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Shropshire Council
Shirehall
Abbey Foregate
Shrewsbury
Shropshire
SY2 6ND

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Shrewsbury Room, Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY2 6ND. View directions

Contact: Amanda Holyoak  Committee Officer

Media

Items
No. Item

4.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

5.

Disclosure of Pecuniary Interests

Minutes:

Councillor S Jones reported that he was bank working on the vaccination programme at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt hospital (RJAH), Oswestry.

 

Councillor T Huffer reported that she worked as a practice nurse at Station Drive surgery, Ludlow.

 

Councillor H Kidd reported that her daughter worked as a Nursing Sister, high dependency outreach at RJAH.

 

Councillor D Minnery reported that a family member was in receipt of domiciliary care.

6.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 230 KB

To confirm the minutes of the meetings held on 19 April 2021 and 20 May 2021, attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

That the Minutes of the meetings of the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 19 April and 20 May 2021 be approved as correct records.

7.

Public Question Time

To receive any questions or petitions from the public, notice of which has been given in accordance with Procedure Rule 14.  The deadline for this meeting is 10.00 am on Thursday 10 June 2021

Minutes:

No questions had been received from members of the public.

8.

Member Question Time

To receive any questions of which members of the Council have given notice.  Deadline for notification is 5.00 pm on Wednesday 9 June 2021

Minutes:

No Member questions had been received.

9.

Membership of the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee pdf icon PDF 283 KB

Election of elected members and appointment of co-opted members to the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (report to follow)

Minutes:

The Overview and Scrutiny Officer presented the report proposing appointments to the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Joint HOSC) with Telford and Wrekin Council.

 

The Committee noted the requirement for Shropshire Council to appoint six members to the Joint HOSC comprising three elected members of Shropshire Council and three co-opted members independent of the council.

 

Given that the three elected members needed to be politically balanced the Chairman proposed that, in accordance with recent practice, one of the two Conservative seats would be gifted to a member of another political group. 

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the following appointments be made as Shropshire Council’s representatives on the Joint HOSC:

 

Elected members

Councillor Simon Jones (Conservative, Chair of Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee)

Councillor Kate Halliday (Labour, gifted seat from Conservative group)

Councillor Heather Kidd (Liberal Democrat)

 

Co-opted members, independent of the Council

Ian Hulme

David Beechey

Karen Calder

10.

Introduction from the Executive Director Adult Services pdf icon PDF 426 KB

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Adult Services gave a presentation on the key priorities 2021/22 to 2022/23 relating to Adult Social Care (ASC), Public Health and Housing. 

 

The presentation and slides can be viewed on the webpage for this meeting via the following link:  http://shropshire.gov.uk/committee-services/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=737&MId=4244&Ver=4

 

The highlight headings covered included:

·         Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

·         Integrated Care System

·         Mental Health Transformation

·         Joint Commissioning

·         Provider market transformation

·         Temporary Accommodation

·         Homeless prevention

·         Domestic Abuse Bill

 

Responding to Members’ questions and comments, the following additional information was provided:

 

·         The key headings summarised above would feature heavily in the Council’s Corporate Plan review.  The areas highlighted may be issues that the Committee may wish to add to its Work Programme and investigate further during the coming months.

 

·         Given the volume of information provided, briefing sessions would be provided to Members on key topics; briefings would be vital to inform all Committee members, both newly elected and those re-elected.

 

·         Briefing sessions would be held outside of the formal meeting arena and would include discussions on the development of the Work Programme.

 

·         Housing issues in the countryside, rural care, accessibility of Home Point would benefit from scrutiny, both from a policy perspective and practical considerations.

 

·         Concerns were voiced regarding the timescales for CAMHS referrals and the benefits of early diagnosis re mental health cases.  It was noted that the Joint HOSC shared concerns regarding Adult Mental Health given that the commissioning of these services sat across both areas and the new commissioning arrangements were giving confidence that they would be more robust in future.

 

·         It was agreed that some areas of concern raised by members of the Committee needed to be carefully steered for consideration by the most appropriate forum be it the Joint HOSC, the HASC Overview and Scrutiny Committee or any other of the Council’s Scrutiny Committees depending upon the subject matter and the overlap of social priorities. Appropriate guidance would be provided to members as the Work Programme items were identified.

 

·         The newly appointed Officer post for Joint Commissioning was wholeheartedly welcomed as a positive step.  It was agreed that a briefing session on Commissioning would be provided to the Committee in due course.

 

·         Circulation of presentation material prior to the meeting was considered to be advantageous going forward.  It was noted that, in future, additional supporting information would be posted on to the HASC Scrutiny Forum on TEAMS to which Members would shortly receive an invitation.

 

In bringing the debate to a close, the Chair thanked the Executive Director of Adult Services for highlighting key areas.  He added that they represented food for serious thought and consideration by the Committee and he also welcomed the provision of informative briefing sessions on the topics highlighted during the debate.

11.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 303 KB

A report on the Committee’s work programme will follow.

Minutes:

The Overview and Scrutiny Officer presented the report providing an overview of items from previous committee meetings that the committee had agreed to revisit in future.  He stressed that Work Programme planning offered the following benefits in scheduling the Committee’s workload:

 

·         Consideration of the right topic at the right time (not too early or too late) in order to have some influence on developments

·         Ordering work in a logical and coherent way

·         Allowing Officers time to prepare in order to make the best use of time available whilst recognising that there would be instances where an issue would come to the fore at short notice

 

Members considered the items listed in Appendix 1 to the report that had been carried forward from the former Committee prior to the local elections and, whilst acknowledging the merits of their consideration, the following issues were also discussed for inclusion on the Work Programme:

 

·         Home Point and housing in relation to mental health support.  It was noted that the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered in detail housing allocations in March 2021 and this information would be shared with members.

 

·         Transport for outpatient services including kidney dialysis patients, Adult Social Care transport, CCG health commissioned transport services (although it was noted that this had recently gone to tender).  Considerable frustrations were experienced regarding patient transport systems and the issues were agreed to be ripe for investigation.

 

·         Briefings were requested on Future Fit and on social prescribing.

 

·         It was noted that the Joint HOSC would be receiving an update on the impact of the pandemic and planning steps in the light of lessons learned with specific attention to the issue of hospital releases.

 

·         It was suggested that health commissioning arrangements would be better considered in 12 months’ time after review.

 

·         A key item for the future Work Programme was agreed to be Children and Young People’s mental health services at Shropshire and Telford Hospitals Trust (SaTH). In recognising the merits of consideration of the issues by the Joint HOSC, members were nevertheless eager to ‘dig deep’ into the issues and look internally to identify improvements. 

 

·         GP practice provision across the county was also raised as an area of some concern with members highlighting specific issues at Whitchurch and Burford, Tenbury Wells

 

·         Finally, the Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Assets suggested that the Committee may wish to look closely at the issue of cross border working with neighbouring Welsh authorities and make suggestions to increase and improve engagement.

 

In drawing the debate to a close, the Chair commented that there was a of range of important issues for the Committee’s future consideration and he looked forward to a varied Work Programme ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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