Agenda item

To receive a report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development on potential sources of work for the Scrutiny Board.

The Head of Scrutiny and Member Development submitted a report on potential sources of work and areas of priority within the Board’s Terms of Reference.

The Principal Scrutiny Adviser gave a brief introduction to the report and highlighted the following information appended to the report:

-  Vision for Scrutiny at Leeds – Appendix 1

-  Summary Best Council Plan 2015-20 (2015-16 update) – Appendix 2

-  Leeds Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2013-2015 (summary) – Appendix 3

-  Public Health England: Leeds’ Adult Social Care Profile – Appendix 4

-  Public Health England: Leeds’ Health Profile 2015 – Appendix 5

-  NHS Five Year Forward View (October 2014) – Appendix 6

The following representatives were in attendance to discuss the Board’s future work programme and responded to Members’ queries and comments:

-  Councillor Lisa Mulherin (Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adults)

-  Dr Ian Cameron (Director of Public Health)

-  Phil Corrigan (Chief Officer, NHS Leeds West CCG)

-  Matt Ward (Chief Operating Officer, NHS Leeds South and East CCG)

-  Jill Copeland (Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive) – Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

-  Dr John Beal – HealthWatch Leeds.

The Director of Public Health, advised the Scrutiny Board of a recent Treasury announcement that would see Public Health funding reduced by approximately £200M across England for 2015/16 (the current year): Equating to around £3M for Leeds.

The Director of Public Health and Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adults advised the precise details had not yet been confirmed, however there was likely to be a significant impact on the Council’s ‘prevention agenda’.  It was confirmed that a Department of Health consultation was anticipated in the near future – likely to focus on how the decision could be implemented.

A range of other topic areas where highlighted and discussed by the Scrutiny Board, including:

·  Work of the Children’s and Adult’s Safeguarding Boards.

·  Development of co-commissioning arrangements for Specialised Services.

·  Air Quality.

·  Primary Care Access – with a potential focus on access for vulnerable groups, including the learning disabled and those suffering mental ill-health.

·  Service integration and joint health and social care teams.

·  Parity of Esteem between services for adults and services for children, but also between physical and mental health.

·  Workforce planning across the local health and social care system.

The Chair addressed the Scrutiny Board and, in recognising the potential scope and remit of the Board, put forward the following principles in order to try and establish a balanced work programme:

·  A desire to consider each of the three distinctive elements of the Board’s remit – i.e. Adult Social Services, Public Health and the NHS.

·  Utilising the Board’s capacity to undertake a mixture of in-depth inquiries and some shorter, more precise areas of work.

·  Maintaining a flexible approach.

·  Ensuring the Scrutiny Board has access to high quality information.

In summary, the Chair proposed the following areas of focus for the Scrutiny Board:

In-depth inquiry areas

·  Air Quality across the City

·  Integrated Health and Social Care Teams (to include some consideration on the impact of hospital re-admission rates)

·  Primary Care, focusing on:

-  Access to GPs / dentists

-  Workforce planning

-  Future plans for primary care – taking account of the City’s ambitions to build significant levels of new homes

-  Some aspects of health inequalities.

Other items

·  Cancer wait times

·  Key Performance Indicators

·  Co-commissioning (including specialised services)

·  Issues for the previous year (for example, follow up on recommendations, CQC inspections, maternity strategy, oral health strategy, epilepsy)

·  Third sector involvement / relationships.

RESOLVED –

(a)  That, in consultation with the relevant Directors and Executive Board Member regarding resources, some of the areas considered at the meeting be incorporated into the Board’s work schedule for the 2015/16 municipal year.

(b)  That authority be given to the Chair of the Scrutiny Board (Adult Social Services, Public Health, NHS), in conjunction with officers, to draw up a draft work programme and where necessary draft terms of reference for inquiry for subsequent approval by the Scrutiny Board.