AT A MEETING of the HAMPSHIRE, SOUTHAMPTON, PORTSMOUTH AND ISLE OF WIGHT HEALTH SCRUTINY JOINT COMMITTEE held at The Civic Centre, Southampton on Monday, 19 March 2007.

PRESENT

Members Officers

Hampshire Councillors: Dr. R.J. Ellis (Chairman) David Pryke

Mrs. A. Buckley Martin Combs

N. Clarke

Mrs. A.M. McNair Scott

Southampton Councillor G. Drake Martin Day

Dave Shields

Portsmouth Councillors: David Stephen Butler Saskia Kiernan

L. Mason

49 MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 7 December 2006 were confirmed as a correct record.

50 HAMPSHIRE PARTNERSHIP TRUST

Martin Barkley, Chief Executive of Hampshire Partnership Trust gave a presentation on proposals for the Trust seeking Foundation status. He outlined the reasons for the Trust seeking foundation status, the governing structure of the proposed Foundation Trust and the consultation process and period for seeking foundation status. Members were concerned about the proposed consultation period and advised that it should not commence until after the forthcoming local elections and should avoid the August holiday period. It was advised that the consultation period should commence on 1 June 2007 and run until the end of September 2007 with no consultation taking place in August.

51 SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH A LEARNING DISABILITY IN SOUTHEAST HAMPSHIRE

David Pryke reported that a letter had been received from Hampshire Learning Disabilities Partnership Board had written requesting a review of services for the 76 people living in the 12 homes in southeast Hampshire for which the Hampshire Partnership Trust was the care provider, these homes were current unregulated. Portsmouth City Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel had expressed concerns about the proposed closure at Tamarine, Horndean and requested the Joint Committee to scrutinise the proposals.

RESOLVED

That a scrutiny panel be set up to review the services for the 76 people living in the 12 homes in southeast Hampshire and to investigate the proposed closure of Tamarine, Horndean and report back to the next meeting.

52 PROMOTING SOCIAL INTERVENTION AND ENTERPRISE IN HEALTH AND WELLBEING SERVICES IN SOUTHEAST HAMPSHIRE

Dave Shields presented a report on proposals being drawn up by the University of Southampton for the establishment of Solent Innovation in collaboration with the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire and Solent Synergy for the promotion of social innovation and enterprise in health and wellbeing services. He outlined the background, opportunities for innovation in health and social care locally, how south Hampshire could move forward with this and creating the right environment/governance for this to happen. Adrian Osborne from Hampshire Primary Care Trust gave a presentation on the current proposals for the Fenwick Hospital, Lyndhurst and outlined the background to the proposals, the processes involved in achieving them and what it meant for patients. The Chairman said that the South Central Strategic Health Authority had highlighted the Fenwick proposals as a beacon.

RESOLVED

That the proposals being drawn up by Southampton University be welcomed and agencies concerned with health and wellbeing in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight area be urged to support the development of Solent Innovation and to identify representatives who could serve on a project steering group.

53 SOUTH CENTRAL AMBULANCE SERVICE - IMPLEMENTING CALL CONNECT

Phil Campling gave a presentation on how the South Central Ambulance Service would be implementing call connect. Call Connect had resulted from the Bradley Review - Transforming Ambulance Services would come into force on 1 April 2008 and would give standardisation of performance measurement of response targets. It would enable improved response to patients with speed and reliability of response, effective treatment and personal reassurances. He explained how the service currently responded to callouts and the timescales they operated to and the proposals in hand for implementing call connect with the tighter timescales involved.

RESOLVED

That the Joint Committee receives regular updates on the implementation of Call Connect.

54 ESTABLISHING LOCAL INFORMATION NETWORKS (LINks)

Dave Shields presented a report on proposals for the establishment of Local Information Networks which had been set out in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill. It was anticipated that LINks would replace Patient and Public Involvement Forums and would move towards greater transparency and integration of health and social care services.

55 MATERNITY SERVICES IN SOUTHEAST HAMPSHIRE

Saskia Kiernan reported that at the recent Maternity Services Joint Committee had received an update on proposals for the review of Maternity Services in southeast Hampshire. Following presentations from Hampshire Primary Care Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust it was resolved that:

The proposals developed for the future provision of maternity services in Portsmouth and South East Hampshire be reported back to the Joint Committee in early June.

The report also include details of the stakeholder engagement undertaken to develop the proposals, the consultation plan and suggested consultees.

The extension of the public consultation period to four months be agreed in principle.

Portsmouth City Teaching Primary Care Trust undertake further public consultation to ensure that the views of patients and the public are sought if the funding for the proposed stand alone unit on Portsea Island cannot be identified without affecting other services.

The local NHS seeks alternative representation from local authorities on the South East Hampshire Maternity Steering Board.

56 MENTAL HEALTH WORKSHOP

David Pryke reported that arrangements had now been made for the Mental Health Workshop to take place at 2pm on Tuesday, 26 June 2007 at The Castle, Winchester.

57 UPDATE FROM LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Southampton

Councillor Drake reported that They had been tracking progress against baseline information on the reduction of health inequalities and had recommended that the Health and Social Wellbeing Partnership together with the broader family of partnerships in Southampton be urged to maintain a strong focus on reducing health inequalities within the wider context of tackling of social exclusion and fairer access to public services. On tackling obesity they had identified the need to analysed date relating to sports' activities in schools and to look at the role of breakfast clubs in schools. In plans for a smoke free city they were ahead of the game in pressing for the Council to adopt a policy preventing employees from smoking at work and in the light of the Health Act 2006 coming into force this year it was keen to highlight details of the legislation and the implications on services both for the City Council and relevant partnerships. Plans of the Southampton City Primary Care Trust to become a Community Foundation Trust would be considered at the next meeting as would the reconfiguration of older people's mental health services in the wider Southampton area and Southampton City Primary Care Trust's long-term conditions strategy.

Portsmouth

Councillor David Stephen Butler reported that the review of the ambulance service was still ongoing, they had considered the proposed closure of Tamarine and referred it to this Committee for scrutiny and that they would be giving consideration as to whether the proposals contained in West Sussex Fit for the Future were substantive.


Hampshire

David Pryke reported that Hampshire had been focusing on the Care at the End of Life Review with the Panel reporting its findings and recommendations to the Committee in January. Hampshire was co-ordinating arrangements for meetings for the South Central Health Overview and Scrutiny Committees . A meeting for the local authorities on Community Hospitals had been arranged for 15 May to be followed by a meeting with the Strategic Health Authority in early June. The County Council, jointly with Hampshire Primary Care Trust, had recently appointed Jean Bradlow as Director of Public Health, the Chairman would be meting with her shortly.


Isle of Wight

On behalf of the Isle of Wight David Pryke reported that The Isle of Wight Council's health scrutiny committee were formulating their health check comments, to be agreed at their formal meeting at the end of the month. Most of the comments had concerned how well the local Primary Care Trust (PCT) communicated with the health scrutiny committee and whether the Council and PCT worked together well, for the good of Island patients.

· Communication from the PCT could be improved: the Chief Executive had regular meetings with Councillor Oulton but there was still the impression that the committee receive only the information that they want us to receive.

· The general consensus has been that the two organisations' joint working has improved over the last year. The Council and PCT had recently signed up to a `memorandum of understanding' which set out a wish of the two organisations to look at more joined-up services, jointly owned buildings, shared back-office functions & more joint posts. The scrutiny committee would be watching how this developed, and hoped it would create financial savings for both organisations, without any detrimental impact on patient care.

The committee were currently carrying out a project on continuing care, particularly focussing on older people. This would identify any improvements to the current process of assessment and provision of continuing care.

In addition to this project, at the last budget announcement back in February, the Isle of Wight Council's leading group decided to give all residents over the age of 80 free home-care. This would be means tested to a degree, but would mean that older people who were asset-rich but cash-poor would now be able to receive free personal care: those people would no longer have to sell their homes to afford the costs of personal care. It was anticipated that an initial 700 people would benefit from the scheme, with more in the future as the percentage of older residents on the Island is predicted to increase.

In addition to the continuing care enquiry the committee were still monitoring the Trust's recovery plan, with the Chief Executive attending in April to discuss this issue. They were predicting a break-even this year, but the committee would be ensuring that this had not been at the cost of patient care.