Agenda item

A draft of the  proposed reviews and their Terms of Reference is attached.

8.1  The chair recommended a one day Public Health commission considering how this function has been integrated into the work of the council, covering what has been done, where the council is going and Public Health priorities. The committee supported this and there was agreement that moving the Public Health function to the council from the NHS was one of the positive outcomes of the Health & Social Care Act 2012. There was concern that a day’s scrutiny would be challenging for members in full time work but the committee indicated that if a date was agreed in advance this could work well. The Director of Public Health suggested that the scope includes Lambeth Council and the chair supported this, with the proviso that Lambeth scrutiny would find this useful.

8.2  The chair then moved on to the proposal for a review into the Ethical Care Charter, however she said that she has received assurances that this is being progressed so rather than a full scrutiny she recommended that this be dealt with as an agenda item, and this was agreed.

8.3  The vice chair suggested an alternative review into Personalisation with a focus on Safeguarding. He spoke about some of the problems experienced by people seeking personal budgets, which included the time taken to conduct the review by social workers, the issues and difficulties individuals with a personal budget found in appointing carers; particularly in assessing suitability and safeguarding risk. A member, Cllr Kath Whittam, declared an interested and commented that her daughter is 16 and now potentially could be in charge of her own budget, She remarked that this is quite a daunting task. There was a discussion on the framing of the review with suggestions that the review consider providers and the e-portal. Another member recommended looking at the process; some people have complained that it has taken two years to get a budget.

8.4  The chair moved to the last proposed review on Healthy Communities  and recommended that this now looks at the Health of the Borough and conducted thematically concentrating on Finance, Food, Physical activity & travel and Anti-social behaviour. She said that she wanted to involve the Youth Council and consult people in the community by visiting high streets. The project manager suggested also utilising community councils to engage the public. There was a discussion about the scope of the review and the limitations of the council’s powers - leisure services are certainly with the councils remit whereas the scope to influence other services and business is less clear. The Director of Public Health commented that if actions are justified through evidence then there is more scope to find powers and process.

RESOLVED

There will be three reviews:

1. Public Health, using ‘scrutiny in a day’ methodology.

2. ‘Health of the Borough’, looking at four themes: community safety, financial health, physical health & environmental health.

3. Personalisation.