Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Kim Snape and Beverley Murray Executive Member for People.

To confirm the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Panel meeting held on 26 September 2013 (enclosed)

a)            Confirmation

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Panel meeting held on 26 September 2013 be confirmed as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

b)            Matters arising

12.OSP.41 Scrutiny Focus – Customer Dissatisfaction

An update of the My Ward system was requested.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of any interests.

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed)

The Panel received a report of the Chief Executive on the performance of the Chorley Partnership during the second quarter of 2013/14, from 1 July to 30 September.

The report presented the priorities of the partnership groups and how successfully they had been delivering against those priorities, providing some contextual information on the work that had been delivered and what impact and outcomes had been achieved.

Overall progress was excellent and of the 18 priorities identified across the Partnership, fifteen were rated as greed, one was rated as amber and two had not started.

Members had a number of questions in relation to the following:

Further information was sought on the potential pilot scheme that the Chorley Partnership Executive had agreed to undertake, looking at information sharing around vulnerable people in conjunction with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, the provision of the new meals on wheels service that is currently being trialled in the Western Parishes neighbourhood area and the Warm Homes Healthy People Programme that has been developed for the Winter with funding from Lancashire County Council.

With the slow progress and lack of regular updates regarding the Friday Street Health Centre the Panel requested that the Chair and Vice Chair meet with the relevant partners to discuss this in more detail and requested that officers make the necessary arrangements.

Further information was sought on what action, other than promotion, the Partnership was undertaking to reduce the statistics for Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI’s) and an update report on domestic violence, reporting verses detection was requested for the next meeting of the Panel.

Members requested further details on what proportion of activities related to sport in the programme of activities that had been developed for children across the borough.

Members were concerned that there seemed to be a lot of decommissioning of services aimed at young carers. Members were unsure of the reporting channels that were established to be able to voice these concerns and asked if more information could be made readily available.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed)

The Panel received a report of the Chief Executive that set out the performance against the delivery of the Corporate Strategy and key performance indicators during the second quarter of 2013/14, 1 July to 30 September.

The overall performance of key projects was excellent, with the majority of projects, either complete, on track, or scheduled to start in quarter 3. Only one project, to develop a youth ambassador scheme, had been rated as amber due to issues relating to timescales in delivering initial actions; however work was now underway to bring the project back on track.

Members asked if further consideration could be given to the methods available for young people to apply to become a young ambassador as it was important to realise that not everybody had internet access.

Performance of the Corporate Strategy and key service measures remained strong, with 73% of the Corporate Strategy measures and 71% of the key service measures performing above target.

Those measures that were performing below target, the percentage of 16-18 year olds who are not in education, employment of training (NEETS), the percentage of domestic violence detections and the percentage of customers dissatisfied with the way they are treated by the Council, now had action plans that had been developed to improve performance.

The key service delivery measures that were performing below target included the time taken to process Housing benefit/Council Tax benefit new claims and change events and the Panel asked for a more detailed breakdown to be provided.

Members discussed in further detail, a number of items contained within the report and requested additional information on the number of long term empty properties in the borough and what enforceable action could be taken if any.

Councillor Marion Lowe left the meeting at 7.40pm.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed)

The Executive Member for People will be attending the meeting.

The Chief Executive provided a report that provided contextual information and initial questions of the Panel on performance relating to health and wellbeing.

The Public Health Observatories under Pubic Health England publish local health profiles which show how health in Chorley compares with the rest of England across a number of indicators.

The profile indicates that the health of the people of Chorley is varied compared with the England average. Deprivation is lower than average and all-cause mortality rates had fallen over the last ten years, as have deaths from cancer and heart disease. The rate of adult physical activity is also better than the England average.

However, Chorley performs lower than the England average for a number of indicators that include, smoking in pregnancy, starting breast feeding, hospital stays for self-harm, people diagnose with diabetes and hip fractures in over 65’s.

This type of information (including the Chorley and South Ribble Joint Strategic Needs Assessment) had been used to inform Chorley and South Ribble Health and wellbeing Plans which take a holistic approach to issues through early intervention and prevention measures.

The Chorley and South Ribble Health and Wellbeing Partnership had been operational for over 18 months and form the key mechanism to communicate and convey local health priorities to the Lancashire Health and wellbeing Board who take overall responsibility for improving health outcomes across the county under the new public health arrangements.

The Chorley and South Ribble Health and Wellbeing Plan identify 3 core priorities of, accessibility, independence and activity. A number of actions support these priorities with progress regularly reported at meetings of the Health and Wellbeing Partnership. Performance of the plan was monitored by the Chorley Partnership on a quarterly basis with the most recent reports showing excellent performance and all priorities rated green.

The indicative commissioning budget for Chorley and South Ribble CCG for 2012/13 was £224,416,000. An estimated baseline for the public health grant had been published by the Department of Health and had been based on public health spending during 2010/11. The estimated baseline for Lancashire is £45,891,000 which equates to £37 per person, based on historic need.

The Head of Health, Environment and Neighbourhoods reported that to be able to create a number of early intervention initiatives, an analysis of the ward and Lancashire public health indicator averages needed to be undertaken to produce the relevant targets in the required areas. Although it was sometimes difficult to assess where the intervention need was required as the relevant statistics were presently not measured, for example, what were the main causes of people over 65 needing a hip replacement. It was also intended that the Board would piggy back on a number of Lancashire based programmes to try to extend on services with limited resources.

Members thought that more needed to be done regarding mental health and asked for further information to be provided on the number of initiatives that were currently being undertaken in this area.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.OSP.48