Eilean a’ Cheo (Ward 11) – Forum Meeting
Tigh na Sgire Portree - 8th August 2011 Tigh na Sigre Portree
Attendees:
Councillor Hamish Fraser (Chair)
Councillor Ian Renwick
Councillor John Laing
Councillor Drew Millar
Moira Scobbie, Waternish Community Council
Anne Hartley, Crossroads
Steve McCabe, Highland Local Medical Committee
Joan F Turkington, SLAP
John McDiarmid, BBC
Pat Walsh, Crossroads
Jill Wright, Crossroads
Mary Anne Macfarlane, Skeabost Community Council
Ann Taylor, NHS
Angus Sutherland
Judith Wallace, Sconser Community Council
William Wallace, Sconser Community Council
Peter Richell, Crossroads
Jenny Millington, Crossroads
C Maclean
Joyce Heggie, Crossroads
Marie Macdonald, Crosroads
Margaret Macpherson, Crossroads
Officials in Attendance:
Jan Laing, Ward Manager, Chief Executive Service
Fay MacRae, Chief Executive Service
Brian Robertson, Social Work Services
Liz Featherstone, Social Work Services
Jan Baird, NHS
Apologies:
Catriona Leslie, Portree Community Council, Broadford and Strath Community Council
Listed below is the action required and the outcomes resulting from discussion at the Eilean a’ Cheò Ward Forum held on 8th August 2011 at Tigh na Sgire Portree.
1 Welcome and Introduction
Councillor Laing welcomed everyone to the Ward Forum Meeting and introduced Councillors and speakers.
2 Action Note & Matters Arising
The action note from the meeting of 9th May was noted and approved.
3 Planning for Intergration - Presentation by Jan Baird NHS and Liz Featherstone Social Work
Questions from the floor
Councillor Laing
Where will the feedback go from the local partnerships – what mechanism will there be for feeding back to both the NHS and Council?
Jan Baird
It is envisaged that the local partnerships will solve issues at a local level. In the event an issue cannot be resolved locally, there will be provision to escalate the issue to the Chief Executives of both NHS Highland and The Highland Council. Elected member involvement in the local partnerships will be very important.
Steve McCabe
As a representative of Highland Local Medical Committee, there is a view amongst health care professionals that there is no sound evidence that this integration approach will be effective.
Jan Baird
The Council and the NHS agreed in June 2010 to develop, not implement an integrated service for Children and Adults. This approach is designed to stream line management and protect front line staff and as well as providing a more effective service and should address the issue of parents having to ‘battle’ for services.
Moira Scobbie
How will budgets operate?
Jan Baird
Budgets will also be integrated and there will be more flexibility in the way money is allocated.
Judith Wallace
But parents will still need to battle for services as the different services fight over budgets
Jan Baird
Yes but there will be one manger dealing with the issue and resolve any dispute.
Jill Wright
What are the costs of this exercise and who is funding it?
Jan Baird
The funding is provided by the Scottish Government and the available budget is £400,000
Councillor Millar
It seems to be the general view that the CHPs are not effective and have become ‘talking shops’. There needs to be a clearer road into the decision making process
Jan Baird
CHPs are being reviewed, it is recognised that they may no longer be fit for purpose and a review will establish the way forward.
Pat Walsh
The desire to see more community involvement and empowering communities is at odds with the withdrawal in funding in respect of the local community care forum worker whose role was partly to act as an effective advocate for vulnerable people and their carers.
Jan Baird
It was noted that the local worker funding had come to an end and the situation is regrettable.
Peter Richell, Crossroads
With the drive to keep hospital admissions and stays to a minimum how can a cut in the Crossroads budget of 60%, make sense.
Brian Robertson
It is acknowledged that the realignment of the budget on a Highland wide basis has equated to a reduction in hours in Skye and Lochalsh. The realignment of the budget will mean an allocation based on population figures which is a fairer and more equitable way to allocate limited resources.
Registering her anger and disappointment with the decision making process that led to Crossroads losing the contract to provide home based respite care services, Mrs Walsh handed back her Civic Award for Services to the Community in protest explaining that she could not accept an award when the nomination had come from Crossroads.
Elected members expressed their sadness and disappointment at Mrs Walsh’s decision.
4 Public Questionand Answer Session Notifed Questions
Steve McCabe, Highland Local Medical Committee
Why, in the face of overwhelming opposition from GPs, Community Paediatricians and Health Visitors, was the move to integrate child health and social services pushed through?
Any decision to change the delivery of these services should have been on the basis that it would improve the quality of care but no real evidence has been presented to show this would be the case. The only point emphasised has been saving money - that is not a sound basis.
Very few children have any kind of regular (or even isolated) contact with social services yet all children will have multiple contacts with health visitors and GPs with some going on to see Community Paediatricians. On that basis alone the views of these professionals should have been given much more consideration by Highland Council. As someone who sits on the Highland Local Medical Committee which represents all Highland GPs I can assure you we were never approached directly by Highland Council for face-to-face discussions about this matter. In my view that is unacceptable.
Jan Baird, NHS Highland
The views of all staff were considered and in fact a separate meeting of Paediatricians was attended by the Convenor of the Council, The Director of SW and the CEO of the Council as well as the CEO and Director of Community Care of NHS Highland.
That discussion informed the decision to develop a combined Health service for children which had previously been recommended in a review by an external Paediatrician and was considered to be the only solution to sustaining the service in light of changes to training. However it is clear that this service cannot stand alone and clear pathways for patients and families into the integrated service need to be drawn up.
The issue for Universal services is not actually just about SW and NHS working better together but in fact the engagement with the other Universal provider which is Education. The new service being developed for children and families will bring together health, education and Social work so that a more seamless approach can be delivered, duplication for families and staff can be reduced and some of the “battles” that families describe with all the services can be eradicated.
GPs are fundamental to the delivery of services to children and this is a core service. However access to the wider range of services and to staff delivering those services is often hindered by their fragmented nature and different routes of access and accountability. It is felt that an integrated service will be more accessible to a wide range of professionals as well as providing the improvements to families and by streamlining the management structures we will also provide much needed efficiencies to enable us to protect front line services in the future.
We would very much welcome involvement of GPs in the development of the new services and when talking to local management teams will be asking about that involvement as we develop the workshops etc to collect local views
Pat Walsh, Crossroads
"It seems incomprehensible that a local organisation with a well trained, loyal staff, a reputation for excellent service backed up by the Care Commission Report and an intimate knowledge of the area has been turned down in favour of an organisation not currently working in the area. Crossroads Skye and Lochalsh is an organisation that is exceptionally well regarded the local community evidenced not only by the generous local fund raising over the years, allowing for the purchase of many extra hours of respite care, but also innumerable expressions of appreciation. It seems to us that it is very unlikely that an organisation from the Central Belt will get anything like the support from the local community that Crossroads has enjoyed over the last twenty five years, resulting in subsequent loss to the many carers struggling to provide twenty four hour care to their loved ones.
Is it too late or the Highland Council to revoke their decision?"
Jenny Millington, Crossroads
Are the local members satisfied with the outcome of the tendering exercise for the Respite at Home Contract where Crossroads services have lost out to a service provider from the central belt, despite Crossroads having provided the service for 25 years and received top grades from the Care Commission?
Brian Robertson, Social Work Services
Crossroads were advised in 2008 that in 2011, the Council would be introducing a new process of tending which would be subject to procurement standing orders. More organisations tended for the contract than had been anticipated. A scoring system used to assess bids and is designed to assist in the process of selecting the best tender. In the case of this particular contract there was a weighting of 80% quality and 20% price. It was difficult to get into the detail at this stage as there is a cool down or stand still period.
In this period there is an opportunity to make a legal challenge against the awarding of the contract to the preferred bidder.
The organisation who was successful in winning the contract have also received positive reports from the care commission.
In closing remarks Councillor Fraser assured forum members that further discussions would be taking place with appropriate officers as regards the current situation with Crossroads.
6 AOB
Judith Wallace
At the last Ward Forum Meeting in May, the Councils Waste Officer reported that there was no reported increase in fly tipping. Ms Wallace challenged this assertion as she frequently sees large bulky items such as washing machines dumped by the side to the road. On one particular occasion on the Moll Road.
7 Date of Next Meeting
Monday 7th November Broadford Village Hall 2pm