Agenda and minutes

            The Minutes of the meeting held on 13^th November 2007 having been printed and circulated were signed as a correct record.

            It was confirmed that no public questions had been received.

            The Board considered the Minutes of the meetings of the Executive Board Sub Committee relevant to the Healthy Halton Policy and Performance Board.

            RESOLVED: That the minutes be noted.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Health and Community on the data and service developments regarding the Health of Children in Care.

            It was noted that in March 2006 the Health Policy and Performance Board was presented with the findings of the Health of Looked After Children Scrutiny Group. An in-depth audit of ninety Children in Care (CIC) case files was carried out resulting in an action plan.

It was further noted the Board agreed that the action plan be adopted and monitored. It was noted in November 2006 that all actions had been completed. At this time the Board requested updates on data and future developments in the service.

The Board was advised of the data regarding the Health of Children in Care and service developments in relation to health development group, assessments of Children’s emotional and mental wellbeing, training for foster carers and the fast track dental service.

RESOLVED: That

(1)               the report be noted; and

(2)               the report be presented to the Children and Young People’s Policy and Performance Board.

(NB: Councillors Horabin and Loftus declared a personnel interest in the following item of business due to their employment with Halton College. Councillor Lloyd Jones declared a personnel interest in the following item of business due to her husband being a Non Executive Director of Halton and St. Helen’s Primary Care Trust)

            The Board received an overview of the Mental Health Promotion Strategy and framework for action from Ms C. Ashton of Halton and St. Helen’s Primary Care Trust. 

            It was noted that the Strategy had been developed and driven by national policy drivers from Central Government and from public consultation with stakeholders. The Strategy covered a 4-year period from 2007 to 2011 and would be reviewed bi-annually.

            Arising from the discussion reference was made to the availability of support for children whose parents have mental health issues and awareness training for nursing staff and the police.  

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Health and Community on the Annual Report of Halton’s Adult Protection Committee (APC), for the year 2006/7, and on subsequent progression of the local Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults agenda.

            The annual report of the APC outlined the operation of the arrangements for the protection of vulnerable adults in Halton, provided details of work undertaken from April 2006 to March 2007 and summarised planned activity for the year April 2007 to March 2008.

            RESOLVED: That the 2006/7 Annual Report of the Adult Protection Committee be noted.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Health and Community on the work undertaken to date with regards to the future of Carers Services within Halton and on the proposed transfer of the Carers Centre to the Voluntary Sector.

            It was noted that since the opening of the Carers Centre in 2004, it had been the intention that the management of the centres by the Local Authority would only be a temporary arrangement, until a voluntary sector organisation could be identified to undertake it. The reason for this was to ensure that Carers would be able to maximise their access to funding streams.

            The Board was advised that during the last 12 months a number of activities, including meetings and consultation events had taken place to identify the options and their associated advantages, for the future provision of Carers Services within Halton.

            It was further noted that three options had been examined regarding the future provision of the service, including:

• making no changes;
• establishing a Princess Royal Trust for Carers Centre in Halton; and
• merging with a Princess Royal Trust for Carers Centre in St. Helens.

Discussions with Stakeholders had indicated that the decision to transfer Carers Centres to the voluntary sector was generally welcomed so long as the service had adequate resources and high levels of commitment from all partners.

Option 2: to establish a Princess Royal Trust Carers Centre had been identified as the most favourable option. The main reasons for this were;

·        as a charitable organisation the Centre would be able to access different funding streams, which the Local Authority was currently unable to; and

·        an independent Carers Centre would not just be a provider of services but would be an important means of ensuring the voice of carers was heard. Carers were managed and the services provided there.

Arising from the discussion reference was made to the proposal to start with one centre with an aspiration to open a second one in the future, that staffing would remain the same with the addition of a Co-ordinator, who would act in a fundraising capacity and equality and diversity issues, mainly in relation to disability discrimination compliance.  

RESOLVED: That the contents of the report and the progress made to date be noted.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Health and Community which sought comments on the draft service plans for the Health and Community Directorate for 2008-11.

            RESOLVED: That the draft service plans be accepted.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Corporate and Policy on the strategic progress of implementing the Council’s Corporate Plan (2006-11).

            It was noted that the overall policy direction for the Borough was captured in the Corporate Plan and Community Strategy. These were adopted by the Council in May 2006 and had a timeframe of five years.  The Corporate Plan set out the Council contribution towards achieving social, economic and environmental well-being for the people of Halton. It set out the Council’s priorities, 40 key areas of focus and 70 indicators through which strategic progress could be monitored.

Since the plan was adopted, the Council had also set in place a Local Area Agreement (LAA). This was an agreement with Central Government that spelt out the priorities and targets for local well being, based on outcomes which reflect local and national priorities. It was an important part of the delivery chain for the Community Strategy and Corporate Plan. Arising out of the new Local Government Act all local authorities were required to develop with their partners a new LAA for next year. The new LAAs would be part of a whole performance system for local government.  It included LAAs, a new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) to replace Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) as well as sweeping away most existing performance indicators and reporting systems and replacing them with a new, single set of performance indicators. It was vital that members play a key part in developing the new Agreement which would need to be agreed with Government by June 2008.

            It was further reported that a part of the changes that would be wrought by the new local Government Bill was the need for any Council to develop new relationships with partners and partnerships in its area. Local authorities were expected to take a leading role on Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) with involvement of Members on both LSPs and thematic partnerships. In advance of this Halton had already taken steps to increase representation of members from the Executive and PPBs on the Halton Strategic Partnership Board and the Specialist Strategic Partnerships. Council’s must prepare a LAA as the delivery plan for the community strategy and partners (named in the Bill) would have a duty to cooperate. The Council’s overview and scrutiny role would be extended to cover the partners with a duty to cooperate in the delivery of the LAA.

            RESOLVED: That

(1)       the report be noted; and

(2)             progress reports from the Health Specialist Strategic Partnership be submitted to the Board for information.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Health and Community which sought endorsement of the Directorate’s definition of service users that would be classed as ‘High Dependency’ in the event of needing to trigger the Directorate’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

            The report set out the Council’s responsibilities under the Civil Contingencies Act, that the BCP identified critical service areas and the actions to be taken to continue or recover the delivery of the services within specific timescales. In addition it set out the Directorate’s definition of ‘High Dependency’.

            RESOLVED: That

(1)       the contents of the report be noted; and

(2)       the Directorate’s definition of ‘High Dependency’, as outlined in 3.6 of the report, be endorsed.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Health and Community which sought to identify work topics for inclusion in the 2008/9 Work Programme.

            A number of areas of interest were highlighted to the Board in respect of:

·        Early onset dementia;  

·        Multi agency responses to Vulnerable Adults (joint topic with the Safer Halton PPB); and

·        Oral Health

It was further noted that there would be additional work for the Board to undertake during 2008/9 in relation to Halton Campus and Local Improvement Networks (LINks).

RESOLVED: That the topics detailed above be put forward as suggestions for inclusion in the 2008/9 Work Programme.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Health and Community which advised of the increase in the performance rating of the Health and Community Directorate and of the impending changes in the way performance of social care services would be assessed commencing in 2008/9.

            The Health and Community have their performance rated annually by the Care Standards Commission (CSCI). The performance rating was linked to how well the directorate provides social care services to both adults and older people. The rating the Directorate received feeds into the Comprehensive Performance Assessment rating for the Council.

            The Board was advised that for 2007 the authority rose from a 2 star to a 3 star authority. This meant that the authority was 1 of 8 in the North West rated as 3 star out of a total of 22 and 1 of the 2 authorities who had risen from a 2 star to a 3 star authority.

            It was further noted that the Government had recently announced a new National Indicator set of 198 indicators, which the Council would be judged against for 2008/9. In addition to this new indictors for both health and social care were announced in October 2007 linked to the ‘Our Health, Our Say’ White Paper. CSCI have stated judgement for 2007/8 would be based on the current Self Assessment Framework but have indicated that proposals to change the performance framework would be consulted on early in the New Year.

            The Board expressed its congratulations to the Health and Community Directorate for receiving an excellent performance rating.

            RESOLVED: That

(1)       the improvement performance of the Directorate be noted; and

(2)       the performance assessment framework is undergoing a period of continuous change and that the framework will change again in 2008/9 be noted.