Agenda and minutes

The Chair introduced Members and officers to the meeting

Councillors Chowdhury, Ismail and Safi Ngogo

None

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

 (b)Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out

  duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

 (c)Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body

 in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

 (d)Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

 (e)Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

 (f)Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have

  a beneficial interest.

 (g)Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

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The Chair stated that the order of business would be as per the agenda

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 19 July 2016 be confirmed as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them

The Chair will update the Committee on recent events.

None

The Chair outlined the procedure for Public questions and filming and recording of meetings

None

Peter Rhodes of the London Ambulance Service, was present for discussion of this report and during discussion the following main points were made –

·         Following the CQC inspection which placed the LAS in special measures work had  been taking place to address areas of concern and it is hoped that when the LAS is reinspected in December/January it would come out of special measures

·         The workforce is now fully staffed and an additional 717 frontline staff have been recruited in 2015/16

·         In response to a question the LAS stated that they did not envisage the Brexit vote having too much of an impact on recruitment and retention

·         The attrition rate of staff is roughly 10/20 per month which is good in a workforce of over 3000 staff

·         Staff appraisals were taking place and there would be reviews during the year

·         As part of the Quality Improvement Programme a review of the mental health act guidance is being issued to staff to ensure it is well understood. Training is also being strengthened to provide staff on the Mental Capacity Act and put in place a network for staff to ensure that they are confident in carrying out mental capacity assessments, and are able to seek guidance when require. In 2016/17 there will be a specific  focus on the guidance associated with S136 in partnerships with the Police to ensure protocols and policies will be consistent and that calls will be appropriately triaged to enable a timely, safe and effective response

·         In response to a question it was stated that the LAS were working hard to deliver a 35 working day response to complaints

·         Work is going on with the CCG to look at data in relation to alcohol related calls

·         Members stated that the next report submitted on performance to the Committee should include details of the experiences of front line staff working for the LAS and that a member of staff should attend the meeting

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and the next time the performance report is submitted a front line member of staff be invited to attend

The Chair thanked Peter Rhodes for attending

Elaine Oxley, Head of Safeguarding, Housing and Adult Social Services Department was present and gave apologies for the Chair of the Safeguarding Board, Marion Harrington, as she was unable to be present at the meeting that evening. Members were informed that the Chair of the Safeguarding Board was standing down and Members stated that they wished to place on record their appreciation of her work.

During discussion of the report the following main points were made –

·         Work is taking place on the issues of social isolation for carers and the stress involved in such isolation

·         Reports of concerns on safeguarding had risen by 26% on the previous year but this did not mean that more abuse took place only that more concerns were reported. This may be due to people being made aware about the need to report abuse and neglect of adults

·         More than half of all cases of abuse and neglect take place in the adults own home. The three most common types of abuse of safeguarding enquiries were physical abuse, financial abuse and neglect

·          In the previous 12 months  an additional 12 in house BIA’s have been recruited and trained. This reduces the reliance on independent BIA’s and reduces costs. Excellent working relationships have been developed with the best independent BIA’s and Mental Health assessors who now prioritise referrals from Islington 

·         Regular multi-agency RADAR meetings to track trends and concerns about care providers in Islington. RADAR meetings are proving to be an effective way of monitoring how care providers are working to address concerns and improve standards and if problems are found support and an improvement plan is put in place

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and the Committee record their thanks to Marion Harrington, outgoing Chair of the Safeguarding Board for her work

Jill Britten, Islington CCG was present and made a presentation to the Committee, copy interleaved, during which the following main points were made -

·         The list of witnesses should include patients and their representatives

·         In the objectives of the review awareness of the service should be included

·         There should be demographics of those using the service included in the type of evidence to be assessed and additional patient outcomes measured and accessibility to the service

·         Discussion took place in relation to getting people to an initial appointment and that this was a challenge

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the above amendments, the SID  be approved

The draft scrutiny review had been circulated and during discussion the following main points were made –

·         Councillor Heather stated that he had some proposed amendments to the report and that he would notify these to the Chair and Democratic Services for consideration following the meeting

·         The Chair stated that he would redraft the recommendations following comments and circulate them for consideration to Members of the Committee

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the following amendments –

Recommendation 1 – add the words ‘can evidence related health issues’ in line 2 and include reference to Partners, RSL’s and private landlords

Recommendation 5 – Delete the word ‘lifestyle’ and insert the words’ Building Fabric’ in heading

And add the words in line 2, ‘cold bridging, lack of insulation and any other building fabric issues’

Recommendation 7 – delete the word ‘database’ and insert the words ‘share information’

Recommendation 8 – add the word ‘internal’ following the word’external’ and add the words ‘RSL’s, Partners’ in line 1 following the word ‘Council’

Add additional recommendation – ‘Public Health and Environmental Health are to work with the CCG to disseminate information to GP’s on the extent and issues with damp properties and their perceived interaction with health issues, and to request GP’s to return data to the CCG when they are seen by patients with health issues that appear to be living in a damp property’

the scrutiny report be agreed and forwarded to the Executive for consideration