Agenda and minutes

The Chairman will announce details of the arrangements in case of fire or other events that might require the meeting room or building’s evacuation.

The Chairman advised all present of the action to be taken in the event of

fire or other emergency requiring evacuation of the building.

(if any) – received.

Officers present:

Joe Coogan – Assistant Director – Commissioning, LBH

Tom O’Vens – Transformation, Adult Social Care, LBH

John Tench – Social Care and Health, LBH

Sarah Haider, Havering Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

Havering Local Involvement Network (LINk) members present:

Emma Lexton, Vice-Chair

Cliff Reynolds, Vice-Chair

Anne Hinds-Murray, Shaw Trust

Members are invited to disclose any pecuniary interest in any items on the agenda at this point in the meeting.

Members may still disclose any pecuniary interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To receive an update from the Assistant Director – Commissioning, Adult Social Care on the Council consultation on options for a Local Healthwatch for Havering.

The Chairman explained that the meeting had been called for officers to

explain to the Committee the final results of the consultation on a Local

Healthwatch model for Havering. Recent Executive Decisions on

Healthwatch had been published but this did not affect the purpose of this

meeting.

The main themes to come out of the consultation included that a strong

local voice was required for Havering and that a joint model with e.g.

Barking & Dagenham would not be suitable. Another subject raised was the

importance of building on the LINK’s legacy and on the efforts of LINk

volunteers. A multi-faceted approach was favoured overall but with a local

presence in Havering. A possible sharing of back office Healthwatch

functions was viewed as acceptable by most respondents.

Suggestions made during the consultation for the structure of Healthwatch

included making use of the Council’s Carepoint facility, having nonexecutive

members on the Healthwatch board and using local stakeholders

to recruit to Healthwatch positions. There had been a fairly even split of

responses between the three models suggested as well as a number of

responses that did not indicate support for a specific model.

The Committee agreed that the response rate to the consultation (14

submissions) was very low. Officers confirmed that the consultation had

been advertised on the Council’s website and Twitter page and also via a

global e-mail. Further responses were fed in from meetings held during the

consultation period so that, in total, approximately 200 people’s views were

represented.

As regards funding, the current estimated figure was £107,000 in addition to

the £57,000 currently used to fund Havering LINk. Funding for the

complaints advocacy service was expected to be in the region of an

additional £58,000. Additional funding nationally of £5 million had also

recently been announced. The date for the announcement of the

confirmation of funding levels as well as the release of Department of Health

guidelines on Healthwatch had been confirmed as 20 December 2012.

The overall option for Local Healthwatch in Havering had been confirmed as

option B in the consultation – a Havering stand-alone organisation procured

by London Borough of Havering Council as it was felt this offered the most

flexibility in the Healthwatch model.

The complaints advocacy service was currently procured on a pan-London

basis but would be commissioned by the Council from 1 April 2012. Existing

data indicated that around one third of complaints by Havering residents

about NHS services related to services outside of Havering itself. It had

therefore been recommended to the Cabinet portfolio holder that Havering

should join a pan-London model currently being developed by 27 London

boroughs. This was considered to represent better value for money and

would consist of a two-year contract initially. There would be an option at

the end of this period to continue with a pan-London approach or to bring

the complaints advocacy service back under Local Healthwatch in Havering.

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) was originally going to move

entirely into Healthwatch. This had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

To consider any other items in respect of which the Chairman is of the opinion, by reason of special circumstances which shall be specified in the minutes, that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

There was no urgent business.