Minutes of the EleventhAnnual General Meeting of the Meridian Coast and Downs Mature
Citizens Community Forum held at the Hillcrest Centre Newhaven
Wednesday, 22nd February 2017 10am.
Present:
Kate Davies,Chris Bowman, Pat Bowman, Hilary Ryan, Marilyn Nolan,Eileen Wood, Gill Hart, Bill Kocher,Tessa Langham (committee members).
Ashley Scarff (guest speaker).
Members of the Meridian Mature Citizen’s Forum (list available).
- Welcome:The meeting opened at 10am andKate Davies,Chair, welcomed all present. Ashley Scarff, the director of Strategy for the High Weald Lewes and Havens Clinical Commissioning Group was introduced.
- Apologies for absence were received from: Jill Fry, Marian Stanley, Sarah Gorton.
3. Minutes of the last AGM dated 14th January 2016:Copies of the minutes had been distributed before this meeting and the chance to comment was given.
4. Matters arising: Item 5: Marilyn Nolan had been awarded a BEM (British Empire Medal).
Item 8: Katy Bourne, the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, gave the excuse that the meeting was not in her diary. It was noted that she has not sent an apology for the oversight.
5. Chair's Report: Kate Davies reported that the Meridian forum has had a busy year and has been working hard with ESSA to address the views and needs of older people at a time when Local Authorities are having to make massive savings. Kate spoke briefly about the following:
- Suggestions from the government led to ESCC Budget Priorities meeting make recommendations to Councillors to increase community charges and business rate taxes to improve the Health Service. ESCC have already gone part way to doing this but have initiated a “Better Together” programme to support the local communities.
- The Golden Ticket programme is now in operation. It is early days but, at last, the carers of dementia patients have been recognised as needing extra support.
- The Sunday Lunch Club continues to be successful and new older and younger members are now attending.
- Mo and her travel club is becoming very popular. People meet in Sainsbury’s café and arrange affordable trips and holidays.
- The Happy Club is hugely successful. The group meet every other Thursday at St David’s Court, Peacehaven and offer a full programme of events. Unfortunately, there is no transport available.
- Havens Dementia Action Group is working with Know Dementia to provide music, games, quizzes and advice. The group works alongside Care for the Carers and they support each other. At present, they are urging local surgeries to refer more people.
- Future plans for the Meridian Forum, using designated funding, are:
Older People’s Day will be an entertainment event.
The Sunday Lunch Club, Know Dementia and Care for the Carers will join together for a Summer Outing and Christmas Lunch, with transport provided.
The afternoon quiz, with Maggie, will continue whilst attendance is good.
During National Carers week 12th-16th June, there will be a networking/information fair at the Meridian centre on Wednesday, 14th June from 10pm. Tables are free to organisations.
6. Financial report: Marilyn Nolan reported:
The accounts show a balance in the current account at the bank as at the end of January of £8,466.50
We have received income from ESCC of £2,249.00, made up of instalments of £1,124.50 in April and October plus an extra £1,111.00 from the Clinical Commissioning Groups, who are recognising the work of forums in championing the voice of older people in shaping health services – this is slightly less than last year and is to be viewed annually.
A large proportion of the ESCC income has understandably been spent on stamps, stationary, printing, travel expenses, room hire and refreshments, leaving us a balance in that fund of £3,840.05 with another instalment of £1,124.50 due in April 2017.
The Sunday Lunch Club continues to be popular and manages to break even. However, now that the Sunday Lunch Club transport fund has ceased we are using taxis to transport to and from the club. This still leaves a balance on that account of £113.43. We still have balances of £100 fromPeacehaven Town council and £80 from Newhaven Town council grants which can be transferred to the Sunday Lunch Club fund to pay for transport.
Many mature citizens have benefitted greatly from the original income of £8000 received from the University of Brighton in the form of computer equipment, room hire and increasingly popular computer classes, thanks to the huge effort of Bill Kotcher, leaving £1,996.18 in the fund.
The income of £500 received during 2016, for Older People’s Day activities, was much appreciated and was spent on various activities in the area, including a showing of the film “Lady in the Van” and a talk by Peter White. This account now has a credit balance of £277,84 to carry forward.
Kate thanked Marilyn, for all her hard work.
7. Election of Officers and Committee: Most officers and committee members were willing to stand again and Kate asked for a show of hands in favour. This was unanimous. Changes were that Bill Kocher stood down, from the committee, and Tessa Langham joined. Officers continue to be:
Chair Kate Davies
Vice-Chair Pat Bowman
SecretaryHilary Ryan
TreasurerMarilyn Nolan
Kate thanked Bill for all his hard work and welcomed Tessa to the committee.
8. Speaker: Ashley Scarff – Director of Strategy for the High Weald Lewes and the Havens (HWLH) CCG.
Ashley began by explaining his role and how present and future strategies will improve health care and support locally.
- “Connecting4You” is a new programme which is being developed in partnership with ESCC to address the specific needs of the community and to deliver sustainable NHS and social care services. The aim is to strengthen a joint response from services to support people in times of need, help them stay out of hospital and get them home again as soon as possible.
- “Sustainability and Transformation Plan” (STP) will set out how services across the region will work together over the next five years to improve the local community’s health and wellbeing, to improve the quality of services and deliver financial stability. This means introducing more preventative care to avoid crisis points.
- “The Golden Ticket” is a pilot project supporting people with dementia and their carers. Results are already showing that it is reducing GP visits. Several organisations worked together to provide seamless care including primary care, hospital services, councils, and voluntary organisations. It included social activities, such as the Dementia Café.
- The Sussex Patient Transport Service (PTS) will be run by South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) from 1st April 2017. They will be responsible for transporting eligible patients from their home to non- emergency appointments within the NHS.
- The Rehabilitation Centre in Newhaven has twenty community hospital beds for recovery and assessment. There are also other services and clinics located there.
9. Question and answer session:
There was a short debate about the Rehabilitation Centre and then general questions covering the following:
- Bed blocking
- Respite for carers
- Influence of CCGs in hospitals
- Patient transport
- Recruitment of GPs
- New homes – effect on oversubscribed surgeries
- Lack of district nurses
- Inconvenience of hospital appointments re: transport
- Health Watch/CCG evaluations and publications.
Kate thanked Ashley for attending and all the valuable information/answers. He responded, saying he very much welcomed the opinions from the general public as it was a useful starting point for the HWLH CCG when planning for the future. Contact for Ashley is:
10. AOB:
- Chris Bowman urged all members to sign the Big Petition for the evaluation of traffic congestion and future plans of the A259 between Brighton Mariner and Newhaven.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 11.35am.
Kate thanked everyone for attending, and we adjourned to partake in the refreshments.