HEALTHWATCH SHEFFIELD ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
Tuesday 23 September 2014, 2.00 pm – 4.30 pm
The Nave, St Mary’s Conference Centre, Bramall Lane, Sheffield S2 4QZ
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Present:
Sue White, CEO, Voluntary Action Sheffield
Tony Whiting, Vice Chair, Healthwatch Board member
Susan Kirkman, Board member
Pippa Hedley-Takhar, Board member
Maggie Campbell, Board member
Eleni Chambers, Board member
Helen Rowe, Board member
Nighat Khan, Board member
Anne Hutchinson, Board member
Tony Blackbourn, Board member (Health Champion)
Hazel Blackbourn, Board member (Health Champion)
Vicky Cooper, Information & Evidence Coordinator, Healthwatch Sheffield
In attendance:
Nicola Smith (Voluntary Action Sheffield, Board member)
17 members of the public (list of members of the public attending is held by Healthwatch Sheffield (HWS)
Chair: Pam Enderby (Chair, Healthwatch Sheffield)
Minutes: Myrtle O’Connor, Administrator Healthwatch Sheffield
Distribution: Healthwatch Board members, Core Team Healthwatch Website
/ ACTION who/when
1.1 / There were no apologies.
1.2 / Pam welcomed everyone to the first public Healthwatch Sheffield (HWS) board meeting and provided a brief overview of HWS purpose. She outlined the guidance papers (Common questions & answers about meetings in public) circulated to the public which covered the guidance for participation and interaction by the public with the HWS board. Also circulated was a paper on How HWS makes decisions – which outlines the process for deciding HWS priority work areas.
1.3 / Board members briefly introduced themselves and their area of interest.
It was noted that Sue Hare had resigned from the Board due to personal reasons and that HWS would be recruiting a replacement in the near future.
1.4 / Pam explained that part of the meeting would be a closed session which would deal with issues of a confidential/personal nature. The general public would be excluded from this session.
The previous board meeting (16 July) had been held in private and the minutes would therefore be reviewed and approved in the closed session after the board meeting.
All papers from the public section of the meeting will be made available on the HWS website after the meeting. Hard copies can be requested from the HWS office (Tel 0114 253 6688).
/ HWS Team
2. / QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC
2.1 / The process for submitting questions to the board was outlined. The question form can be downloaded from the HWS website or questions can be submitted over the telephone up to 24 hrs before each board meeting. Answers to questions will be posted on the HWS website. Four questions had been received for the board meeting:
Question 1 (Eunice Batty)
Concern about people who are imprisoned and have mental health issues (specifically those who have been subject to Section136), how are they rehabilitated and is this co-ordinated? How is care and information co-ordinated for these people?
Answer
There is a multi-agency policy covering procedures relating to section 136 and the question is addressed within this document. This is a public document which can be found here: http://shsc.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Joint_Agency_Policy_136.pdfHealthwatch would be interested to hear from anyone who has experience of this policy not being followed.
/ HWS Team
2.2 / Question 2 (Ian Wallace)
If I buy shoddy goods in any market place, I can take them back and get my money back, don’t I? Why doesn’t this rule apply to ‘home care’? Who, locally, is responsible for quality control?
Answer
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspect providers of care at home and HWS keeps an eye on all inspections relevant to Sheffield. The lead for quality for care at home in Sheffield City Council is Louise Pigott. HWS will contact Louise and ask for her view on the question. / HWS Team
2.3 / Question 3 (Helen Orton)
What is the proportion and cost of health services contracted out to the private sector in Sheffield?
Answer
HWS contacted the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) who do not hold this information centrally, as some organisations may subcontract to private providers. HWS suggested that Helen contact the individual trusts and organisations and request the figures under your rights under the Freedom of Information Act.
2.4 / Question 4 (Anonymous)
My son is in supported living accommodation. The care provider staff have stated many times that they cannot make my son do what he does not want to do. Understanding this, my son has now chosen not to get washed, change his clothes regularly or change his bedding. He chooses to eat fatty foods and not to exercise.
His hygiene is poor, he’s very overweight and he becomes breathless when walking more than a few metres. Can you clarify at what point doing nothing about the situation, because of the constant refrain We cannot make him do what he doesn’t want to do, becomes unacceptable?
Answer
HWS suggested that the first action would be to raise the concerns with your son’s care provider or person responsible for overseeing his medical care needs and ask for a review of your son’s care plan. If the response is again unsatisfactory, you might wish to consider lodging an official complaint with that provider.
3.0 / HEALTHWATCH SHEFFIELD MISSION STATEMENT
3.1 / HWS is required by Healthwatch England (HWE) to have a mission statement on its website.
Mission statement: To use people’s views to improve experience of health, care and wellbeing in Sheffield.
The mission statement was adopted by the board and will be posted onto HWS website.
/ HWS Team
4.0 / HEALTHWATCH SHEFFIELD STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
(FOR INFORMATION ONLY)
4.1 / The strategic objectives paper outlines HWS responsibilities in law. Each objective has measurable outputs. The paper will be available on the HWS website after the meeting.
The board members and core team were thanked for their contribution in drawing up the objectives.
/ HWS Team
5.0 / UPDATE ON HEALTHWATCH SHEFFIELD ACTIVITIES
5.1 / A brief update of the last few months was given by Vicky Cooper.
Volunteers – 8 new Enter & View volunteers have received their certificates and the first visit to a provider has been booked. Recruitment for new volunteers will take place at the end of September. There is also a new volunteer role – Community Researcher. Interested individuals should contact Vicky Cooper, HWS office.
Healthwatch England Special Inquiry on Discharge – HWS contributed information to the inquiry from focus groups/meetings held with MESH and the Big Issue and also questionnaires. Information has also been shared with other agencies eg CCG.
Mental Health Event – Joint event with the Health & Wellbeing Board, which was attended by 80 people, of whom over half were service users. Participation had included the use of live Twitter feeds and a web chat. HWS received very positive feedback on the event and was Healthwatch England’s story of the week in their newsletter. The report on the event has recently been published and is going to the Health & Wellbeing Board’s meeting, 25 September 2014. It will also be available on the HWS website.
Young Healthwatch – Received lots of interest and have recruited some students during Fresher’s Week. The first meeting will be held on 7 Oct 2014.
New HWS leaflet (‘Journey of a comment’) –showing what happens when individuals contact HWS.
5.2 / Comments: - Susan asked for clarification on the areas of research the volunteer community researcher would undertake. Vicky replied that the areas would be focused pieces of work and that HWS needed individuals who would be willing to go out and gather views.
6.0 / RIGHT FIRST TIME/BETTER CARE FUND
6.1 / Helen gave an outline of Right First Time (RFT) – which meant “the right people; seeing the right patient; in the right place at the right time”. The focus of RFT was on reducing hospital admissions and the length of hospital stays. RFT led to the establishment of Frailty Unit’s - where a team of different practitioners are made available to see patients. RFT means more joined up/integrated working of both social and health care services which is beneficial to patient’s recovery and help reduce NHS costs. Data show how RFT is progressing will soon be available in the public domain.
Better Care Fund - Pooling of both social and health care budgets. Now called Integrated Commissioning Programme in Sheffield.
Comments: Ian asked whether RFT was applied to aftercare from Hospital. Helen replied that it was included in RFT and the integrated programme. Moira Walker (RFT) added that RFT had been externally evaluated and that the results would be shared. A member of the public asked whether these changes would affect how services were accessed in the future. Pam replied that the first port of call for anyone would always be their GP and Helen added that a holistic care plan had been set up with GP practices for individuals with more complex care needs.
7.0 / TARGETED WORK AREAS FOR SEPT – DEC 2014
7.1 / Vicky gave a brief summary of the 3 priority work areas based on what the general public had been telling HWS:
a) Patient Transport – an issue affecting a lot of people. Originated from joint working between HWS and HW Derbyshire with renal patients who were waiting 2 or 3 hours, 3 times a week for transport. There is no central place for complaints, so HWS felt it was important to give these people a voice. Patient transport is also due for re-commissioning by the CCG.
b) Transition from Children’s to Adult Services – HWS has a volunteer who attends the Transition Group and Young Healthwatch has an interest in participating. Work will be fed into the Healthwatch England inquiry on Transitions in October 2014.
c) Changes in adult social care and the Care Act–HWS are holding an information event on the Care Act, 30 September 2014, St Mary Conference Centre. Nationally, social care has not been a priority for Healthwatch, so HWS is keen to be involved locally.
Vicky added that HWS would be working on other work areas during Sept – Dec but as it was a small core team the work had to be focused.
HWS – How we make decision (process) – paper circulated
Vicky outlined the decision making process which can be used by the board and the general public to put forward any suggestions for areas of work for HWS. A Project Outline Form would need to be completed for every suggestion, which would then go to the board for review and scoring. Based on its score a project proposal form would be completed for any project/work HWS undertook. The project forms and process will be made available on the HWS website after the meeting.
Comments: Pam asked if the board was happy to endorse the work plan and if there were any comments. Tony added that there was other ongoing work not mentioned eg mental health and that he wanted to be reassured that this work would continue. Vicky replied that this would be taken on board.
A member of the public wanted to mention in relation to patient transport that she knew of two people who needed an ambulance urgently had, had to wait 6 hrs. Pam asked if they would contact HWS outside the meeting with the full details of the concern.
/ HWS Team
8.00 / BOARD MEMBERS BRIEF UPDATES
8.1 / Maggie Campbell - Neurological conditions. Concern was raised over changes in services for people with long-term neurological conditions with regard to community based therapeutic services. Discussions have been held between Partners for Inclusion and senior service managers, which raised 4 key points:
a) Changes have improved referrals but not direct access to services
b) Social care changes affecting young adults was not clear and required attention.
c) It was acknowledged that the number of mechanisms involving service users was not in place and this needed to be rectified.
d) Recommended that Healthwatch keep a watching brief to ensure suitable mechanisms are put in place.
8.2 / Susan Kirkman - Carers & Learning Disabilities/FLASH – (Families Lobbying & Advising Sheffield) Carers are concerned about the funding cuts to adult social care budgets. A FLASH survey (95 respondents) found that the majority were frightened about future cuts to the service. There was concern about the City Council using Skylakes for assessing. Meetings have been convened between FLASH and the City Council to discuss concerns.
8.3 / Tony Whiting (Update on meetings attended) HWS is involved with Musculoskeletal (MSK) CCG group and has had several successful meetings. Mental Health Partnership Group - important for HWS to be involved in the update of its strategy.
9.0 / ANY OTHER BUSINESS
9.1 / Frequency of board meetings - Initially it was decided in the boards Terms of Reference to have 4 meetings per year. This was to be reviewed before the end of 2014. The board discussed the issue and decided to vote on having 6 meetings per year. Sue raised the importance of keeping the bureaucracy low due to the core team being very small. The board voted unanimously to have 6 meetings per year.
9.2 / GP Practice patient participation groups – Hazel raised the fact that some GP’s do not have patient groups and did not actively encourage them. She advocated that people should get involved in their local GP patient participation group if their local practice had one.
Mike added that he felt patient participation groups were very important but was concerned that it was just a tick box exercise for some practices.
Maggie said that this issue should be fed back to NHS England as they commissioned GP practices.
A member of the public asked who would take care of her son and speak on his behalf when she was no longer there. She felt the people who were paid to support and provide care for him would not put his needs first. Susan added that unfortunately that this would probably always be an issue and that there was not an answer to this.
HWS leaflet translation – a HWS volunteer commented that the HWS information leaflet needed to be translated into other languages. Vicky replied that this was in progress and that HWS was looking to use volunteers with the skills to do this due to lack of resources. A Farsi leaflet had been produced but this was still in draft form at present. HWS also has a language line available to handle speakers of other languages.
10.0 / CLOSE OF MEETING/DATE OF NEXT MEETING
10.1 / Pam thanked the general public for attending the first HWS public board meeting and closed the public section of the meeting.
The next board meeting will be held: Wednesday 19 November 2014, 10.00 am – 12.00 pm with a discussion forum from 12.30 pm – 2.00 pm, The Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield S1 4FW
Minutes checked and signed by Chair, Pam Enderby:
11.0 / CLOSED SESSION – CONFIDENTIAL DISCUSSION
11.1 / Members of the public were excluded from the closed session because of the confidential nature of the discussion.
Note: Actions from the meeting are on the next page