Any interests not already registered

There were no additional declarations of interests made other than already registered.

With introduction by Head of Community Development. Speakers:

·         Carers First

·         Spring House

The Head of Community Development spoke on the Community Plan priority of a better start for our children, advising Members of the various schemes and groups in the District.

The Chairman welcomed Pete Turner Chief Executive of Carers First, and Hayley Bell Manager of Spring House Family Support Service, to the meeting.

Mr. Turner reported that Carers First had begun in 1991, became a limited company in 1996 in 2009 it had become the parent charity of Medway Carers Centre so now operated in Kent and Medway.  It was an independent, charitable organisation supporting and helping carers and giving them comprehensive help through access to information and resources, discussion, advocacy, one-to-one support, and groups where they could meet other carers in similar situations. They also provided young carers support groups and activities as well as a befriending service for carers and older people. They were funded by Kent Social Services, Trusts, Connexions and private donations.  Since 1991 they had grown into a significant charity and, subject to the standstill period, had just won the Kent County Council (KCC) contract for West Kent and Medway area provision of Carers Support and Assessment.  KCC was putting significant funding into the contract for good reason.  Adult Social Care wanted a transformation programme to look at how services were delivered. A large majority of the budget was in relation to the costs involved with residential and hospital admissions.  The reality was that 45% of admissions were caused by carer breakdown therefore the support of carers in order to prevent this would lead to long term savings.  We were living in an aging society and as a society these issues needed to be faced and debated.  Recently the Princess Royal Trust had stated that carers made a comparative saving of up to £119 billion a year than if the care was delivered through the state.  There were an estimated 175,000 young carers working more than 50 hours a week, but this was potentially the tip of the iceberg.  He invited Members to come and see the projects and work that they did.

In response to questions, Mr. Turner advised that many young carers did not come forward for fear of bullying at school.  Using data from the 2001 and 2011 Census there had been a 10% increase in those answering yes to the question of being an unpaid carer.  As an example Medway had 26,000 carers, 8300 worked more than 50 hours, and the centre only knew 2000 of those.  Some did not want to be identified.  However they needed to be identified in order to help them access services and work with them at crisis and breakdown point in order to help prevent the need for hospital or residential care.  There were a variety of ways they tried to reach carers such as workers in schools and hospitals, GP Surgeries, contacts with Social Services and Care Managers.  An exciting idea was working with supermarkets, for example cashiers giving out leaflets to people they notice  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 30 October 2012.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the meeting of the Social Affairs Select Committee held on 30 October 2013, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(a)       2013/14 Budget and Review of Service Plans (Cabinet 06.12.12)

The response from Cabinet was noted.

The actions from the previous meeting were noted.

The Chairman understood it was not always possible for Members to attend arranged visits, but requested that when visits were arranged Members made their best endeavours to attend.

It was agreed to move the presentations by the Kenward Trust and the STAG to the meeting in June 2013.  It was noted that there would be a report on Pest Control at the next meeting in March 2013.  A Member queried when the ‘Future of NHS in the District’ would be considered.  The Head of Community Development advised that, with such a wide issue as health , it would be helpful if the subject could be broken down into smaller topics.  It was possible that local targets may arise from the Health Inequalities workshop  on 25 January 2013. 

The Work Plan from April 2013 would need to reflect the new priorities of the new Community Plan.

The Head of Community Development gave a presentation setting out the different groups currently covering health issues to give a better picture of what was going on.  The KCC would have a Health and Wellbeing Board but, because of the large area covered, had also decided to set up Local Health and Wellbeing Boards based on Clinical Commissioning Group boundaries.  There would  therefore be six local Health and Wellbeing Boards in Kent and this District was covered by two.  The District Council was invited to send a Member and an Officer to both boards.  In answer to a question from a Member, it was noted that Locality Boards focused on a number of different areas, including health.   Locality Boards selected their own priorities.  The Deputy Chief Executive, Director of Community and Planning Services clarified that the Health Action Team coordinated and delivered projects physically on the ground rather than looking at strategy and planning.

The Committee considered the draft Community Plan 2013-2016 and 15 Year Vision - Public Consultation document.  Members discussed the document made a number of corrections / suggestions and agreed to email further thoughts and comments to the Head of Community Development.  It was noted that the final document would be presented to the Committee in March 2013. 

Members were concerned that the priorities relating to social housing did not focus on the distribution of social housing across the District.  For example,the issue of Sevenoaks not having as much social housing as Edenbridge and less in rural than urban areas. 

Action 1: That the Head of Community Development seek advice from with the Head of Housing and Communications and the Group Manager – Planning as to whether a change could be made to the draft Community Plan to reflect this.

·         Verbal report on the visits to local maternity units and follow up with Mumsnet

The Vice Chairman reported the information received via the thread on Mumsnet, and advised that this would now be handed over to the KCC Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC).  The stories received had highlighted that there were potentially still issues that needed to be addressed, the main one possibly being empathy of staff and therefore staff training.  Most of the stories had related to Pembury but it was felt this was due to the title of the thread.  Members discussed whether an exit questionnaire would help hospitals identify potential failings as people seemed reluctant to complain.  The Chairman and Vice Chairman hoped to attend the meeting of the County Council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee at which this would be discussed.

Members noted the report on the visit to the Sevenoaks Fire Station. 

It was noted that in line with the amendments made to the Work Plan, the presentations by the  Kenward Trust and STAG would move to the June 2013 meeting.