Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

To note the minutes of the meeting of the Equality Forum held on 28 July 2016 (enclosed).

AGREED – That the minutes of the meeting of the Equality Forum held on 28 July 2016 be noted.

Matters arising

It was acknowledged that Yvonne Curwen and Brian Curwen (Find Your Feet/Walking for Health) and Marel Urry (Hoghton Parish Council) had attended the meeting.  However, their attendance had not been recorded in the minutes.

Karen Shorrocks and Tanya Edgar from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals will present this item.

The purpose of the item?

To share information with people and to ask their opinions. We will be telling people what is happening locally so that people can come to events or contact us to speak with us about local health and care services.

What do you want from the Equality members?

Their ideas and viewpoints on local health and care services and how they can be improved. We will be sharing ideas that have come up over the past few months and will be listening to the equality forum members.

What will you do with information you review from the Forum?

We will listen to everybody and write their views down. Then we will put them into a report for clinicians and other leaders, they will think about the ideas and views of the equality forum to make sure that services are improved in the best way possible.

To view the website click on the following link –

http://www.ourhealthourcarecl.nhs.uk/

The Chair welcomed representatives from Our Health Our Care programme to the meeting.

Karen Shorrocks delivered a presentation, during which, members of the Forum were informed that the way in which health and care services were organised and provided would be changing.  It was intended that local people were able to access the care they need, when they need it, in the most appropriate setting and be better able to stay well.

The programme was being delivered by lead partners from:

·        NHS Chorley and South Ribble Clinical Commissioning Group

·        NHS Greater Preston Clinical Commissioning Group

·        Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

·        Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, and

·        Lancashire Country Council

The cost of delivering services had increased for a number of reasons, including the provision of more specialist care, funding the latest drugs and keeping up with technological advances.  Although costs were increasing the budget was not rising at the same rate.  It was therefore essential to review how health care was being delivered to continue to prioritise the quality and safety of services.

Our Health Our Care had held a series of public consultation events between September and December 2016, to find out what local people felt was important to them, and what changes could local care providers change to achieve this goal.

A second round of consultation was planned, which included two ‘Our say events’ at both Chorley and South Ribble councils, the details of which can be found below:

·        Thursday, 9 March 2017 in The Lancastrian, Town Hall, Market Street, Chorley:

-     afternoon session from 2pm until 4pm 

-     evening session from 6pm until 8pm 

·        Monday, 13 March at the Civic Centre, West Paddock, Leyland:

-     afternoon session from 2pm until 4pm

-     Evening session from 6pm until 8pm

In response to a show of hands, approximately 50% of members attending the Forum meeting had already been aware of the consultation taking place.  The Our Health Our Care representatives were pleased that local people were aware of the consultation.  However, it was important that as many people as possible were made aware of the consultation and that members of the Forum were encouraged to get involved. 

More information and an explanation of how to get involved can be found on the Our Health Our Care website at www.ourhealthourcarecl.nhs.uk or email ohoc.enquiries@nhs.net

On behalf of the Forum, the Chair thanked Karen and her colleagues for the presentation and their attendance at the Forum.

To view the presentation click here.

Marc Levey, North West External Affairs Manager of The Jewish Leadership Council will attend the meeting, and give a presentation on the work, and involvement of the Council around the Jewish community and on work that is happening locally.

The Chair welcomed Marc Levy from The Jewish Leadership Council delivered a presentation on the work and involvement of Leadership Council in Greater Manchester.

Like other minority groups, Jewish people were subject to various forms of abuse and hate crime.  The Jewish Leadership Council was there to give help and support to those people who were victimised because of their religion as well as helping with main stream issues such as social care, housing etc.

Marc advised the Forum that there were only 20 to 30 residents in Chorley who identified themselves as being Jewish (according to the figures from the 2011 national Census).  The Chair sought Marc’s assistance in regards to their contact information so that they could be invited to engage in the Forum.

On behalf of the Forum, the Chair thanked Marc for his presentation and attending the meeting.

Martin Sample, Housing Team Leader (Private Sector), Chorley Council will be presenting this item.

What it the purpose of this item

The Council is consulting on its revised Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy. Equality Forum members' views are sought on the key changes which are being recommended.

Further details are provided in the summary policy document and will be discussed further via a presentation at the Equality Forum on 13 February 2017.

The Chair welcomed to the Forum Martin Sample, Housing Team Leader (Private Sector) who delivered a presentation on the revised Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy which was ‘out’ for public consultation.

Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG); was to provide funding to help disabled residents to make adaptations to their home which promoted independence.  An occupational therapist assessed clinical need and applications were subject to a financial assessment to confirm eligibility.  Mandatory maximum per applicant was £30,000.  However, it was being recommended in Chorley, to increase this by a further £10,000 subject to budget availability to make the scheme as flexible and accessible as possible.

Chorley Adaption Grant (CAG); in support of maintaining independence at home and avoiding costly hospital stays, funding had increased from £370,000 in 2015/16 to £614,000 in 2016/17.  This grant would be a non-means tested adaption (subject of an occupational therapy assessment).  The grant would be used if the required work was one of either a wet room shower, stair-lift, through floor lift, ceiling track hoist or wash-dry toilet.  Other adaptions could be considered in exceptional circumstances for adaptions not usually available under DFG.

Integrated Home Improvement Services (IHIS); which covered two key services.

1.   Handyperson - which is free subject to eligibility and,

2.   Minor Adaptions - customers are assessed by an occupational therapist.  Those qualifying for this service will be able to have minor adaptions to their home such as banister rails, external metal rails, and adjustments to external steps.

Key recommendations proposed:

·        Flexible use of adaptations budget including introduction of Chorley Adaption Grant (CAG) from April 2017.

·        Increase DFG maximum grant from £30,000 up to £40,000 in exceptional circumstances

·        Introduce a 10% fee (to be added to the applicant’s grant award) for each DFG and CAG case approved from April 2017.  The funds generated would be used to either reinvest in the service or taken as a contribution to general balances.

The consultation started on 1 February and would expire on 6 March.  Comments for the consultation can be either emailed to housing.repairs@chorley.gov.uk, or submitted in writing to Home Improvement Agency (HIA) team, Civic Offices, Union Street, Chorley, PR7 1AL.

A full report was available on request via the following website https://democracy.chorley.gov.uk/documents/s71205/Report.pdf.

Any significant changes to the revised policy would be brought back to the Executive Cabinet meeting on 16 March 2017.

To view the presentation click here.

The next meeting of the Equality Forum will be held on 13 July 2017 at 6.30pm in the Lancastrian Room, Town Hall, Chorley.

Future meetings of the Equality Forum will be held on the following dates:

·        19 October 2017

·        8 February 2018

All meetings will commence at 6.30pm and be held in the Lancastrian Room, Town Hall, Chorley unless otherwise stated on the agenda.

Members of the Forum noted that the dates of future meetings:

·        13 July 2017

·        19 October 2017

·        8 February 2018

All meetings to commence at 6.30pm and be held in The Lancastrian Room, Town Hall, Market Street, Chorley, unless otherwise stated on the agenda.

The following items of urgent business were accepted by the Chair:

·        Denise Wilkinson representing the Visual Impairment People’s Forum for the Lancashire area attending the meeting to give notice of a one day event being planned in May 2017, subject to venue availability the aim of which was to bring key organisations representing the blind, together. 

·        Yasmin Patel, Chair of the Asians Women’s Forum advised that a project was being set up to target young Asian girls, who no longer attended school, to educate them about the dangers of social media. 

The Chair thanked both Denise and Yasmin for brining both matters to the Forum’s attention.