To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the last meeting.  

93.1           Members received an update from Councillor Mrs J E Day, the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, on matters discussed at the last meeting of the Committee held on     8 March 2016.

93.2           Councillor Day advised that the Committee had welcomed the Lead Inspector for the Care Quality Commission inspection of the NHS 2gether Trust to the meeting.  The Trust had received an overall rating of ‘good’ and two service areas - acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units and mental health crisis services and health based places of safety – had been rated as ‘outstanding’; ‘2G’ was the only mental health trust in the country to have achieved outstanding ratings in these areas.  The inspection had also identified areas where work was needed to bring the service up to the required standard and in total there were 15 ‘must do’ actions and 58 ‘should do’ actions.  The Committee had congratulated the Trust on the outcome of the inspection and agreed that the ratings indicated that there was a strong leadership and a committed and motivated workforce at the Trust.

93.3           The Committee had received a detailed presentation on sexual health services in Gloucestershire.  Going forward within the context of reduced funding it would be important to ensure that the services were identifying the groups of people most at risk, and targeting resources to those groups.  In terms of adult social care and public health performance, Members had welcomed the fact that performance against targets relating to employment and settled accommodation for people with learning disabilities continued to improve; however, performance against reassessment targets was still struggling. Performance against drug and alcohol targets remained static.  The Committee had been concerned that the adult social care budget continued to be overspent; there was currently a £4.1m overspend. It was explained that there was a possibility that funding previously set aside for the Care Act could be used to mitigate the position but this was not certain.  Members were aware that the social care levy would be factored into the budget for 2016/17 but there was a doubt from some Members as to whether the budget set for this area was realistic.  A significant area of concern going forward was the national shortage of domiciliary care workers. Locally, two providers of domiciliary care had recently chosen to step away from providing this service.

93.4           Demand on the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (GCCG) system continued to be high.  The report showed that there was much good performance across the system, but concerns around cancer, strokes and accident and emergency remained, although it was acknowledged that the GCCG and the Hospitals Trust were working hard to address this.  The important role played by pharmacies in the delivery of healthcare in the county had been a recurrent theme in the feedback from Healthwatch Gloucestershire.  It had been agreed to write to the Secretary of State for Health to question why there was a proposal to cut funding in this area, given the role that pharmacies could play in prevention and delivery.

93.5           The Committee had expressed its concern with regard to the potential negative impact of the proposal for a West Oxfordshire Unitary Council on the health and social care of the residents of Gloucestershire.  Members had heard from both the Council and the GCCG regarding their own concerns which had validated the Committee’s view and a statement had been issued to that effect.

93.6           A Member indicated that he shared the concern about the national shortage of domiciliary care workers and suggested that the introduction of a proper working wage may help to attract new recruits.  He felt Gloucestershire needed a contingency plan to ensure that people continued to be looked after correctly, particularly as Government advisors were now suggesting that in-house care was preferable to care homes.  The Chair indicated that he also sat on the Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee and it was fair to say that recruitment into any stream of care was difficult and this situation was not unique to Gloucestershire.

93.7           The Chair thanked the Council’s representative for her presentation and indicated that the update would be circulated to Members via email following the meeting.  It was

RESOLVED          That the feedback from the last meeting of the Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee be NOTED.