult & Community Service regarding fire risk assessments in housing.  The purpose of the report was to describe to members of the Committee the current concerns and possible ambiguities around good practice in carrying out Fire Risk Assessments and to outline actions taken to deal with such issues.  The Committee heard that the recent fire and ensuing investigation at Southwark had raised concerns for all social Landlords.  However to put the events in Southwark into perspective it was reported that there had only been 136 fires in Council managed stock in the last 10 years in Richmond.

The Assistant Director went on to describe some of the areas where criticism had been levelled at other authorities, the guidance available and the actual actions that Richmond Housing Partnership and Richmond Council take.  He also explained the circumstances surrounding the inspection of RSL owned houses in particular HMO’s and explained that it was not totally clear where responsibilities began and ended.  Richmond was therefore seeking Counsel’s advice.

The following issues were raised during the discussion with members:

• That Richmond did not have a comprehensive list of all social landlords
  
  
• That a small number of RHP stock may have been affected by Modernisation and that these would be comprehensively checked.
  
  
• That some literature for Social Housing tenants detailing measures taken to ensure their safety would be helpful to have to distribute when the report findings from the Southwark enquiry became public.
  
  
• That it would be of interest to the Committee to see the findings of the Southwark enquiry.

It was RESOLVED:

1. That all information on the results of the Southwark inquiry be circulated to all Councillors on publication
   
   
2. That information on LBRuT  Fire Risk Assessments on Social Housing be provided for the Committee
   
   
3. That the contents of the report be noted.

This report sets out the Committee work programme for 2010/11, to give an opportunity to consider possible training and to note the broad principles behind scrutiny.

Report of the Head of Democratic Services,  attached.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Democratic Services regarding the Work Programme for the Committee for the next Council Year.  The purpose of the report was to set out the work programme as it was inherited from the previous committee, consider possible training and to not the principles behind scrutiny. 

Training needs and opportunities were also briefly discussed.

The committee discussed the recommendations in the report and RESOLVED: