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1. Summary and purpose of report

1.1 The Local Authority (Overview & Scrutiny Committees Health Scrutiny Functions) Regulations 2002 provides for the overview and scrutiny committee (OSC) for an authority with Social Service duties to undertake review of matters relating to the health and provision of health services to their communities. To assist in the undertaking of reviews, NHS bodies are required to provide information requested by OSCs and the OSC may require the appropriate officer of an NHS body to attend a meeting of the committee to answer questions about the matter under review.

1.2 This report sets out proposed arrangements whereby the committee will exercise the power to require information from NHS bodies and attendance of appropriate NHS officers for questioning.

2. Approach to undertaking reviews.

2.1 The County Council's consultation paper (October 2002) and subsequent consideration by the Committee has stated a commitment to working in partnership with NHS bodies on behalf of the community of Hampshire to identify and secure improvements in health and provision of health services. The overall approach is therefore to seek to work in collaboration with NHS bodies, identifying information relevant to a particular review and means for securing that information by a process of discussion and agreement, not compulsion.

2.2 The committee should consider explicitly affirming to NHS bodies this intended way of working.

2.3 Nevertheless, the committee's arrangement for undertaking reviews must also recognise the intention that scrutiny should be carried out in an open way and that there should be an investigative and participatory approach to securing the information necessary to reach conclusions and recommendations. Analogy to the style and working of a Parliamentary select committees has been repeatedly quoted.

2.4 The committee should therefore consider proposals for building in to procedures and arrangements a stage in each review when the issues may be examined in the style of a Parliamentary select committee.

3. Proposed arrangements

3.1 It is proposed that the working group commissioned to undertake a review should not exercise the statutory power of the Committee to require information from NHS bodies or attendance of officers of NHS bodies to respond to questions. It is proposed that working groups should assemble the evidence considered necessary to reach conclusions on the issue the subject of review by informal discussion and agreement. Discussion with NHS officers and those providing NHS services should be informal and not take place in public, unless both the working group and the NHS body agree to other arrangements appropriate in the circumstances of a particular issue and review.

3.2 The County Council's consultation paper gave the undertaking that `The review working group would prepare a report of its findings for presentation to the Health Review Committee. NHS bodies and other organisations responsible for the services under review (including County Council services) would be consulted informally on the draft report before it is considered by the Health Review Committee'. It is proposed that consultation on the working group's report, setting out evidence considered, conclusions and recommendations, takes place with NHS bodies (and other providers) before publication of the report.

3.3 The working group's report would be published when it is submitted by the working group to the Health Review Committee for the Committee's consideration. It is proposed that the Health Review Committee considers reports in depth. The Lead Member for the working group would present the working group's report to the Committee. It is proposed that consideration of the report takes place in a way similar to a Parliamentary select committee with the Committee inviting appropriate persons to attend, provide additional information not included in the working group's report and answer in public session questions put to them by the Members of the Committee. The appropriate persons are likely to include officers of NHS bodies.

4. The need for protocols

4.1 It is considered neither necessary nor appropriate to set down protocols for the informal contact between a working group and NHS bodies (whether officers or providers and users of NHS services). Such contact and arrangements should be mutually agreed in each circumstance - it would be a necessary courtesy for a working group to give notice to the NHS body of an intention to approach users of a service.

4.2 A protocol will, however, be necessary to guide and regulate the attendance of NHS officers at a formal session of the Committee when it is considering the report of a working group. The protocol will need to be agreed with NHS bodies collectively. It should cover

· provision of notice requiring attendance of a NHS officer

· provision of the report of the working group, which is the matter for consideration at the meeting

· provision of notice of the matters on which information will be sought/ questions asked by the Committee and rules about follow-up questions and how discussion will proceed

· arrangements for the NHS officer to make presentations and statements on the matter under review

· public involvement - will public attending the Committee be permitted to pose additional questions and, if so, by what mechanism?

4.3 The protocol should also set out subsequent procedures - it is the intention that the Health Review Committee proceeds to publish a report of the review and submit its recommendation to appropriate bodies. NHS bodies have a duty to respond.

4.4 Because a report of the first review will not be formally considered by the Committee until early 2004, there is no immediate requirement for a protocol. The committee may wish to invite comments from NHS bodies on the issues and proposed arrangements set out in this report and invite comment on the scope and provisions of a protocol.

Recommendations

1. That the Committee affirms its intention to work in partnership with NHS bodies.

2. That the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Health Authority be asked to advise on the most appropriate means to secure a consensus of views from NHS bodies in Hampshire on the proposals set out in the report for the undertaking of reviews and for the formal consideration and examination of reports of reviews by the Committee.