Agenda item

To consider a report of the Head of Scrutiny on Member Development on the Board’s inquiry into consultation.

Appended to the report will be two papers for the Board to consider:-

(a)  Input from Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)  

(b)  Input from Leeds Involving People.

Further to minute 19 of the Board’s meeting held on 21^st September which detailed the Board’s first session on its Inquiry into Consultation, the Board undertook its second session

The Board considered a report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development and a report from NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds on consultation and patient involvement.  Appended to the reports was information from the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs); Leeds Involving People – a user-led charity which championed the voice of service users and carers and an NHS Confederation discussion paper of October 2011 entitled Patient and public engagement in the new commissioning system

Attending for this item were the following:

• Matt Neligan – Executive Director Commissioning Development – NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds
• Dr Andy Harris – Leeds South and East CCG (Leodis)
• Dr Jason Broch – Leeds North CCG (Calibre)
• Dr Gordon Sinclair – Leeds West CCG (H3Plus)
• Barry Naylor – Chair Leeds Involving People
• Jagdeep Passan – Chief Executive – Leeds Involving People
• Tim McSharry – Management Committee – Leeds Involving People
• Joseph Alerdice – Involvement and Development Officer – Leeds Involving People

Joy Fisher declared a personal interest through being a member of the Alliance of Service Experts which was served by Leeds Involving People which were making a presentation to the Board and through knowing many of the people present for this item

The Board heard first from the Executive Director (Commissioning Development) and the CCG representatives, receiving information on:

• the changeover process for responsibilities shifting from the PCTs to the CCGs, including an outline of the authorisation process.  It was outlined that CCGs would become formal sub-committees of the PCT and that shadow arrangements would be in place from April 2012, in preparation for CCGs taking over responsibility from April 2013
• the three CCGs, the geographical areas covered, including population and number of GP practices
• the work undertaken by each of the CCGs in respect of patient and public involvement and the importance of this under the proposed NHS reforms
• the on-going feedback and dialogue that CCGs and the constituent GPs had through daily contact with patients.  The invaluable resource this provided was also discussed

The Board questioned the CCG representatives, with the key points of

discussion being:

• data quality
• the difficulties of setting up and maintaining community groups especially in deprived areas; that multi-issue consultation and engagement was encouraged and the need to work with partners to achieve this
• the importance of retaining and using existing resources, groups and networks
• that adequate time be allowed for consultation
• the variations between the CCGs priorities and the potential impact this may have across the City
• the importance of benchmarking and independently auditing consultations
• the timescales for achieving the required level of meaningful engagement with patients, carers and communities, as part of the authorisation process
• geography – including how cross-boundary issues would be addressed, with some parts of the city split geographically and where other areas bordered different local authority/CCG areas

The Chair stated that once the Inquiry into consultation had concluded, a Scrutiny Inquiry Report would be produced and was likely to include details of what was expected when consulting, with a set of minimum standards.  Mr Neligan welcomed the proposed report and stated that any recommendations would be a key part of how the CCGs in Leeds carried out their involvement and engagement processes

The Board then heard from representatives of Leeds Involving People.  Details of the work carried out by the organisation and a copy of their latest newsletter were presented for Members’ information

The key points presented to the Board were:

• the definition of consultation and its role in involving people
• the amount of consultation being carried out and the importance of ensuring this remained manageable in order to keep people fully engaged
• the importance of feedback to participants following the conclusion of any consultation and associated decisions
• partnership working to obtain better outcomes from consultation and the  economic efficiencies of good consultation
• that consultation should be people driven, with accessibility and inclusiveness being core elements
• the need to recognise when evaluating consultation that the number of returned surveys was not necessarily evidence of qualitative consultation and that surveys alone did not necessarily represent a good form of consultation
• that ‘making reference to’ or enabling people to ‘comment on’ issues was not involvement
• the benefits of successful consultation and involvement both to large organisations such as the Council and NHS and to groups and individuals and equally the problems which occurred following bad consultation and poor involvement
• that Leeds Involving People was an active Service-User led organisation which was constantly evolving and taking on board modern methods of involvement and could be viewed as a critical friend

The Chair thanked the Leeds Involving People representatives for their

comprehensive and informative presentation

RESOLVED -  To note the information provided and the comments now made and that the evidence gathered by the Board would be drawn up into a draft report for consideration at the February Board meeting