Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 3rd March 2015.

The minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 3rd March 2015 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive from Members declarations as to disclosable pecuniary and other interests in relation to any Agenda Item.

There were no declarations of interest received from those Members that were present.

A copy of the current Notice of Key Executive Decisions, which was published on 20th March 2015, is attached. Members are invited to note the Plan and to comment as appropriate on any items contained therein.

The Panel received and noted the current Notice of Key Executive Decisions (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) which had been prepared by the Executive Leader for the period 1st April 2015 to 31st July 2015.

It was noted that a report on the Customer Services Strategy would be presented to the Panel’s meeting in June and the Annual Report on the Home Improvement Agency would be presented to the Panel’s meeting in July.

Ruth Rogers, Chair of Healthwatch Cambridgeshire, will present and update on Healthwatch’s activities in Cambridgeshire.

The Chairman welcomed Ruth Rogers, Chairman of Healthwatch Cambridgeshire, to the meeting who proceeded to address the Panel to provide an update on its activities.

The Panel had previously received a presentation two years ago when Healthwatch Cambridgeshire had recently been inaugurated and was without a full complement of staff. 

As a background it was explained that the role of Healthwatch Cambridgeshire was to ensure public voices were heard in all aspects of health and social care and was a not for profit organisation.

HealthwatchCambridgeshire encompassed the whole of Cambridgeshire and had played a significant role prior to the Care Quality Commission audit of Hinchingbrooke Hospital.  It was explained that Healthwatch Cambridgeshire had facilitated public comments and complaints regarding Hinchingbrooke Hospital.  These had included many positive views as well as negative. Overall a balanced view about the hospital and what could be improved had been received.

The Chairman of Healthwatch had attended a meeting with the new Chairman and the two new Non-Executive Members for Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust and had felt a strong commitment from the Board.  It was noted that more Non-Executive Members were to be recruited.

Mental Health Services was listed on the Panel’s activities and it was noted that this service was problematic within Cambridgeshire.  A local charity called ‘Pinpoint’ had assisted with the collection of evidence regarding problems faced by parents in the diagnosis and provision of care, especially for children with additional needs and disabilities. Healthwatch Cambridgeshire had been able to escalate these issues to Healthwatch England for national recognition.

Accessing GP appointments was a growing issue and it was NHS England that was the responsible authority for this matter.  A lack of funding was a key issue in addressing this problem.  When the GP surgery in Cambourne had been established funding was accessible that allowed the surgery to open before it had the required number of patients.  However, this funding was no longer available. 

Healthwatch Cambridgeshire encouraged people to contact them with any concerns, compliments or complaints they had regarding health and social care. District Councillors played an important role as they received contributions from constituents.

In response to questions regarding accident and emergency hospital admissions it was explained that many and varied conditions arrived for treatment at accident and emergency departments.  UnitingCare Partnership had been selected by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) to improve older people’s healthcare and those with lifelong conditions.  Often cross boundary issues meant that the care provided was variable. A new system was introduced on 1 April 2015 whereby 18 neighbourhood teams had been established consisting of multi-disciplinary individuals with the intention of preventing such issues and avoiding hospital admissions.

Healthwatch Cambridgeshire had not undertaken any formal analysis to assess the correlation between obtaining a GP appointment and accident and emergency attendances as there had been other studies done on the matter. It was acknowledged that difficulties in accessing GP appointments was impacting on accident and emergency attendance figures and it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103.

Laura Hunt, Chief Inspector – Cambridgeshire Constabulary, will present to the Panel on closer working between the Police and Councillors.

The Panel received a presentation from Chief Inspector Laura Hunt, who was accompanied to the meeting by Detective Sergeant Ian Moore, to inform the Panel on:

•  Policing Priorities;

•  Vision within Huntingdonshire for 2015/16;

•  Control Strategy Priorities;

•  Similarities between the Community Safety Priorities and Huntingdonshire District Council Corporate Plan.

It was reported that the priorities for Huntingdonshire Police, alongside its neighbourhood policing activities, were:

•  Responding to local concerns - understanding our communities and managing risk within them;

•  Investigating crime and protecting the vulnerable - protecting those who will be hurt, or hurt again, if we don’t take action;

•  Staff professionalism - supporting, developing and rewarding ‘our people’ to deliver Policing Priorities; and

•  Keeping people safe in their communities.

An explanation was provided on how the priorities were being achieved.  There was now less focus on numbers and more on value-based outcomes.  The way in which crime data was recorded had changed which had affected the statistics in some Police forces.  The changes had resulted in a slight reduction in overall crime in Huntingdonshire which demonstrated that the force had previously been recording crime data accurately.

The Huntingdonshire Police Vision for 2015/16 was to be supporting, empowering and belonging. Putting the person atthe heart of all that the Police do and aiming for a seamless service.

Special Constables were slowly being recruited and those that had completed the required number of hours each month, along with Police Community Support Officers, were issued with handheld devices to reduce the need to work out of the station and therefore create a greater street presence.

It was explained that the Police previously had control strategy priorities such as dwelling burglaries and anti-social behaviour. These were still a priority but the following were now significant emerging issues: 

•  Cyber-crime;

•  Modern-day slavery; and

•  Child sexual exploitation.

It was reported that there was an intelligence gap in addressing the above priorities.  Reference was made to the human trafficking case - Operation Endeavour by Fenland Police. 

It was further reported that there was evidence in Huntingdonshire of modern-day slavery and by working in partnership with various organisations and gathering intelligence the Police would be able to address the problem earlier.  For example a dwelling generating more waste than was appropriate to the size of the premises could identify a house of multiple occupancy.

To address street drinking in Huntingdon Town Centre the Police had worked in partnership with the District Council to introduce a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) for the town centre. Street drinking was an issue in Oxmoor particularly in the summer months and the reasons for this needed to be explored as it could be an indication of hot-bedding, whereby the individual was unable to go to their place of residence until a set time.

Huntingdonshire had already experienced an issue with child sexual exploitation via an Albanian owned hand car wash establishment in St Neots.  Children were incited to work for individuals  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

To consider the work programmes of the Economic and Environmental Well-Being Overview and Scrutiny Panels.

The Panel received and noted a report (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) which contained details of studies being undertaken by the Overview and Scrutiny Panels for Economic Well-Being and Environmental Well-Being.

To consider a report on progress of the Panel’s activities.

With the aid of a report (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Panel reviewed the progress of its activities since the last meeting.

Referring to the Redesign of Mental Health services the Chairman noted that a Children’s Mental Health Team Representative was to be invited to attend a future Panel Meeting either in June or July 2015.

Councillor Fuller provided an update regarding the Affordable Housing Working Group. It was reported that there was a considerable amount of information that the Group was still attempting to digest, such as affordable housing in terms of this authority particularly as the Local Plan contained affordable housing figures which the Working Group had been informed would never be achieved.  The Elphicke-House report contained good suggestions and the Working Group had requested the Head of Development report on how it related to the authority.  Community Land Trusts (CLTs) had been discounted and there was no desire for the authority to invest in affordable housing as it would be better to use its finances elsewhere.  The Affordable Housing Working Group would like a representative from each of the Panels to sit on the Affordable Housing Working Group as it had a wider remit than the Social Well-Being Panel.

Following discussions, given the imminent submission date of the Local Plan it was agreed that a meeting would be arranged with the Affordable Housing Working Group, the Managing Director, the Executive Councillor (Strategic Planning and Housing) and the Leader in order to progress the matter including the inclusion of recommendations for the Local Plan and to inform any refresh of the housing strategy.

To scrutinise decisions taken since the last meeting as set out in the Decision Digest and to raise any other matters for scrutiny that sit within the remit of the Panel.

The 154th Edition of the Decision Digest was received and noted.