Agenda item

“Is enough being done to tackle the Occupational Therapy Waiting List in Huntingdonshire?”

Representatives from relevant organisations to attend.

By reference to a powerpoint presentation, a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book, Councillor K J Churchill, Executive Councillor for Housing and Public Health opened the Council debate on –

  “Is enough being done to tackle the occupational therapy waiting list in Huntingdonshire?”

In his opening remarks, Councillor Churchill introduced Ms Rachel Harrison, Head of Contracts, NHS Cambridgeshire and Mr Matthew Winn, Chief Executive of Community Services who also gave presentations to the Council (copies of the speakers’ presentations also are appended in the Minute Book).

Councillor R W J Eaton opened the debate by stating that occupational therapy provision was integral to social services and that the current system was failing a number of people.

Councillor G S E Thorpe added that without the assistance offered by hand held bars and rails, many elderly people were unable to bath, shower or access their homes without difficulty and that an eighteen month waiting list for such basic facilities was unsatisfactory.  Having referred to a particular case, Councillor Thorpe contrasted the response he had received to a request for help from the RAF Benevolent Fund to that of Cambridgeshire Direct and had been disappointed that an assessment undertaken by the Fund had not been acceptable to Cambridgeshire Direct thus leading to further delays.  He also suggested that work to fit handrails had been poorly undertaken and that it had taken nine months to achieve a response to the problem from Social Services.

As a District Council representative on the County Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Mrs M Banerjee indicated that she was aware of the problems around the OT process which were not helped by County Social Services’ refusal to accept OT assessments undertaken by the NHS or private agencies.

Whilst the personal circumstances described by councillors were unfortunate, Councillor Mrs D C Reynolds urged Members to look beyond their personal issues, to focus on the problems experienced by Huntingdonshire residents and to consider how waiting lists could be reduced given the scarcity of funds to achieve this.

At this point, Councillor T V Rogers, Executive Councillor for Finance reported that the District Council spent £1.2 million per annum on disabled facility grants towards which the Government contributed approximately £500,000.  The outstanding amount in the region of £600,000 had to be met by the District Council and this figure was likely to increase significantly in 2010/11.  Councillor Rogers questioned whether the structure required change so that that the assessment and budget provision was the sole responsible of one organisation. 

Councillor M F Shellens suggested that there was an imbalance in facilities provided by social landlords and, whilst mindful of the funding situation, Councillor Thorpe emphasised how essential it was to improve the current system for the benefit of those in need and their carers with increasing waiting lists only serving to exacerbate the situation.

Returning to his experiences in Stilton, Councillor P G Mitchell discussed how two individuals in his ward had benefited from the service but he was of the view that it was not an efficient way of working.  He suggested that one body should deal with all aspects of provision and that consideration should be given to enabling the service to operate more effectively in local areas rather than from Cambridge.

Having thanked the speakers for their presentations, Councillor P D Reeve commended the Occupational Therapy service and frontline service providers and suggested that it was the administration of the service and a lack of “joined up” thinking which was hindering effective provision.

Whilst accepting that every Councillor could recount their personal experience of the service, whether good or bad, Councillor P J Downes indicated that he would prefer Members to focus on “re-ablement” of the service.

Drawing the debate to a close, Councillor Churchill thanked the speakers for attending the meeting to address the Council and he undertook to raise the issues discussed at a future meeting of the OT Working Group which he attended in his capacity as Executive Councillor.  Councillor Churchill further explained that the Working Group was meeting regularly to discuss positive ways to reduce waiting times.  An action plan had been adopted which he was hopeful would elicit some improvement and was already achieving some success in reducing waiting times.  Lastly Councillor Churchill reported that the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Social Well-Being) also had begun to consider the extent of the waiting times for OT services and that he envisaged that further positive initiatives would emerge from this work.