Meeting documents

People Scrutiny Committee
Monday, 2nd September, 2013 6.30 pm

Place:
(special meeting), Civic Centre, Southend-on-Sea
 

Attendance Details

ItemDescriptionResolution
Part I
233 Apologies and substitutions.
 Apologies for absence were received from Councillor A J Jones (substitute Cllr Habermel), Councillor Grimwade (substitute Cllr Longley), Councillor Day (no substitute) and Mr Rickett (co-opted member).
234 Declarations of interest.
 The following interests were declared at the meeting:

(a) Councillor Courtenay - interest in the pre-Cabinet scrutiny item, attended pursuant to the dispensation agreed at Council on 19th June 2012, under S.33 of the Localism Act 2011;
(b) Councillor Crystall - agenda items relating to - Development of Stroke Services in Essex; SUHSU - non-pecuniary - Council appointed Governor of Southend University NHS Foundation Trust at the Hospital;
(c) Councillor Dr Velmurugan - agenda items relating to Development of Stroke Services in Essex; SUHSU - non-pecuniary - GP and Council appointed Governor of Southend University NHS Foundation Trust at the Hospital;
(d) Councillor Salter - agenda items relating to - Development of Stroke Services in Essex; SUHSU - non-pecuniary - husband is Consultant Vascular Surgeon and Business Unit Director for Surgical Services Southend Hospital;
(e) Councillor Kaye - agenda items relating to - Children's Centre Provision; Development of Stroke Services in Essex; SUHSU - non-pecuniary - Mental Health Act Manager SEPT, Chairman for Hearings; fundraised for Stroke Unit 2002 - 2004;
(f) Councillor A P Jones - agenda item relating to Children's Centre provision - non-pecuniary - is a former user of Children's Centres.
235 Children's Centre Provision
Business for item 235
Resolved:-

The Committee could not endorse either Option A or B at this stage and further detailed information on the following should be provided before a decision is made:

• consider funding Children's Centres from reduced borrowing costs; and
• more detail on how service would be planned and coordinated using satellite service / centres and how the proposals of the Head Teachers was being taken forward.

Note:- This is an Executive Function.
Executive Councillor:- Courtenay
236 Development of Stroke Services in Essex - update on project and consultation
Business for item 236
Resolved:-

1. That Ms Smith, Ms McCarron and Dr Macleod be thanked for the detailed presentation and the Committee welcomed the level of engagement undertaken to date on this project.
2. To note that the Committee intends to submit a formal response to the public consultation document.

Note:- This is a Scrutiny Function
237 Southend University Hospital Stroke Unit
Business for item 237
Resolved:-

That Dr Guyler be thanked for the detailed and impressive presentation on the valuable work of the Stroke Unit.

Note:- This is a Scrutiny Function
18.30 / 21.45

Attendance Details

Present:
Councillor Kaye (Chairman)
Councillors Flewitt (Vice-Chair), Betson, Carr, Dr Caunce, Chalk, Crystall, Habermel*, Hadley, A P Jones, Longley*, D Norman, Morgan, Robertson, Walker and Woodley
Ms Semmence, Mr Keay and Ms Clarke (co-opted members)
(*Substitute in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 31).
In attendance:
Councillors Courtenay and Salter (Executive Councillors)
Councillors Ayling, Gilbert, Godwin and Dr Velmurugan
S Leftley, F Abbott, Dr Atherton, S Hadley and D McAughtrie

Also present: Ms M Craig (NHS Southend CCG), Ms W Smith (Essex Stroke Review), Ms C McCarron (NHS Southend CCG), Dr C Macleod (Essex Stroke Review), Ms J Totterdell (Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust), Dr P Guyler (Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) and Mr J Brown (Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust).

Business

ItemBusiness
235(This is a pre Cabinet Scrutiny item).

The Committee considered a Report by the Corporate Director for People by way of pre Cabinet Scrutiny which presented the findings of the second public consultation on the proposed changes to Hamstel and Temple Sutton Children's Centres. The Chairman explained that this is the opportunity for the Scrutiny Committee to give Cabinet its views on the proposals set out in the Report.

The Council's Head of Children's Services explained that the Report relates to the original proposal for the merger of Temple Sutton and Hamstel Children's Centres and the second consultation in relation to this proposal. The second consultation opened on 18th June 2013 and closed on the 23rd July 2013. The consultation asked respondents to select one of two options - Option A - retaining Temple Sutton Children's Centre or Option B - retaining Hamstel Children's Centre.

The Council's Head of Children's Services explained that, as detailed in Section 5 of the Report, the proposed recommendation by Officers to Cabinet is that the merger of Hamstel and Temple Sutton Children's Centres proceeds. This would mean retaining the Temple Sutton building as the main centre and co-ordinating delivery of services to meet the local need across other venues in the local area (satellite model), in particular progressing discussions on the proposals from the Head Teachers (set out in Appendix 4) and support for continuing to develop the partnership delivery model, which would see the three providers working together across the merged Children Centre areas.

Following the presentation, Members expressed a range of views and asked a significant number of detailed questions. Clarification was provided by the Head of Children's Services on the following matters:
• core offer will be provided and the new service will be delivered differently as there is less funding available (and less spend on infrastructure);
• earlier Reports provided detail on any risks associated with the proposals. The aim is to target those children in the area in greatest need;
• funding for providing Children's Centres will be given to the provider, who will be asked to deliver an offer which can be delivered in the budget envelope. Mention was also made of possible venues to be explored for the satellite centres;
• that the details of the responses to the second consultation are set out in Section 4 of the Report, including the 2 petitions received, also in the Appendices and provided further information;
• explained the level of savings identified in the Council's agreed budget;
• gave an assurance that Hamstel Children's Centre building would be used to house the school's early year's provision which would allow the school to provide class room space within the school for the increasing numbers of local children going to Hamstel Infant school. This is something which was suggested by the Head Teachers;
• gave a guarantee that in the contract will specify the provider will provide services from venues other than Children's Centres and some services will be offered from school site. There is also a great willingness by current providers to work together; and
• confirmed the work already undertaken to target provision and said that it would be a contract requirement to track users.

There was a strong view from several Members that no saving should be applied to this budget and some Members expressed the view that making this saving would have longer term cost implications and that some vulnerable families would be unable, or would choose not to, to continue to access the services they do now.
236On behalf of the Committee, the Chairman welcomed the following to the meeting - Ms Wendy Smith, Chair of the Communications Group, Essex Stroke Review, on behalf of the seven Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG's) in Essex, Southend and Thurrock, Ms Caroline McCarron, Head of Commissioning for NHS Southend CCG and Dr Christine Macleod, Chair of the clinical reference group for the Essex Stroke Review.

They provided an update on the review of stroke services underway across Essex, the rationale for the review and also invited views on the consultation process. The project is aiming for best practice with the creation of 3 hyper-acute stroke units for the county. These are likely to be in Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, Mid Essex Hospital at Chelmsford, Southend University NHS Foundation Trust and the local stroke units will continue. The proposed pathway was also outlined. It is likely that the formal public consultation will start in October / November 2013, if the CCG's in Essex feel the case is strong enough to go forward, with implementation from 2014/15.

Members asked a number of questions on the proposals which were fully responded to at the meeting.
237On behalf of the Committee the Chairman welcomed Dr P Guyler (Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) and Mr J Brown (Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) to the meeting.

The Chairman said that she and Councillor Dr Velmurugan had recently visited the Stroke Unit at the Hospital. They had both found the visit to be extremely interesting, informative and encouraging and were particularly impressed with the MRI scan unit, which makes them very much self supporting in that area.

Dr Guyler gave a detailed presentation on the service, patient outcomes and next steps. He stressed the benefits of the hyper acute stroke unit being based at Southend Hospital, which would be a south Essex service, with Basildon Hospital as the acute stroke unit, the links to vascular surgery services and the urgent need for decisions on the stroke review. Members also asked a number of questions on the proposals which were fully responded to at the meeting.

 

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